Power Pros Forum

What pitch would you designate as a pitcher's spitball pitch? An Original Pitch would obviously work best, but I want to know which editable pitch you would use.

A little background . . . There are two completely different ways to throw a spitball. One way is to scuff or apply a foreign substance to one side of the ball, the result being uneven weight and air resistance which results in more extreme break to just about any pitch. During the early 1900's, there were so many different spitballs it was necessary for players to categorize them as drop balls, drop curves, outcurves or fadeaways. Those were four different pitches, each with its own sub-category that has expanded over the years to include just about every pitch present in today’s game and the MLBPP universe.

The other way to throw a spitball is to moisten the fingers so the ball slips out at release, the result being low rotation and a late drop similar to a splitter or forkball. I recently discovered a surprisingly large number of pitchers from the 80’s were suspected of throwing spitballs (many even admitted to it following their retirement), and most were groundball/sinker specialists of some sort: splitters, forkballs, tight breaking balls, nasty 2-seamers, hard-tailing fastballs, etc. Coincidentally, during approximately the same period, the term “Dry Spitter” was used to describe the modern (and completely legal) splitter, forkball and knuckle curve during their inception, usually by old-timers who saw similarities between them and the spitballs of yore.

I'm not 100% sure. But when I think about it, I would lean toward a knuckle ball, split finger, or a forkball. The only prob would be the speed of the pitch

I don't think a knuckleball would be a good. It's movement can be unpredictable, while a spitball is supposed to have movement that is favored on the side of the foreign substance.

I thought a spit ball could also be a ball that is altered (with spit, vasaline etc) to effect ball movement. If you spit or add enough vasaline to one side of the ball and depending on your arm action you could exert a different force on the ball thereby the ball wouldn't follow that same rule as you mentioned. This would produce an 'Irish swing'.

I'm considering the Vertical Slider. Rarely used, sharp downward break, speed lies somewhere between a Splitter and Forkball. I'm not sure I have ever used it more than a few times, and probably only when experimenting with a Success Player. In real life, there is no "Vertical Slider," just breaking balls that sort of look like it. Ubaldo Jiminez throws a slider that looks similar - tight break, huge tilt, 8-10 mph slower than his average FB.

v-sld is a good idea. Splitter or Fork are good options as well.

Yeah, an ORIG Splitter or Fork with more edge would probably be just about right. For whatever reason, I can't remember the options for the ORIG pitch - the Wiki only details 2007. Is it just the base pitches (SLD, CB, CHG, SNK, SIFB)? More rise, edge, break, change, . . . ?

I think its fork, not chg.

and yes, 5 options - break, rise, change, sharper edge, and one other meaningless one.

Is there one that adds velocity? That would go well with the Forkball - Splitter speed with a Forkball break. A slightly more menacing pitch without being cartoonish.

Brad Lidge too, maybe? His looks like a 6 or 7 V-SLD when he's throwing well. I gave him a 7 and a 3, since he has a get-me-over one in addition to the nasty one.

Definitely. And I'm a big fan of giving a pitcher two different levels of the exact same pitch. If a pitcher is inconsistent with his H-SNK (Fausto Carmona comes to mind), give him a H-SNK 5 and a H-SNK 1. If a pitcher varies the break on his KNCB to keep hitters from squaring it up (Mike Mussina), maybe he deserves a KNCB 5 and a KNCB 3. And every knuckleballer should probably have two knuckleballs, his best version, and one that is about half as good.