The "gyroball". The pitch that may or may not exist.

[T. J.]

Funny little story about a supposedly unhittable pitch the Japanese are working on.  Supercomputers are involved.  Pitchers with mohawks too.

 Linky

Sounds to me like it would make your arm fall off.

[Matt]

I've actually heard of this before and saw the video they were talking about.

[Golden Sombrero]

The first thing I thought of was the screwball, and they mention in the article that it is somewhat similar to that pitch.  But you don't see the screwball too much because of the strain it puts on the pitcher's arm.  This would probably be even worse and would not be learned by a pitcher who a) can throw other pitches and b) want to have long careers.

[T. J.]

Quote:
The first thing I thought of was the screwball, and they mention in the article that it is somewhat similar to that pitch.  But you don't see the screwball too much because of the strain it puts on the pitcher's arm.  This would probably be even worse and would not be learned by a pitcher who a) can throw other pitches and b) want to have long careers.

The video linked at the beginning of the story shows the motion pretty well.  It's thrown a little like a screwball, but the pitch is released earlier.  Really funky.  The pitch comes in like a rifled bullet or a spiraling football.

[Matt]

Supposedly the Japanese scientists that came up with this did so by finding the mechanics that put the least amount of strain on the pitcher's body.  Still sounds pretty rough.

[Golden Sombrero]

The Japanese say it's easy on the body, but this is a culture that stabs themselves in the guts when they make a mistake.

[Jacksonian]

Quote:
Supposedly the Japanese scientists that came up with this did so by finding the mechanics that put the least amount of strain on the pitcher's body.  Still sounds pretty rough.

It reads to me like the proper mechanics for throwing a football.