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OXFORD – Be prepared to take notes should you decide to take a field trip to the Cade Townsend School of Pitching.
You’re going to hear a lot of numbers and learn plenty about the seams on a baseball and their subsequent reason for existence. Most noticeable, though, is a Christmas morning-like passion.
Pitching – and learning about everything it involves – gives Townsend joy.
“That’s why I play baseball,” Townsend said. “ … The game is just so hard. You’re not going to succeed every time. So learning about it and learning, how can I get better? How can I make a ball move, the physics behind it? It just makes me happy. And that’s just what I like to do.”
Townsend, a true sophomore righty at Ole Miss and a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award, has seen his stock take off during his second season in Oxford. The Southern California native came to Ole Miss as a top-100 prospect and high school All-American after a standout career at Santa Margarita Catholic High School.
But for what prowess he flashed as a high schooler, the 6-foot-1, 185-pounder struggled at times as a college freshman, notching a 6.35 ERA with 43 strikeouts and 20 walks.
When Townsend arrived at Ole Miss, Rebels pitching coach Joel Mangrum estimates he had three pitches: a four-seam fastball, a curveball and a short slider, though Santa Margarita head coach Chris Malec would also add a changeup in there. Townsend consistently rested in the 93-mile-per-hour range with his fastball. Work in the weight room and tinkering with his mechanics have pushed that velocity consistently around 96 or 97 mph.
But when you are in the SEC, there’s more to pitching than velocity; you need answers to a constantly evolving test. For Townsend, the son of a biochemist, that model of thinking comes naturally.
Townsend went to work over the summer with Mangrum – the two evaluated numerous data points regarding the success of each pitch to righties and lefties while simultaneously searching for answers. So far so good, as Townsend ranks as the No. 21 prospect in this summer’s MLB Draft per MLB.com and was named second-team All-SEC.
No. 2 seed Ole Miss opens NCAA Tournament play Friday against No. 3 seed Arizona State in the Lincoln Regional.
The Daily Journal met with Townsend and others from his circle ahead of the postseason to better understand how he executes each of his seven pitches and the reasons why they work.
“For me, there’s two things that really stick out – his passion and love for the game and his curiosity to learn it at the deepest level,” Malec said. “And in particular the pitching element … He studies it relentlessly and just asking tons of questions. He just loves the art of pitching.”
Four-seam fastball
Cade Townsend's four-seam fastball grip
By MLB.com definition:
“A four-seamer is thrown with straight backspin. When the ball is spinning that way, it will resist the pull of gravity slightly longer. So if a pitcher does it just right, a four-seam fastball will look like it's ‘exploding’ up and past the hitter. The hitter will swing under it and miss.”
Senior third baseman Judd Utermark: “It looks like it’s about 105 (mph), and again, I think that’s what makes all of his pitches effective. … He pitches like a big leaguer with the percentages and with the counts that he throws certain pitches in and how he sets up hitters.”
Malec: “When he came (and) started working out with us … he knew (control) was his target goal, and being able to work on that. And he attacked that weakness every day with going about his routine. … It was all about being able to master that, and he attacked that weakness with a sense of purpose.”
Townsend: “My mechanics back in the day actually made me cut the ball, so it would probably be like 17 (inch) vert (break) and like three horizontal (break), which is more perceived cut to the eye than it is now. And that’s kind of just the byproduct of me being able to throw it better and learn myself better.
“A four-seam will be straighter, more ride. Like, my four-seam will average 20 vert (break) and like eight horizontal (break). So it’s really just moving pretty straight and has that ride effect to the eye.”
Mangrum: “His four-seam’s got a ton of ride. So if gravity didn’t impact the ball, his four-seam would actually move up.”
Ole Miss junior catcher Austin Fawley: “I’ve been catching him for a while now, so I know how it moves. And being able to get my glove above it or below it – depending on if he wants to throw it down or up – but he usually, consistently carries it at around 19 to 21 (inches of vertical break), which is elite.”
Malec: “He could always throw hard, but when he realized and he saw some of our pitchers that didn’t throw quite as hard have some success getting hitters out and he realized, ‘OK, if I have a little bit better fastball command, I can absolutely dominate this level.’”
Townsend: “I mean, I love to throw a heater, and blowing a heater by someone is like probably the best feeling ever. But that’s also the worst thing for me, because my ego would get in the way and I’m like, ‘Oh, let me throw 105 miles an hour.’
“We probably don’t call a lot of fastballs for that reason.”
Malec: “It’s a two-part thing. Obviously to get to the level that Cade is pitching at now – and then the level that he’s going to potentially go to in pro ball – you have to throw really hard. And Cade did that and did a really good job of that at a young age. But just learning, ‘OK, it’s not all about just throwing hard, it’s combining that with the ability to move the ball around and execute it to certain locations.'”
Utermark: “A hypothetical at-bat may be first pitch cutter, (it’s) 0-1. Second pitch sweeper, (it’s) 1-1. Big curveball, (it’s) 1-2. Sweeper, (it's) 2-2. Curveball low, (it's) 3-2. Fastball at the top at 97. So again, obviously, it feels a lot faster, especially when he can slow you down. … With the ride, it feels like it’s touching the ground and coming back up.”
Two-seam fastball
Cade Townsend's two-seam fastball grip
By MLB.com definition:
“A four-seamer is your basic fastball. The two-seamer and sinker are the main variations. ... Two-seamers and sinkers have basically the same speed as a four-seamer; the big difference is the way they move. A four-seamer is straight, sometimes so straight it looks like it's rising. Two-seamers and sinkers move side to side, or down. Or both.
"If the pitch moves more horizontally – and it'll be in the ‘tailing’ direction, running from left to right for a right-handed pitcher or right to left for a left-handed pitcher – then it's a two-seamer. If the pitch has more vertical drop, it's a sinker.”
Mangrum: “His two-seam’s got basically flat run. It’s not heavy sink. … With the two-seam, it’s more like arm-side run. And so as a freshman, he struggled to get the four-seam into right-handed hitters, so everything was away. So we added the two-seam to be able to throw to that side of the plate.”
Townsend: “I don’t throw the Taylor Rabe banger sinker. I just can’t. My body just doesn’t work like that. So I kind of cut the ball on the two-seam, and it really just comes off like that, and it’s a flat runner. … It’s probably like 10 vert (break) and 15 horizontal (break).
“And you would on paper, you would be like, ‘That’s a bad pitch.’ But comparing it to the four-seam, because that’s what I’m throwing it off, it moves more laterally than the four-seam and it has 10-plus inches of depth. So it’s just like a different look to right-handed hitters.”
Mangrum: “The two-seam is kind of an ongoing process. That’s the one pitch we haven’t thrown a lot. I think we’ve thrown it eight or nine times on the year.”
Fawley: “A lot of coaches like to call the two-seam down, and I think what makes it effective is, he likes to throw it up. So, up and in with his two-seam is what makes it unique. But I think the way he holds it helps him … get it in what he can’t do with the four-seam. I mean, he could do it. But it’s just not as consistent as the two-seam.”
Cutter
Cade Townsend's cutter grip
By MLB.com definition:
“There's a third type of fastball, but it's a little different from four-seamers, two-seamers and sinkers. It's the cutter.
"The main difference, again, is the direction of the movement. Four-seamers carry. Two-seamers run. Sinkers drop. Cutters, well, cut. 'Cutting' movement means horizontal, in the opposite direction of a two-seamer. A cutter from a right-handed pitcher takes a turn from right-to-left; from a lefty, that cut is left to right. A lot of the time, a cutter doesn't even break all that much. The movement isn't wide and sweeping, it's sharp and tight.”
Fawley: “His best pitch is his cutter. And I think that’s why a lot of teams sit on his cutter, just to take away that pitch.”
Townsend: “The cutter was more of like … to me it’s a bad four-seam, in my head. And then how I throw it just comes off my hand more like a short slider that was really hard.
“And then a true cutter would probably be seven-14 vert (break) and hopefully one to negative three horizontal (break). So it’s kind of just the flat four-seam that’s cutting.’
Mangrum: “If you asked him, he would probably say his cutter (is his best pitch). I would say the curveball and then probably the sweeper.”
Mangrum: “The slider’s got some depth, the sweeper definitely has depth. Cutter’s more like a strike pitch. It’s usually like, if you’re watching the radar gun on the scoreboard, it’s usually somewhere between 89 and 93. And so if he’s touching 93, that’s the cutter. If it's 95 plus, that’s the four-seam. If it’s kind of 93-95, that’s the two-seam.”
Townsend: “You see those three pitches (four-seam, two-seam and cutter) a lot now. Like, Cam Schlittler throws it for the New York Yankees. And he added the flat runner and the cutter and he’s been dominating. And I’ve talked to him about how he does it, and we have the same exact process.”
Fawley: “He throws his cutter at 89 to 91, 92. And his fastball is 97, so … it’s just enough to where hitters are off time with it. And the amount of cut that it has for such hard of a pitch is what makes it elite.”
Short slider
Cade Townsend's short slider grip
By MLB.com definition:
“The slider moves sideways, in the same direction as a cutter – right to left for a right-handed pitcher ... And actually, sometimes those two pitch types can be hard to tell apart. But here's the best way to do it: Usually, a slider's movement is more sweeping, and larger, than a cutter's, and it can also include more vertical as well as horizontal break.”
Townsend: “It was no good. … It was super slow but it didn’t move a lot. So then it’s like, what’s the purpose of it? And we kind of banged it last year and added the cutter.”
Malec: “Not only … how it flies out of there, but how he spins it and the things that he can do with the ball, with the changeup, the breaking ball, the slider and then obviously the fastball. It’s just impressive. … I remember seeing him pitch as a young teenager and just being fascinated by how well his body moved.”
Fawley: “The sweeper has probably around six to seven more inches of cut than his short one. … I think having the slider has been really beneficial, just to be able to … have another pitch for lefties.”
Sweeper
Cade Townsend's sweeper grip
By MLB.com definition:
“What’s a 'sweeper,' as you’ve certainly seen all over your television broadcasts … ? It’s a slider that’s specifically intended to get a great deal of horizontal movement.
“ … It’s gotten to the point, now, that it became necessary to label it as a separate pitch (from the slider), as Baseball Prospectus did last year and MLB … because so many pitchers have become extremely clear that they now throw multiple different sliders with different grips for different purposes. Otherwise, you’re combining two dissimilar pitches into one label.”
Townsend: “I went through all my data … me and Joel sat down at the end of the year and said, ‘Hey, I want to be a top-10 pick. So, how am I going to do that?’ Took all the top-10 picks and all the pitchers in the first two rounds and said, ‘What do they do that I don’t?’ … I needed another weapon to get off my best pitch, and my best pitch at the time was the cutter. I was throwing it 50%. … I don’t think I throw a pitch above like 27% (now).”
Mangrum: “Split, immediate. Cutter, immediate. Sweeper, immediate. I mean, his ability to make the ball go left is as good as I’ve ever been (around).”
Townsend: “It’s frustrating because I throw it too hard sometimes, and it’s really hard for me to throw a pitch slow. That’s kind of the problem right now. I throw every pitch super hard, and usually you want it to be a little slower.”
Utermark: “You have to be a special breed to learn on the fly that quickly. And that’s the beauty of him is, he’s been blessed by God to have that mind and the ability to translate it from your mind to your hand and to your arm and to the sequence of your body and your movement. … He’s so good at that.”
Townsend: “I think I threw it in a bullpen, and it was like – we call it the Hand of God because I picked it up and it was really good. And I think the next week I threw it in the live at-bats and, I was actually facing (freshman catcher) Kelven Perera. And I threw it and he was just like, ‘What? Did you just add a new pitch?’”
Changeup/splitter
Cade Townsend's splitter/changeup grip
By MLB.com definition:
“A splitter doesn't function as a fastball at all. It's really a complement to a pitcher's primary fastball. A splitter looks just like that fastball until the bottom drops out, and hoodwinks a hitter into flailing too early and over the top of the ball.
The splitter's defining characteristic, which gives it its name, is how the pitcher grips it: with pointer and middle finger spread wide around the baseball, in a ‘V’ shape. That ‘split-fingered’ grip allows the pitcher to throw the ball with the exact same arm motion as a fastball — only the result will be a slower pitch that dives down, or down and away.”
Fawley: “Going back to the Pizza Bowl (offseason scrimmage), he struck me out on three pitches. And it was the split changeup three times.”
Townsend: “I had the same changeup. … Now I just call it a splitter. … It’s kind of a split-change. … It was good, I just didn’t know how to make it consistent. That’s probably a pitch I’m still working on because it goes on the day. One day it could be really good and one day it’s like, ‘Holy crap, where is it?’’
Malec: “The second thing that stuck out to me is how well he learned and developed his changeup, (that) was really important.”
Fawley: “It kind of looks like a knuckleball. It’s mostly straight down, and depending on how he holds it could have some arm-side (run) to it. … He’ll throw that to lefts, the one with the more arm-side (run). But the straight-down (movement) to me is what makes it special.”
Townsend: “I actually really do enjoy the sweeper and the changeup. They’re just such hard pitches to get. And when it’s feeling good, then it’s like, man, I don’t think someone can hit it.”
Fawley: “He can throw (split change) to rights and lefts. … Not a lot of rights see right-on-right splitters.”
Curveball
Cade Townsend's curveball grip
By MLB.com definition:
“A curveball's break is loopy and large. It goes up, and then down. You can see it jump up out of the pitcher's hand, and then tumble almost in slow motion back to earth. Faced with a great curveball, a hitter might often be rendered unable to swing, watching helplessly as it falls for a strike. Maybe his knees will even buckle.
"A curve is slower than a slider. Its movement direction is more up and down.”
Fawley: “It starts so high. I think it has like 18 inches of drop or something. And when you see a ball above your head, you don’t want to swing at it. So I think it plays really well off the fastball up, the four-seam up. That curveball has been really helpful this year, too. He didn’t throw it much last year because he was the midweek guy. But this year it’s been awesome.”
Malec: “The thing that stuck out to me was the curveball. Just not many people spin it at the rate that he does. … It was just a way bigger breaking ball.”
Townsend: “I always had the curveball. I throw it the exact same. … Depending on the day or the week, I’ll either move up or move down on the lace to really get the finger, the pressure on the finger, to spin it. … Now it’s like I can throw that pitch for strikes when I want, and that’s probably the biggest improvement.”
Utermark: “I would say the cutter (is his best pitch). I think he throws it more frequently to right handers, but I’ll tell you one thing: when he’s on his fourth batter of the game and it’s 0-2 and he flips an 85 mile per hour curveball that starts from the heavens and drops down to the bottom of the zone, it’s really difficult. … When it’s on, it’s his out pitch.”
Mangrum: “The curveball, it was almost immediate. We just adjusted the grip, really.”
Townsend: “I (used to) strike out more left-handed hitters than right-handed hitters. And then you ask ‘Why?’ …The curveball works better to the eyes of a left-handed hitter, just out of hand. It’s harder to see.”
Malec: “I love (his curveball). … He spins that curveball – and I got a chance to see Brett Myers, the old Houston Astros closer when I was playing professionally – and just like, he spins it, and it’s just watching that thing just, ‘Wham.’ … It’s pretty impressive for me.”
Fawley: “If I had to pick a pitch (I wouldn’t want to see), it’s either the curveball or the splitter. Just because … he can throw his splitter for a strike against rights. And I think that’s definitely the pitch I don’t want to see.”
Utermark: “It’s absolutely the curveball (that’s my favorite to watch). … Being at third base, I have a pitch comm in my head, so I know what’s coming. But I know for certain that the hitter does not know what’s coming. And then it’s awesome to see them buckle and to watch it land straight down the middle, and they don’t even take the bat off their shoulder … because they’re geared up for 98 miles an hour.”
Continue reading...
You’re going to hear a lot of numbers and learn plenty about the seams on a baseball and their subsequent reason for existence. Most noticeable, though, is a Christmas morning-like passion.
Pitching – and learning about everything it involves – gives Townsend joy.
“That’s why I play baseball,” Townsend said. “ … The game is just so hard. You’re not going to succeed every time. So learning about it and learning, how can I get better? How can I make a ball move, the physics behind it? It just makes me happy. And that’s just what I like to do.”
Townsend, a true sophomore righty at Ole Miss and a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award, has seen his stock take off during his second season in Oxford. The Southern California native came to Ole Miss as a top-100 prospect and high school All-American after a standout career at Santa Margarita Catholic High School.
But for what prowess he flashed as a high schooler, the 6-foot-1, 185-pounder struggled at times as a college freshman, notching a 6.35 ERA with 43 strikeouts and 20 walks.
When Townsend arrived at Ole Miss, Rebels pitching coach Joel Mangrum estimates he had three pitches: a four-seam fastball, a curveball and a short slider, though Santa Margarita head coach Chris Malec would also add a changeup in there. Townsend consistently rested in the 93-mile-per-hour range with his fastball. Work in the weight room and tinkering with his mechanics have pushed that velocity consistently around 96 or 97 mph.
But when you are in the SEC, there’s more to pitching than velocity; you need answers to a constantly evolving test. For Townsend, the son of a biochemist, that model of thinking comes naturally.
Townsend went to work over the summer with Mangrum – the two evaluated numerous data points regarding the success of each pitch to righties and lefties while simultaneously searching for answers. So far so good, as Townsend ranks as the No. 21 prospect in this summer’s MLB Draft per MLB.com and was named second-team All-SEC.
No. 2 seed Ole Miss opens NCAA Tournament play Friday against No. 3 seed Arizona State in the Lincoln Regional.
The Daily Journal met with Townsend and others from his circle ahead of the postseason to better understand how he executes each of his seven pitches and the reasons why they work.
“For me, there’s two things that really stick out – his passion and love for the game and his curiosity to learn it at the deepest level,” Malec said. “And in particular the pitching element … He studies it relentlessly and just asking tons of questions. He just loves the art of pitching.”
Four-seam fastball
Cade Townsend's four-seam fastball grip
By MLB.com definition:
“A four-seamer is thrown with straight backspin. When the ball is spinning that way, it will resist the pull of gravity slightly longer. So if a pitcher does it just right, a four-seam fastball will look like it's ‘exploding’ up and past the hitter. The hitter will swing under it and miss.”
Senior third baseman Judd Utermark: “It looks like it’s about 105 (mph), and again, I think that’s what makes all of his pitches effective. … He pitches like a big leaguer with the percentages and with the counts that he throws certain pitches in and how he sets up hitters.”
Malec: “When he came (and) started working out with us … he knew (control) was his target goal, and being able to work on that. And he attacked that weakness every day with going about his routine. … It was all about being able to master that, and he attacked that weakness with a sense of purpose.”
Townsend: “My mechanics back in the day actually made me cut the ball, so it would probably be like 17 (inch) vert (break) and like three horizontal (break), which is more perceived cut to the eye than it is now. And that’s kind of just the byproduct of me being able to throw it better and learn myself better.
“A four-seam will be straighter, more ride. Like, my four-seam will average 20 vert (break) and like eight horizontal (break). So it’s really just moving pretty straight and has that ride effect to the eye.”
Mangrum: “His four-seam’s got a ton of ride. So if gravity didn’t impact the ball, his four-seam would actually move up.”
Ole Miss junior catcher Austin Fawley: “I’ve been catching him for a while now, so I know how it moves. And being able to get my glove above it or below it – depending on if he wants to throw it down or up – but he usually, consistently carries it at around 19 to 21 (inches of vertical break), which is elite.”
Malec: “He could always throw hard, but when he realized and he saw some of our pitchers that didn’t throw quite as hard have some success getting hitters out and he realized, ‘OK, if I have a little bit better fastball command, I can absolutely dominate this level.’”
Townsend: “I mean, I love to throw a heater, and blowing a heater by someone is like probably the best feeling ever. But that’s also the worst thing for me, because my ego would get in the way and I’m like, ‘Oh, let me throw 105 miles an hour.’
“We probably don’t call a lot of fastballs for that reason.”
Malec: “It’s a two-part thing. Obviously to get to the level that Cade is pitching at now – and then the level that he’s going to potentially go to in pro ball – you have to throw really hard. And Cade did that and did a really good job of that at a young age. But just learning, ‘OK, it’s not all about just throwing hard, it’s combining that with the ability to move the ball around and execute it to certain locations.'”
Utermark: “A hypothetical at-bat may be first pitch cutter, (it’s) 0-1. Second pitch sweeper, (it’s) 1-1. Big curveball, (it’s) 1-2. Sweeper, (it's) 2-2. Curveball low, (it's) 3-2. Fastball at the top at 97. So again, obviously, it feels a lot faster, especially when he can slow you down. … With the ride, it feels like it’s touching the ground and coming back up.”
Two-seam fastball
Cade Townsend's two-seam fastball grip
By MLB.com definition:
“A four-seamer is your basic fastball. The two-seamer and sinker are the main variations. ... Two-seamers and sinkers have basically the same speed as a four-seamer; the big difference is the way they move. A four-seamer is straight, sometimes so straight it looks like it's rising. Two-seamers and sinkers move side to side, or down. Or both.
"If the pitch moves more horizontally – and it'll be in the ‘tailing’ direction, running from left to right for a right-handed pitcher or right to left for a left-handed pitcher – then it's a two-seamer. If the pitch has more vertical drop, it's a sinker.”
Mangrum: “His two-seam’s got basically flat run. It’s not heavy sink. … With the two-seam, it’s more like arm-side run. And so as a freshman, he struggled to get the four-seam into right-handed hitters, so everything was away. So we added the two-seam to be able to throw to that side of the plate.”
Townsend: “I don’t throw the Taylor Rabe banger sinker. I just can’t. My body just doesn’t work like that. So I kind of cut the ball on the two-seam, and it really just comes off like that, and it’s a flat runner. … It’s probably like 10 vert (break) and 15 horizontal (break).
“And you would on paper, you would be like, ‘That’s a bad pitch.’ But comparing it to the four-seam, because that’s what I’m throwing it off, it moves more laterally than the four-seam and it has 10-plus inches of depth. So it’s just like a different look to right-handed hitters.”
Mangrum: “The two-seam is kind of an ongoing process. That’s the one pitch we haven’t thrown a lot. I think we’ve thrown it eight or nine times on the year.”
Fawley: “A lot of coaches like to call the two-seam down, and I think what makes it effective is, he likes to throw it up. So, up and in with his two-seam is what makes it unique. But I think the way he holds it helps him … get it in what he can’t do with the four-seam. I mean, he could do it. But it’s just not as consistent as the two-seam.”
Cutter
Cade Townsend's cutter grip
By MLB.com definition:
“There's a third type of fastball, but it's a little different from four-seamers, two-seamers and sinkers. It's the cutter.
"The main difference, again, is the direction of the movement. Four-seamers carry. Two-seamers run. Sinkers drop. Cutters, well, cut. 'Cutting' movement means horizontal, in the opposite direction of a two-seamer. A cutter from a right-handed pitcher takes a turn from right-to-left; from a lefty, that cut is left to right. A lot of the time, a cutter doesn't even break all that much. The movement isn't wide and sweeping, it's sharp and tight.”
Fawley: “His best pitch is his cutter. And I think that’s why a lot of teams sit on his cutter, just to take away that pitch.”
Townsend: “The cutter was more of like … to me it’s a bad four-seam, in my head. And then how I throw it just comes off my hand more like a short slider that was really hard.
“And then a true cutter would probably be seven-14 vert (break) and hopefully one to negative three horizontal (break). So it’s kind of just the flat four-seam that’s cutting.’
Mangrum: “If you asked him, he would probably say his cutter (is his best pitch). I would say the curveball and then probably the sweeper.”
Mangrum: “The slider’s got some depth, the sweeper definitely has depth. Cutter’s more like a strike pitch. It’s usually like, if you’re watching the radar gun on the scoreboard, it’s usually somewhere between 89 and 93. And so if he’s touching 93, that’s the cutter. If it's 95 plus, that’s the four-seam. If it’s kind of 93-95, that’s the two-seam.”
Townsend: “You see those three pitches (four-seam, two-seam and cutter) a lot now. Like, Cam Schlittler throws it for the New York Yankees. And he added the flat runner and the cutter and he’s been dominating. And I’ve talked to him about how he does it, and we have the same exact process.”
Fawley: “He throws his cutter at 89 to 91, 92. And his fastball is 97, so … it’s just enough to where hitters are off time with it. And the amount of cut that it has for such hard of a pitch is what makes it elite.”
Short slider
Cade Townsend's short slider grip
By MLB.com definition:
“The slider moves sideways, in the same direction as a cutter – right to left for a right-handed pitcher ... And actually, sometimes those two pitch types can be hard to tell apart. But here's the best way to do it: Usually, a slider's movement is more sweeping, and larger, than a cutter's, and it can also include more vertical as well as horizontal break.”
Townsend: “It was no good. … It was super slow but it didn’t move a lot. So then it’s like, what’s the purpose of it? And we kind of banged it last year and added the cutter.”
Malec: “Not only … how it flies out of there, but how he spins it and the things that he can do with the ball, with the changeup, the breaking ball, the slider and then obviously the fastball. It’s just impressive. … I remember seeing him pitch as a young teenager and just being fascinated by how well his body moved.”
Fawley: “The sweeper has probably around six to seven more inches of cut than his short one. … I think having the slider has been really beneficial, just to be able to … have another pitch for lefties.”
Sweeper
Cade Townsend's sweeper grip
By MLB.com definition:
“What’s a 'sweeper,' as you’ve certainly seen all over your television broadcasts … ? It’s a slider that’s specifically intended to get a great deal of horizontal movement.
“ … It’s gotten to the point, now, that it became necessary to label it as a separate pitch (from the slider), as Baseball Prospectus did last year and MLB … because so many pitchers have become extremely clear that they now throw multiple different sliders with different grips for different purposes. Otherwise, you’re combining two dissimilar pitches into one label.”
Townsend: “I went through all my data … me and Joel sat down at the end of the year and said, ‘Hey, I want to be a top-10 pick. So, how am I going to do that?’ Took all the top-10 picks and all the pitchers in the first two rounds and said, ‘What do they do that I don’t?’ … I needed another weapon to get off my best pitch, and my best pitch at the time was the cutter. I was throwing it 50%. … I don’t think I throw a pitch above like 27% (now).”
Mangrum: “Split, immediate. Cutter, immediate. Sweeper, immediate. I mean, his ability to make the ball go left is as good as I’ve ever been (around).”
Townsend: “It’s frustrating because I throw it too hard sometimes, and it’s really hard for me to throw a pitch slow. That’s kind of the problem right now. I throw every pitch super hard, and usually you want it to be a little slower.”
Utermark: “You have to be a special breed to learn on the fly that quickly. And that’s the beauty of him is, he’s been blessed by God to have that mind and the ability to translate it from your mind to your hand and to your arm and to the sequence of your body and your movement. … He’s so good at that.”
Townsend: “I think I threw it in a bullpen, and it was like – we call it the Hand of God because I picked it up and it was really good. And I think the next week I threw it in the live at-bats and, I was actually facing (freshman catcher) Kelven Perera. And I threw it and he was just like, ‘What? Did you just add a new pitch?’”
Changeup/splitter
Cade Townsend's splitter/changeup grip
By MLB.com definition:
“A splitter doesn't function as a fastball at all. It's really a complement to a pitcher's primary fastball. A splitter looks just like that fastball until the bottom drops out, and hoodwinks a hitter into flailing too early and over the top of the ball.
The splitter's defining characteristic, which gives it its name, is how the pitcher grips it: with pointer and middle finger spread wide around the baseball, in a ‘V’ shape. That ‘split-fingered’ grip allows the pitcher to throw the ball with the exact same arm motion as a fastball — only the result will be a slower pitch that dives down, or down and away.”
Fawley: “Going back to the Pizza Bowl (offseason scrimmage), he struck me out on three pitches. And it was the split changeup three times.”
Townsend: “I had the same changeup. … Now I just call it a splitter. … It’s kind of a split-change. … It was good, I just didn’t know how to make it consistent. That’s probably a pitch I’m still working on because it goes on the day. One day it could be really good and one day it’s like, ‘Holy crap, where is it?’’
Malec: “The second thing that stuck out to me is how well he learned and developed his changeup, (that) was really important.”
Fawley: “It kind of looks like a knuckleball. It’s mostly straight down, and depending on how he holds it could have some arm-side (run) to it. … He’ll throw that to lefts, the one with the more arm-side (run). But the straight-down (movement) to me is what makes it special.”
Townsend: “I actually really do enjoy the sweeper and the changeup. They’re just such hard pitches to get. And when it’s feeling good, then it’s like, man, I don’t think someone can hit it.”
Fawley: “He can throw (split change) to rights and lefts. … Not a lot of rights see right-on-right splitters.”
Curveball
Cade Townsend's curveball grip
By MLB.com definition:
“A curveball's break is loopy and large. It goes up, and then down. You can see it jump up out of the pitcher's hand, and then tumble almost in slow motion back to earth. Faced with a great curveball, a hitter might often be rendered unable to swing, watching helplessly as it falls for a strike. Maybe his knees will even buckle.
"A curve is slower than a slider. Its movement direction is more up and down.”
Fawley: “It starts so high. I think it has like 18 inches of drop or something. And when you see a ball above your head, you don’t want to swing at it. So I think it plays really well off the fastball up, the four-seam up. That curveball has been really helpful this year, too. He didn’t throw it much last year because he was the midweek guy. But this year it’s been awesome.”
Malec: “The thing that stuck out to me was the curveball. Just not many people spin it at the rate that he does. … It was just a way bigger breaking ball.”
Townsend: “I always had the curveball. I throw it the exact same. … Depending on the day or the week, I’ll either move up or move down on the lace to really get the finger, the pressure on the finger, to spin it. … Now it’s like I can throw that pitch for strikes when I want, and that’s probably the biggest improvement.”
Utermark: “I would say the cutter (is his best pitch). I think he throws it more frequently to right handers, but I’ll tell you one thing: when he’s on his fourth batter of the game and it’s 0-2 and he flips an 85 mile per hour curveball that starts from the heavens and drops down to the bottom of the zone, it’s really difficult. … When it’s on, it’s his out pitch.”
Mangrum: “The curveball, it was almost immediate. We just adjusted the grip, really.”
Townsend: “I (used to) strike out more left-handed hitters than right-handed hitters. And then you ask ‘Why?’ …The curveball works better to the eyes of a left-handed hitter, just out of hand. It’s harder to see.”
Malec: “I love (his curveball). … He spins that curveball – and I got a chance to see Brett Myers, the old Houston Astros closer when I was playing professionally – and just like, he spins it, and it’s just watching that thing just, ‘Wham.’ … It’s pretty impressive for me.”
Fawley: “If I had to pick a pitch (I wouldn’t want to see), it’s either the curveball or the splitter. Just because … he can throw his splitter for a strike against rights. And I think that’s definitely the pitch I don’t want to see.”
Utermark: “It’s absolutely the curveball (that’s my favorite to watch). … Being at third base, I have a pitch comm in my head, so I know what’s coming. But I know for certain that the hitter does not know what’s coming. And then it’s awesome to see them buckle and to watch it land straight down the middle, and they don’t even take the bat off their shoulder … because they’re geared up for 98 miles an hour.”
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