Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 24, 2008
Four Pitch Lefty

My good friend Jim Storer called to let me know Jim Fuller will be pitching in my neighborhood today:

Fuller's dominance begins with his fastball. It was clocked at 93 miles per hour during SCSU's trip to Florida at the start of the season and is consistently around 91. But beyond simple heat, Fuller has three other pitches he can command - curve, slider and changeup.

"At our level (Div. II), that's pretty rare," said Shea. "There are guys who can throw four pitches, but not at the level Jimmy can throw them. Other guys may have a better curve, or better slider, but they don't have command of all four the way he does."

The changeup, actually, is something new. Fuller says he throws it at about 75 miles per hour, meaning there's a 15-16 mph difference between the fastball and changeup, pitches that look exactly the same leaving his hand. It means there are a lot of hitters looking foolish as they swing at a ball that's still about five feet from home plate.

"I try to work my fastball to get ahead, and then mix them all up," said Fuller. "This year I started to work in the changeup and it's been pretty effective. It's a pretty nice pitch when I get it to work."

He's struck out 93 in 67 innings while walking 15. While I'm sure the level of competition isn't outstanding, numbers that good should at least get scouts interested. I'll try to get some video this afternoon.


Posted by David Pinto at 12:32 PM | Pitchers | TrackBack (0)
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