Dave Cameron writes on the rise of the cutter.
You can’t watch a baseball game without seeing a guy who recently added a cut fastball to his repertoire. It is undoubtedly the hot pitch in baseball right now, and it will be in full display when the playoffs kick off tomorrow.
I’m wondering why it took so long. Mariano Rivera has demonstrated the effectiveness of the cutter for over a decade. I suspect pitchers were into split-fingered fastballs as the fad out pitch. The cutter might be easier on the hand, and just as deceptive.
It seemed to me that a couple of years ago I was hearing a lot about pitchers learning the changeup. Was that a trend or just my perception? It could have been more limited to the Red Sox as well, which is the lens through which I get much of my baseball.
Has the cutter ever experienced this kind of a trend? If so is this a cyclical thing where we’ll start to hear about screwballs or about the splitter coming back?
The splitter or forkball was the pitch of the 70’s and 80’s. Then in the 90’s it was the circle change. Now the cutter. I myself would like to see the screwball make a comeback. I play amatuer baseball and I am the only pitcher in the league that throws a forkball, a screwball and a knuckleball. What I mean is that no one else in the league throws any of the pitches I throw almost exclusivly besides a one-seamer and a slider. And I throw from three different arm angles. Now all I need is Luis Tiant’s windup and I can pitch for the Red Sox.