Ooop, are you ok?
Sorry buddy!
Rarrrr.
Whipe your boogers.
Get the bat.
Got it?
What's up guys?
Coach Madden and KJ.
We're here.
Shhh it's my show.
Oh it's his show now but we're here for an Office Hours episode where we answer your
baseball questions here in my office.
Whoa!
Lefty!
Today's question comes from Sam and he says, "Ok big question.
This has been driving me insane.
The Maddux pitch.
A right handed pitch, two seamer, with a ton of sink to a left handed batter that looks
like it’s going to bean them in the hip and then it comes back over the strike zone
for a called strike.
How can I consistently throw something like that?
Like my two seamer is great as is my sinker.
I throw my two seamer with opposite of cutter in mind, it really gets in on righties and
they can’t barrel it up.
I grip it like any other basic two seamer.
Thumb tucked, fingers in between the laces, basic stuff, if I want a little sink to it
to give batters a different look, I’ll throw the Coach Madden sinker w the index and thumb
lining up with the two fingers against the inside seam.
My actual sinker that I use, it’s more of a one seamer.
I don’t know a lot of guys who throw sinkers like this but oh boy does this thing sink.
I get both sink and run to it.
I grip it kind of like a slider, only difference is I have my middle finger on the seam with
the index on the left side of the ball so I can stay inside of it more.
Ok so there’s the basics of my sinking two seam pitches, I’ll send pics of grips too
but, how do I get better at throwing the Maddux pitch.
Are there any drills I can do?
Do I start all the way on the left part of the rubber?
Should I have my shin angle pointed to the left of the batter to promote throwing the
pitch starting right at the lefties?
Please let me know what you think, this is something I really want to get better at."
First of all, thank you so much for that question.
The first thing that you have to understand is that there is only one Greg Maddux.
There's only going to be one Greg Maddux.
So, it's great that you have these high goals but there's been nobody else like him in the
game the way he's been able to locate pitches, move pitches, and just dominate guys for so
long in the Big Leagues.
That's a great goal to try to be like that but there has only been one of them ever.
Now the pitch that you're talking about, that two seamer that he throws at lefties hips
that runs back over is a nasty pitch and there has been a lot of pitchers who've been able
to get that movement so that is definitely an achievable goal, an achievable pitch.
When I played in the Padres organization, my first year was one of his last years there,
so I got to, he came and talked to the pitchers, the new pitchers, gave us some tips and stuff
like that.
So one of the big things that he's always talked about was consistency.
Having a repeatable delivery.
So that's the first step in throwing that pitch or really any pitch that you're trying
to throw, is having a repeatable delivery, right?
We're going to talk about his grip, how he gripped it, how he threw it and stuff, but
this is the fundamental, this is the basics of what you need to be a great pitcher and
locate and have balls move like Maddux did.
What he always talked about was consistency and having a repeatable delivery because if
you can repeat your delivery and you know exactly what you're doing in your motion,
then the pitches are going to be repeatable, they're going to be consistent in the zone
where you're trying to throw them, right?
So if you understand your body and have control over your body down the mound, then it's going
to be a lot easier for you to execute pitches on a consistent basis.
That makes sense right?
That's just how it is and that's his biggest point that he always talked about when he
came and talked to the new pitchers which was me and my group of pitchers in the Padres
organization.
Now, secondly, let's take a look at his grip, ok.
First of all, this was my grip, the sinker grip, Sam you showed this, and you can see
I was here inside of the laces in the middle, thumb underneath.
Now here's the big difference from my Sinker (my two seam) and Maddux's.
He was a little further down on the ball this way and he really liked to get his thumb on
the lace underneath.
So I think the thumb right here might be the secret in his two seam pitch because now he's
got something under here.
For me, I didn't really care, I kind of had it more on the skin of the ball and again
I would get a lot of sink.
I was ranked, my Sinker was ranked #1 in the Padres organization.
But, obviously his two seam was way nastier and he did it for so many years successfully
but I think the secret of it may be having that thumb on that seam down there so he's
got a little more traction and he can use this a little bit more when he's throwing
that ball.
So, he's kind of got a little bit of thumb traction to pull with and he would hook it
right here and he had a little more space between his fingers.
I don't know if that was on purpose or maybe he has skinnier fingers than I do.
I have pretty fat fingers so it looks like I'm filling up both of those laces but I'm
actually hooking on this lace.
So, that could be one thing.
But the other very interesting thing that Maddux did that I learned when I was playing
with him was that when he was warming up before a game he would never tell his catcher what
pitch was coming.
So he would just start throwing all different pitches and he would know how his pitches
were working that day by the reaction of the catcher.
Meaning if the catcher was seeing it and moving well and catching it, then he knew his pitches
weren't working that well.
He wanted them to be deceptive.
So not only did he want that movement but he didn't want the batter, and in this case
the catcher, to know what was happening.
So if the catcher was like "whoa" and real late and stabbing at balls, then he knew his
pitches were working.
So he knew what pitches were working that day before he even got into the game and let
me tell you what, when he pitched against when we did like intersquads, I remember sitting
back there right behind the backstop and just seeing him carve up the whole Padres organization
man.
It was crazy and he was only throwing like 81 miles an hour because this was at the end
of his career.
It was like 79 to 81 almost every single pitch, obviously slower on some of his breaking stuff,
but that was fastball, 79 to 81.
Just locating it up, dotting it up, moving it, sinking it, cutting it, it was just filthy
and that goes back again to being consistent, having repeatable mechanics, and just making
that pitch be deceptive.
Not showing that you're trying to get that much movement because a pitch is easy to hit
if it's a big long frisbee slider or something like that.
He didn't throw that but guys think like "whoa that pitch moved this much" but if they can
see it the whole time, that's a lot easier to hit than something that looks like a fastball
and then "vroooom" cuts, sinks this way, or cuts that way, you know what I'm saying.
So that's what he was really great at.
Again, there's only one Greg Maddux.
It's great to aspire to be the best that you can be but start by working on the consistency
of your delivery, having repeatable mechanics, and then work on your pitching grips.
Mess around with it, mess around with the thumb placement, finger placement, and then
really turning it in.
It has a lot to do with wrist angle at release point, obviously to get that movement.
He was really getting inside of that ball when he's throwing it.
If you watch some video you can see him and that pitch is just nasty.
I know exactly what you're talking about when he throws it right at those lefty's hips,
makes him jump back, catcher doesn't move, strike 3 sucker, see you later!
I hope you guys liked this video.
If you guys want more pitching grips videos or tips on pitching, leave a comment down
below, let me know what you want to see and I'll make those videos for you.
If you haven't already, please click the logo over here to subscribe and then go check out
some of these other videos.
Including the Greg Maddux story.
It's a funny one if you want to check that one out.
Talk to you soon.