"The Sound of Whiff"

Today's Soxaholix strip sent tingles down my spine. Does Daisuke Matsuzaka (aka Mothra, aka Dice-K, aka Kaibatsu, aka The Monster, aka #18) have the gyroball? Maybe. But he definitely has a phantom pitch. Listen to these Florida Marlins, quoted by Michael Silverman in the Herald:

Two Marlins - Jason Stokes and Jeremy Hermida - said they saw a pitch that had movement and action unlike any other pitch they had ever seen before. Hermida saw it three times, Stokes once and the UFO broke down and away to the left-handed hitting Hermida and in on the hands of Stokes.

The ball spun in a clock-wise direction, or reverse to what they are used to. It had a screwball-like rotation that left them shaking their heads. Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell said Matsuzaka's changeup was the pitch they actually saw but that was not what the Marlins called it.

"It's a pitch that's somewhere between a changeup and a splitter but it’s got a sideways spin," said Stokes. "It's like a split, but it's slower, more movement... He threw four different pitches to me - a fastball, slider, gyro and curve." On the gyro, "He threw it up and in. I could see it was obviously a ball right away. I'm thinking 'Get out of the way.' It kind of backs up on you."

Hermida encountered the pitch three times. He affirmed Stokes' version that it was a gyroball, saying it was somewhere between a changeup and split-fingered fastball. "It looks like a split, but it's slower," said Hermida. "It didn't have the same spin as a split. It had its own unique character." Hermida saw Matsuzaka turn his wrist over in a screwball-like manner, which gives the ball its reverse spin. "It's got a good, hard and downward break but comes out with more speed than a changeup," he said. "It comes out of the hand good and then it just dies on you."

Major leaguers will figure out how to hit the gyro - or when to let it go - but only if they really know what it is. As long as Dice-K has batters guessing at his arsenal, he'll be way ahead of them in the mind game that is pitching.