Landen Roupp leans closely on his high-spin curveball, and Hayden Birdsong is a purveyor of the kick-change. Each pitches profile as plus, which is a giant cause the right-handers are being counted on to supply high quality innings of their respective roles with the San Francisco Giants this season; Roupp is within the rotation, whereas Birdsong is figuring out of the bullpen.
The early outcomes have been promising. The 26-year-old Roupp, who’s scheduled to make his second begin on Tuesday evening towards the Cincinnati Reds, made his season debut on April 2 in a 6-3 Giants win over the Houston Astros. The beginning wasn’t nice — he was eliminated with the bases loaded and no one out within the fifth inning and was finally charged with three runs — however his eight strikeouts had been encouraging. Seven of these strikeouts — and not one of the 4 hits he allowed — got here towards his curveball. He threw his signature providing 34 occasions in his 83-pitch effort.
Birdsong has thrown 4 scoreless innings over two reduction appearances. One in every of his 4 strikeouts has come courtesy of the kick-change, which he has thrown 9 occasions out of 53 complete pitches. The 23-year-old, likewise in his second massive league season, has primarily attacked hitters along with his high-octane heater (56.6% utilization).
The tales behind Roupp’s hook and Birdsong’s changeup? I broached the topics with the right-handers in Giants camps shortly earlier than the beginning of the common season.
———
“I’ve thrown it my total life,” Roupp stated of his curveball. “All that’s actually completely different is that I’m getting stronger with extra mobility, and studying in regards to the metrics. In faculty we didn’t have metrics. So, studying methods to make it transfer extra and spin tougher… studying and rising into my physique has made it so much higher. For me, having confidence in it’s the greatest factor.”
A Twelfth-round select of UNC-Wilmington in 2021, Roupp spun his curveball at 3,056 rpm in his April 2 outing, comfortably throughout the 2,900-3,100 vary he’d described to me. Roupp additionally stated that he “will get about 19 to 22 [inches] of horizontal [movement] and one thing like negative-11 vert” when he’s executing correctly. Timing is the important thing. When he’s out of sync along with his supply it doesn’t come out of his hand precisely as he’d like. Selecting up a baseball, Roupp confirmed me his two-seam fastball grip, then rotated the ball simply barely. He defined that he throws his curveball identical to his two-seamer, however “with a snap.”
Roupp’s curveball is “fairly sluggish,” averaging 77.4 mph for the reason that begin of final season. He stated the velocity differential between that and his fastball — his two-seamer averages 93.4 mph — is a giant a part of its effectiveness. As for its utilization, he threw the curve 41% of the time in his first outing, which was barely much less steadily than he did final season (44.1%). With the caveat that one sport is nowhere close to a big sufficient pattern measurement to find out what a pitcher’s utilization charges can be, that dip was notable provided that Roupp advised me this spring that his plan was to throw his curve much less typically this season.
“Arising by the minor leagues, they had been telling me I used to be throwing it an excessive amount of,” Roupp stated. “That was extra about creating my different pitches, although. However whereas I would throw it 40% of the time, I do assume I’m going to lean again slightly bit now that I’ve the changeup and the cutter. The changeup was new final 12 months, and the cutter this 12 months. I need to implement these and get folks off my curveball in order that it’s much more efficient on the massive league stage.”
———
“I’ve a high-vert heater with fairly good velo,” Birdsong stated when requested to explain his full arsenal. “My curveball is the alternative of my fastball in that it’s simply straight down; it’s negative-15 vert when it’s good. My slider is sort of in growth and is extra of a cutter. My changeup is simply my changeup. I began throwing it final 12 months, and it’s developed into one in every of my higher pitches.”
That may in fact be the kick-change. The precise-hander supposedly discovered it at Tread Athletics… besides, that’s not true. Birdsong defined that whereas “everyone says that,” he’s by no means been to Tread, nor has he talked to anybody who works there. He merely watched a Tread video, then started experimenting with the grip the next day.
“I began taking part in catch with it — this was in spring coaching — and I’m unsure I may even keep in mind who my catch accomplice was,” stated Birdsong, whom the Giants took within the sixth spherical of the 2022 draft out of Japanese Illinois. “It may need been Spencer Bivens. However my changeup had been horrible the 12 months earlier than. It was mainly only a unhealthy fastball, a 15-vert slower fastball. That’s all it was. I wanted to search out one other grip, one which wasn’t a splitter — I didn’t need to mess with a type of — so I began taking a look at movies. That one popped up.”
Birdsong’s earlier makes an attempt to discover a high quality changeup had all been for naught, however when he noticed the kick-change, he thought, “Let’s attempt it.” To his data, he’d by no means thrown one “underneath 9 vert.” Swiftly, he had one which was near zero. The primary coach he approached with that information didn’t imagine it.
“I used to be throwing it, and it was tumbling,” Birdsong stated. “It was doing what I needed it to do. I advised [bullpen coach Garvin Alston] that I’d thrown a changeup within the bullpen and it was damaging vert. He goes ‘No.’ Then he was like, ‘Let me go have a look [at the data].’ I requested him about it the subsequent day and he stated, ‘Hold throwing it.’”
As Davis Martin and Matt Bowman defined right here at FanGraphs final September, the pitch that Birdsong is now throwing has a close-cousin relationship with the better-known break up change. Whereas the title is new, the pitch itself actually isn’t.
“I noticed the video and known as it a spike change,” stated Birdsong. “I confirmed the grip to anyone — I neglect who it was — and he was like, ‘Yeah, there are some guys who used to throw that. It’s known as a kick-change.’ All it’s, actually, is that you just’re kicking the axis of the ball. No matter you name it, it really works for me.”
