Unicorn Pitches You Have Never Heard Of

Bullpen catching is a lot of fun. People often saw me catching in Spring Training or visited the affiliate and thought that it was a burden for me to get back there. It never was. As someone who pitched my whole high school and college career, it has been fascinating to flip the script in my professional career. The part that draws me back behind the dish is the uniqueness of each pitcher and pitch type. We now can measure pitch uniqueness and start to bucket guys with similar pitch types based on optical and radar tracking systems. With every available way to measure pitch movement, it is still fun and fascinating catching the unique fingerprint of each pitch.

Those metrics I alluded to are widely understood in the industry now. But like I had mentioned before there is still nothing quite like harmonizing the metrics with the action of catching. It is the best way to develop a deep understanding of pitch movement.

The length of a Minor League season can mean games, players, moments, and pitches all start to blur together. But there are moments, people, and pitches you don’t forget. These moments usually involve an albatross, a unicorn, a mythical thing. Guys don’t get perked up for much in the middle of a Minor League season, but they do when they see something they have never witnessed. The following brief list is the unicorn pitches I have caught in the bullpen. Just because of roster shuffling and player turnover, combined with spending around five seasons in the bullpen, I have caught plenty of arms. This has allowed me to build out a library over time of different pitchers, movement types, and moments.

The following are the extreme outliers. The pitches that I may never see again. The pitches that Hawkeye and Trackman can measure but those metrics alone don't tell the whole story. Guys perk up in the middle of a season when they see these pitches executed to perfection. The following are the most unique pitches I have caught in my career. Here are the unicorns.

Ryan Moseley – Sink Jesus

Simply put Moseley throws one of the most elite pitches in baseball. He pairs a three-quarter arm slot, short stride, and calm mound presence into the sinker of death. Mosely’s sinker almost averages negative induced vertical break and consistently has twice the league average horizontal break at 90-93 mph. Almost all pitchers in baseball with extreme sink and elite arm side run are thrown from a sidearm and or rock skipping arm slot. Moseley’s higher slot with elite sink combines to catching a literal shot put. I have caught a lot of sinkers in my career but not a single one even comes close to moving like Moseley’s.

It always felt like he grabbed a nine-ounce weighted ball to throw with instead of you know...the normal Minor League baseball. Just standing up and playing daily catch with him was miserable and required extreme focus or you will lose a thumb. This pitch is oftentimes hard for me to describe because it is the most unique fastball/sinker I have ever caught and legitimately the toughest fastball/sinker to catch. It sucks. To throw a cherry on top, in 2019 Moseley had the 3rd highest reliever groundball rate in all of Minor League baseball. No one can elevate the ball against Sink Jesus.

“Moseley’s higher slot with elite sink combines to catching a literal shot put.”

Kyle McGrath – The Hidden Fastball

Kyle threw 87-92 mph and got some of the worst swings and misses on fastballs I have seen in my career. Now Kyle also ranks as having the most unique throwing motion I have ever seen featuring a sky-high glove side paired with a straight over-the-top javelin throw from behind his ear. The ball hid from plain sight for an eternity then quickly revealed itself hallway to the plate with a downhill angle that would make the steepest roller coasters jealous. Due to Kyle’s unique delivery, deception and now looking back on it, above-average vertical break, his 88 felt like 100 mph. The hardest 88 mph by a large margin.

Behind the plate, you had to strap up. You never felt like you could see the ball and you had to always gear up way earlier than 99% of all fastballs. The extreme downhill angle paired with a pitch you can’t really see meant warming up Kyle in the game was always interesting. Kyle’s career Minor League numbers are borderline silly, and he gave up minimal damage across 300 plus innings in relief. Kyle went on to make his MLB debut in 2017 where he continued to get swings and misses at 88mph. Legend.

Jordan Sheffield – The Angry Curveball

Jordan throws hard. Plain and simple. Everything he throws is violent and loud. For a guy with a smaller frame, it is really impressive. Jordan’s curveball has almost an elite movement profile too but to be honest quite a few guys I have caught in the past have. But for some reason Jordan’s curveball is different. Very Different. His curveball travels to the plate with such anger, aggressiveness, and power I haven’t seen the likes of. His high leg kick, glove tap, and strong stride combined with elite hand speed make this pitch borderline scary. Plus, there is not a predictable breakpoint and pitch movement pattern that you can synch up to catch. It is an unpredictable pitch and feels more like a bull bursting out of a rodeo pen. You have to be ready behind the plate. There is no taking it easy back there or catching it casually. It is the definition of violence.

“His curveball travels to the plate with such anger, aggressiveness, and power I haven’t seen the likes of.”

Joey Lucchesi – The Chruve

In 2017 Joey “Fuego” Lucchesi got called up to AA. On that day Joey needed to throw a little touch and feel. Things were going like most touch and feels until he gave me the changeup sign. Expecting some slight sink and arm side run I set up like any other lefthanded changeup. Then out of Joey’s hand came something that had the depth of a slider, spun liked a poor curveball, and moved straight down like a splitter. This pitch was truly a salad of three breaking balls thrown together. None of which included a changeup. After the first “changeup” I quickly stood up in confusion and said, “What was that?” Joey looked me dead in the eye, with no sort of reaction to my brain melting emotions, and said, “it’s my Churve”. After Joey uttered those words and I digested what just hit my mitt, I thought I needed to be transported to a local hospital for emergency brain surgery.

I had lived 21 years of my life at that point and had never heard that expression or seen such a thing. To Joey it was normal. To me, it was like seeing an alien for the first time. To this day I still have trouble describing how a Churve looks like coming to home plate. It’s a conundrum. A Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle. Confusing. And what do you know? Hitters in the Minor Leagues had never seen such a pitch either. Joey crushed in AA that year hardly giving up any damage and “Churved” his way to the MLB where he still is confusing hitters.