The Pitching Ninja Twitter account is one of the most popular analytical baseball accounts on social media — taking a deeper look at the movement of a pitch.
It has also become a tool to help pitchers themselves.
San Diego Padres right-hander Yu Darvish has acknowledged contacting the Pitching Ninja, Rob Friedman, to help him with his arsenal.
A video on a Japanese baseball account surfaced on Wednesday night that showed Darvish, as a member of the Cubs, revealing how he asked Friedman for video of Cleveland ace Shane Bieber’s knuckle-curve last year.
The account shows the video that Friedman sent Darvish, which focused on Bieber’s release — spiking his index and middle fingers to apply spin on the ball.
Darvish studied the video and applied his findings to his own repertoire.
The right-hander first began using the knuckle-curve in 2019 after learning how to throw it from closer Craig Kimbrel.
In September of last year, Friedman posted a GIF of Darvish throwing Bieber’s knuckle-curve, adding he had confirmation from the source.
Darvish’s 2020 season, despite shortened, was one of the best of his career as he finished with a 2.01 ERA and struck out 93 batters in 76 innings pitched, finishing behind Trevor Bauer in the NL Cy Young Award race.
Per FanGraphs, 25.6% of Darvish’s strikeouts came on a curveball.
Bieber, meanwhile, won the AL Cy Young Award last year with a 1.63 ERA and 122 strikeouts in 77.1 innings pitched, 56.2% of which came on curveballs.
Clearly, there is some magic to the knuckle-curve that they throw.
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