What's With Ryan Dempster (Cubs Pitcher) and his Weird Pitching Motion?

[HeyHomie]

I couldn’t find a clip of Ryan Dempster pitching, but here’s a youtube clip of a kid pretending to pitch like him, and he’s pretty spot-on. Notice how he shuffles his glove as he enters the wind-up? That’s what Dempster does, and that’s what I’m asking about. Why would he do that?

[RealityChuck]

Pitchers often have odd quirks in their motion. Most likely, he picked it up as a habit when he started pitching and just continued with it.

[samclem]

This one may fly better in Cafe Society as it’s about sports and many of the more knowledgeable baseball guys tend to see it there.

samclem Moderator, General Questions

[HeyHomie]

@samclem

This one may fly better in Cafe Society as it’s about sports and many of the more knowledgeable baseball guys tend to see it there.

samclem Moderator, General Questions

Well as long as we’re moving threads, maybe it should go in The Game Room?

[Marley23]

@HeyHomie

Well as long as we’re moving threads, maybe it should go in The Game Room?

Holy Cow, it’s a double play! Score it GQ-Cafe Society-The Game Room.

Pitching motions are pretty idiosyncratic and I don’t think you’d find a reason for most of them. It’s just whatever made the pitcher feel good, or whatever he thinks works. But if you’re in need of an explanation, perhaps Dempster thinks the moving glove is a distraction for the batters to take their attention away from the ball.

[Sir_T-Cups]

A Cubs analyst noticed that he was tipping his pitches…batters were figuring out what pitches he was throwing because they could see his fingers (for those not in the know, how you hold a baseball determines a lot of what pitch it is).

So the pitching coaches told him to shuffle his glove like that in order to prevent the other batters from noticing his fingerhold on the ball, the shuffling makes it hard to focus on his hand.

[Omniscient]

@Sir_T-Cups

A Cubs analyst noticed that he was tipping his pitches…batters were figuring out what pitches he was throwing because they could see his fingers (for those not in the know, how you hold a baseball determines a lot of what pitch it is).

So the pitching coaches told him to shuffle his glove like that in order to prevent the other batters from noticing his fingerhold on the ball, the shuffling makes it hard to focus on his hand.

This. Some of it’s just a quirk, like his top tap, that he developed to maintain rhythm, timing and repetition but most of the weird glove stuff is a result of him trying to obscure his grip and establishing his grip late in his wind up.

[Jimmy_Chitwood]

Yep. He apparently started doing it when he moved to closer. He starts every pitch with the same grip, a splitter, weirdly enough, and then switches to whatever he wants to throw, so that the hitter can’t look for a particular motion or position of his hand to indicate what he’s throwing.

From Baseball Prospectus:

Ryan Dempster’s switch from closer to ace starter isn’t unprecedented. What is more surprising is his ability to make the shift while changing his arsenal and mechanics. The most noticeable change is his “twist,” a movement of his hand-in-glove during his motion. Dempster has told Cubs announcer Len Kasper that he starts every pitch with a splitter grip and switches the grip while twisting (or doesn’t). Switching a grip while in motion might seem unusual, but pitchers regularly do this, especially if they rely on pitches that require some effort to grip, such as a splitter or a deep change. While the splitter does often put more pressure on the elbow, due more to the anatomical position of the forearm more than increased stresses of the pitch itself, Dempster has shown no signs of any problems in his heavy usage of the pitch.