Could Homer Bailey be throwing a knuckle-curve?
This picture is from spring training the other day. I posted it on the website and Chris from Redlegnation.com asked what he was throwing and I checked out the grip and honestly couldn't figure it out. I knew Homer threw a 12-6 curve and an 11-5 curve and his change up to go with his 2 fastballs. The fastball is eliminated right away, and that grip doesn't seem like a change up at all. Chris made a post on his site about it and Al, a poster was also curious as to what it was. He took it upon himself to do some research and found out that the grip looks strikingly similar to the one Mike Mussina uses to throw his knuckle-curve. I blacked out Homers body and highlighted the grip he has, then put Mike Mussina in the lower right hand corner demonstrating how he holds his knuckle-curve. Outside of the seam positioning, the two look identical. Chris and I both asked C. Trent Rosencrans of the Cincinnati Post to see what he can find out about this pitch and he said he will try to do so. Hopefully we can find something out about it, it should be interesting.
UPDATE
After asking around I got an answer from a pretty well known minor leaguer about what we are seeing. Here is what he said about the picture:
"I think a lot of fans are confused with the term "knuckle curve," thinking its a different pitch from a traditional curveball. I refer to it as a spiked curveball. Spiking the ball with you index finger allows you to get over the ball better giving you that 12-6 spin. Looks like Homer's grip is a little different but still the same idea. I throw mine the exact same way as the photo of Moose."
So basically what we are looking at is the grip Homer uses on his 12-6 curveball that we all hear so much about.
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