Baseball fans: What exactly is a changeup? How is it different from a breaking ball?
I’m a little embarassed to ask this question as I’ve been a baseball fan all my life!
Okay….
The difference is in the throwing mechanics and the action of the ball.
A breaking ball is a general term for any pitch where the ball has movement. A curveball and slider are both breaking balls. For a curve the movement is typically down and for a slider it is to the the side.
A change up is when you make the same pitching motion as a fast ball, but due to the grip, the ball travels much slower (i.e. fastball might be 90 mph, a change up is 75 mph). It throws the timing of the batter off.
A change up is a fast ball, straight and no movement, except it is slower
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Okay….
The difference is in the throwing mechanics and the action of the ball.
A breaking ball is a general term for any pitch where the ball has movement. A curveball and slider are both breaking balls. For a curve the movement is typically down and for a slider it is to the the side.
A change up is when you make the same pitching motion as a fast ball, but due to the grip, the ball travels much slower (i.e. fastball might be 90 mph, a change up is 75 mph). It throws the timing of the batter off.
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Some old timers used to call it a change of pace, which is less confusing than change up.When I was a young kid I thought that meant the ball would rise.The other guys were right about the mechanics. THANKS TO THE ARSE HOLE THAT GAVE ME A THUMBS DOWN FOR ANSWERING YOUR DAMN QUESTION.
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a breaking ball is made to catch the batter off balance as the changeup does but the changeup mainly moves down without much other movement. unlike the breaking ball which has to be thrown with a breaking of the wrist the changeup’s grip does all the work. the pitcher throws the changeup as he would throw a fastball just changes the grip, but doesnt add spin of andy kind to the ball. to the batter the pitch looks like and ordinary fastball but is a lot slower it may decrease about 10 MPH. so the hitter is on his front foot and has no power left in his swing.
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Pitcher
Breaking ball, like mentioned earlier, is usually a curveball, slurve, or slider. A curveball’s break is often referred to as 12-6 meaning they break down like the hours on a clock. A slider is slight drop in speed, depending the mechanics and wrist action. It swoops more across the strike zone with a few inches of drop. Slurve is mixture of the two. Usually breaks at 2-8 angle(hours on a clock). Change ups often have a down in and in action to a right handed hitter if it is a right handed pitcher. Vica versa from the left side. It’s usually a circle change, meaning the index finger and the thumb are shaped into a circle and the ball gripped in the palm. The more the ball is in the fingers the greater the movement. A ball deep in the palm knocks off more speed.Most of the time, anything other than the fastball is referred to as off-speed pitches. Technically, I consider a change-up a breaking ball.
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personal experience
A breaking ball will curve depending on your release point, for instance a 12 to 6 curve has a downward movement, 11 to 7 (slurve) and then a you have a slider. A change up is not a fastball, if gripped and released correctly you can have downward movement (almost like a splitter) or the ball can run much like a 2 seam fastball from a righty.
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I feel bit embarrassed to ask these questions too….I’m not very good with types of pitches. But, to put it easily, a changeup looks like it’s going to be a fastball to the batter, due to the grip, etc., but really it’s much slower than one.
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The difference lies in the break of the pitches, the way you grip the pitch and the slot out of which you throw it. You throw a changeup out of the same slot as your fastball but with less speed. you usually throw the curve out of a three quarter slot. a curveball usually moves from one side to the other in at a 70 degree angle. the changeup moves up and down like a splitter. the grip is also different. the curveball is typically held with you’re index and middle finger touching on the lace. the changeup is usually thrown in a circle change grip using you’re thumb and index finger to make a circle on the side of the ball. also when you throw a curveball you tend to snap your wrist in order to create movement.
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My Cousin was the pitching coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks and two time world series champ. AKA: Bob Welch.
There are many good answers posted already. I will add this:
Many change-ups break, some even quite bit. Trevor Hoffman and Greg Maddux are good examples of this. The difference between a change-up and "breaking ball" is really that the idea of a change-up is to make the hitter think a fastball is coming, thereby disrupting his timing. So the only difference between a fastball and a change is the grip. For it to be effective, a change-up has to look exactly like a fastball when released. It has to have the same arm-speed, spin and arm-slot. I cannot overly stress the importance of this, especially the arm speed.
Curve-balls and sliders have an obviously different grip, come from a slightly different arm-slot and have a very noticeably different spin. Pro batters can see this, especially the spin. That is why you can "sit on" a curve ball, but a good change can make even the best hitters of all time look silly.
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player and coach