Chapter 20
20. The Pitching Design Is Taking Shape
Lexington Swords’ indoor training facility.
Josh lightly tapped his mitt and looked at Seo Ji-tae on the mound.
“Another thirty-pitch session?”
“Today I’ll add around ten more.”
“What happened? Suddenly working yourself to death?”
Josh looked genuinely shocked that Seo Ji-tae planned to throw ten extra pitches.
A sixteen-year-old Asian rookie who had not even made his first official Single-A start.
The special treatment from the organization somehow bothered him.
Josh had dominated college baseball before moving up.
He had pride too.
And as the older catcher, he felt responsible for teaching the rookie at least a little humility.
Also, his pitching design is slightly incomplete.
Josh cleared his throat.
“Your left-handed stuff is good. As a reliever or closer. But for a starter, it’s simple. Something is missing.”
“What?”
Seo Ji-tae asked casually while touching the rosin bag.
“Horizontal movement. You don’t have a pitch that really tears across the plate. Once you reach High-A, hitters will sit on the top and bottom of the zone. Without a horizontal weapon, they’ll eventually read the timing no matter how hard you throw.”
That was correct.
Seo Ji-tae’s design only worked vertically.
He had no pitch that deceived the bat horizontally.
Josh proudly waited for Seo Ji-tae’s reaction.
How about that? Not easy to notice immediately.
He expected Seo Ji-tae to be surprised.
Seo Ji-tae looked bored.
“I know.”
“Huh? You knew?”
Josh’s shoulders dropped awkwardly.
Seo Ji-tae smirked.
“That’s why I’m throwing ten extra today. I need to develop it before I get called up to the Majors.”
“…So that’s why.”
Josh looked disappointed.
He had been proud of noticing something Seo Ji-tae had already understood.
“Good timing. This is it.”
Seo Ji-tae changed his grip.
He pressed his index and middle fingers close beside the seams.
It was completely different from a normal slider grip.
A special variation designed to maximize horizontal spin.
“I’ve never seen that grip. If it moves sideways, isn’t it just a slider?”
“I’m making something.”
“A rookie creating a new pitch? You dream big.”
“Baseball pitches are all variations of older pitches anyway.”
“Can’t argue with that. Just throw.”
It was time to show the new pitch.
Seo Ji-tae raised his leg high.
Then his left arm came forward from the three-quarter slot.
His arm whipped.
The baseball traveled honestly toward Josh’s chest.
At first, the tunnel overlapped almost perfectly with his fastball.
What? You said breaking ball.
Josh became confused.
Then something strange happened right before home plate.
The baseball completely left the normal fastball path.
It curved sharply toward the right.
And not slightly.
It broke so far sideways that it almost looked ridiculous.
It swept horizontally like a broom across a floor.
A breaking ball designed to torment right-handed hitters away.
“That’s huge movement!”
Josh’s mitt hurried to the right.
The ball barely touched the edge of his glove.
Josh stared into the mitt.
“…What kind of slider is that? And you’re getting this path from the left side?”
In 2012, baseball did not yet have the correct word for movement like this.
It simply looked like an extremely unusual slider with abnormal horizontal break from a left-handed three-quarter pitcher.
Josh swallowed.
“Why does the ball suddenly escape sideways? It isn’t a slurve, and it isn’t a flat curve either.”
Seo Ji-tae shrugged.
“It’ll be more fun once it’s complete.”
“You’re going to use that in a game right now?”
“No. The spin efficiency is still unstable. If it flattens and leaks toward the middle, it’ll go over the fence.”
Seo Ji-tae took the ball again and lightly loosened his fingers.
“But I have to keep practicing it. I need it ready for the perfect moment when the Major League call-up order comes.”
“Still saying that? Get to Double-A first.”
“Josh.”
The playfulness disappeared from Seo Ji-tae’s eyes.
What replaced it was obsession.
The pressure did not feel like something coming from a child.
“What?”
“I’m obviously going. Don’t think I’m joking. Are you planning to stay in Single-A forever?”
“…”
Josh could not answer.
Seo Ji-tae was not joking.
He seriously aimed for Major League Baseball.
I judged him wrong.
He was more serious and ruthless than expected.
Josh silently adjusted his mitt.
No matter what the sixteen-year-old rookie said, Josh was also a baseball player.
He wanted the Majors too.
“Throw it again.”
At Josh’s request, Seo Ji-tae moved again.
Forty pitches.
That ended the bullpen session.
As usual, Seo Ji-tae went straight into individual training.
But Josh’s suffering was not over.
Before an away game against Greenville South, Seo Ji-tae called him aside.
“This time I’m pitching right-handed.”
“Right-handed? What nonsense are you talking about? You’re left-handed.”
“No, both. You should catch it beforehand so the next game is easier.”
“…?”
Josh’s understanding of baseball was being destroyed.
Before regression, Seo Ji-tae’s main arm had been his right.
More accurately, his left had originally been his main arm, but overuse destroyed it, forcing him to switch.
That meant Seo Ji-tae had spent more than ten years pitching only right-handed.
Honestly, the right arm is what I’m most confident in.
The left arm carried wild potential and continued development.
The right carried experience and mastery.
A strange balance.
But Korean high school baseball and rookie ball had been easy enough to dominate with the wild left arm.
Now in Single-A, he needed to test the right.
First, Seo Ji-tae had to convince his catcher.
“Right-handed? You’re left-handed, and now you’re saying right-handed too? Is this a joke?”
“Submarine pitching is already hard to hit the first time. Same as my left. Let’s be aggressive. But instead of overpowering hitters with only fastballs, you can use more tricks if you want. I give you permission.”
“What permission? I told you I’m calling the pitches.”
Josh became angry.
He was already shocked by the sudden right-handed claim.
He also thought the new form would not work at this level.
Seo Ji-tae was certain it would.
They traveled several hours by bus to Fluor Park for the road game.
Lexington was getting beaten badly from the early innings.
When the sixth began, the manager stood.
The game was already nearly lost.
He looked at Seo Ji-tae.
