The Curveball Is Getting Thrown, Well, a Curveball

Curveballs have been thrown a curve by a modern baseball game that apparently values velocity over variety, disappearing from the major leagues by more than 20,000 annually. "You don't really see a lot of people throwing 12-6 curveballs anymore," Tampa Bay pitcher Shane Baz says, per the AP. "They'd rather have a hard cutter/slider. It's a lot easier for guys to throw a sweeper."

• Stats: The Athletics, for example, have thrown curves on just 2.5% of their pitches this season. Meanwhile, the overall big-league figure dropped from 10.7% in 2019 to 8.1% last year, the lowest since MLB starting tracking in 2008, before rising slightly to 8.5% this season. There were 22,962 fewer curveballs in 2024 than five years earlier.

• History: Hall of Famer Candy Cummings, a 145-game winner, is credited with inventing the curveball in 1863 when he was 14, discovering the movement when he threw seashells into the Atlantic Ocean. Some attribute the curve to amateur pitcher Fred Goldsmith in 1870. With an average velocity of 80.2mph, curves are the slowest and loopiest of breaking pitches, often disrupting the timing of batters set for smoke. The phrase "thrown a curveball" has become part of the English language.
• Leaders: Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan were consummate curveballers, and today, Charlie Morton of the Baltimore Orioles ranks first in the league in terms of curveballs thrown, at 39%, among players who've thrown at least 1,000 pitches this season. The 41-year-old right-hander says he learned to throw a hook from his dad: "You basically throw it like you're rethrowing a knife."
• No. 1 curveball team: Pitchers on the Colorado Rockies throw curves the most often at 15.6%, though it doesn't seem to be helping them: The team had a 22-74 record as of Monday and was on track for the post-1900 record for losses.
• Fast, hard throws: That's what's supplanting curveballs, with the average four-seam fastball velocity a record 94.4mph this season, up from 91.9mph when MLB started tracking in 2008. "That's just how the game is trending: to throw it as hard as you can, spin it the best you can, and hope the hitter doesn't hit it," Athletics pitching coach Scott Emerson says.

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