There is no doubt that inspiration comes from different and sometimes unpredictable sources, just as ‘no one knows who they are working for’, as the saying goes.
Proof of this is the young San Diego Padres pitcher Michael King, who is enjoying a good time with the Southern California team in this course that is just beginning
Copy and improve, the key to Michael King
The secret of the serpentine is no longer so secret, as he himself revealed in recent hours that a stellar pitch in his repertoire is owed to Trevor Bauer, the pitcher who spent two seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers before moving to Japan and Mexico, from whom he copied his sweeper and improved it with a grip that has worked very well for him.
The Cy Young winner is the inspiration for the 29-year-old pitcher who is ‘breaking out’ with the San Diego Padres this season. And he explained to SlabLab how he has improved his famous sweeper: “I actually twist my middle finger; you can almost see how much thicker it is. This was an idea from Trevor Bauer when he was with the Dodgers. I read that he wanted the ball to only be able to escape through one zone and therefore not have the sweeper lag,” he said.
The grip can make the difference and King demonstrates this very well, as he explains that in this particular pitch it gives really outstanding results: “For me, with my middle finger spinning and being on the outside of the ball, I was never going to delay it. I was never going to get underneath and let it spin to the arm side. So now, most of my mistakes are in the left-handed batter’s box, with which I’m not going to suffer any damage.”
King, a pitcher to watch this season
The Padres starter, who made his debut in 2019 with the New York Yankees, has become one of the pitchers to watch this season, in which he already stands out as one of the best thanks to his repertoire in which he also includes another resource that is almost infallible and which he himself describes as one of his favorites, the front hip sinker: “A well-executed front hip sinker is the best pitch there is,” said King, who boasts 31 strikeouts and a 2.57 ERA this season.
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