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Seam-Shifted Wakes

aka laminar express

How to Legally Scuff a Baseball: Post 45

Posted on January 30, 2020January 31, 2020 by bartonlsmith

Scuffing a baseball is effective as heck at getting some additional break on your pitch. As shown in our Post 44, and as every experienced pitcher seems to know, the ball moves away from the scuffed side. It breaks quite a lot, as it turns out. But, that is not Continue Reading

Posted In Seam-Shifted Wakes

Disco Ball Changeup Experiment: Post 42

Posted on December 31, 2019January 5, 2020 by bartonlsmith

Background I like to talk about “seam-shifted wake” pitches and I know of two examples, the “laminar express” 2-seamer and the “disco ball changeup.” The best example of the latter that I have seen is Strasburg’s, shown below. As I have noted before, about 10% of his changeups have a Continue Reading

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Seam Shifted Wake Axis: Post 41

Posted on December 30, 2019December 30, 2019 by bartonlsmith

The Seam Shifted Wake requires a special axis, and it is not through a symmetry point like a conventional 2-Seamer. Note that this explanation holds whether the pitch is a “laminar express” 2-seamer or a “disco ball changeup.

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2019 in Review: Post 40

Posted on December 29, 2019December 29, 2019 by bartonlsmith

With 2020 around the corner, I thought I’d step back and look at what we have learned. Just about a year ago, I wrote the questions shown below in italics. Below each question, I will describe my current understanding of that topic. What effects baseball drag? Seam height Center of Continue Reading

Posted In Drag, General, Seam-Shifted Wakes

How Does Pitching Work?: Post 39

Posted on December 21, 2019January 2, 2025 by bartonlsmith

I’d like to have a discussion between various the stakeholders of pitching. The three groups I am thinking of are pitchers, analytics folks, and physicists. I hope no one will complain if I put myself (a Mechanical Engineer) in the last category. This will be mostly (or maybe completely) about Continue Reading

Posted In General, Seam-Shifted Wakes

My APS DFD presentation on the Fluid Dynamics of Seam Shifted Wakes: Post 37

Posted on November 19, 2019November 19, 2019 by bartonlsmith

On Sunday, November 24, 2019 I will present to the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics on “The Baseball Seam: Clever and Capable Passive Flow Control” in Seattle. This is basically a spoken, 10 minute version of our video from Post 34. There is a lot more detail here. Continue Reading

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The Seam Shifted Wake: Post 34

Posted on October 7, 2019October 7, 2019 by bartonlsmith

This is our video entry for the American Physical Society Gallery of Fluid Motion for 2019. As always, If you are new to our measurements, you may take a minute to read here about vorticity (the colors in our plots), boundary layer separation.

Posted In Seam-Shifted Wakes

Live! (recorded) 3D Explanation of Laminar Express: Post 33

Posted on September 21, 2019September 22, 2019 by bartonlsmith

[If you are new to our measurements, you may take a minute to read here about boundary layer separation and wakes] A reader asked some very good questions about my claims, and I’ve attempted to answer these using a ball with a rod shoved through it. Comments, criticisms are welcome. Continue Reading

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Prediction of Flow Pattern of Laminar Express Over a Full Rotation: Post 30

Posted on August 27, 2019August 27, 2019 by bartonlsmith

[If you are new to our measurements, you may take a minute to read here about vorticity (the colors in our plots), boundary layer separation and wakes] We have recently tested some non-spinning MLB balls in orientations that are important to the “Laminar Express” pitch, which is a 2-seam fastball Continue Reading

Posted In Seam-Shifted Wakes

My Latest Thoughts on Laminar Express: Post 29

Posted on August 21, 2019August 21, 2019 by bartonlsmith

I’ve written several times about this pitch, and each of those posts reflected an evolution of my thinking on it based on recent results. Our results continue to get better, and my thinking gets more definitive. So I thought I’d write an update. [If you are new to our measurements, Continue Reading

Posted In Seam-Shifted Wakes

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