팜볼, Palmball

구종의 한 종류. 기본 원리는 너클볼과 비슷하며, 손바닥 전체로 쥐고 회전을 억제하여 던지는 공이다. 너클볼과는 달리, 횡적 변화는 거의 없으며 위로 솟아오르다가 정점에서 꺼지는 이른바 포물선 궤적을 그린다. 커브볼과 비슷한 느낌으로 봐도 좋다. 구속은 체인지업 정도로 느린 편이며, 궤적은 이퓨스볼과 닮았으나, 속도는 좀 더 빠른 느낌이다. 다른 변화구에 비해 변화가 매우 빨리 일어나서 타자들이 구분하기가 상대적으로 쉽지만 특유의 낙차 덕에 범타 유도에 유리하다. 새끼손가락과 엄지 사이에 공을 넣고 포크볼 방식으로 구사하는데, 포크볼도 회전수를 줄여서 던지는 공인걸 생각하면 그립만 다를 뿐이지, 이쪽도 매커니즘은 비슷한 셈이다.

한줄로 요약하자면 너클볼처럼 회전수는 거의 없으며 체인지업처럼 속도가 느리며 커브처럼 떨어진다. 이 세 변화구의 특성을 모두 갖는다는 뜻.

체인지업과 비교하면 변화가 더 크다는 것 외에는 단점이 더 많아서 현재는 사장되고 있는 구종이다. 그러나 체인지업이 패스트볼처럼 보이면서 느리다는 점이 강점이라면, 팜볼은 오프스피드 피치로서의 강점 외에도 큰 낙차로 타자들을 당혹케 하는 구종으로서도 활용할 방도가 있기에 여전히 쏠쏠하게 잘 쓰는 투수들이 나타나고는 한다.

엄밀하게 팜볼이 사장되었다고 말하기도 뭐한 것이 애당초에 사용하는 투수들이 매우 드문 구종이기 때문이다. 트레버 호프먼이 왜 그렇게 힘들게 도니 엘리엇한테서 팜볼을 익혀왔겠는가. 또한 트레버 호프먼 이전이나 이후 누가 팜볼로 유명한가? 영문판 위키피디아에도 20명 이하로 적혀있는 짤막한 목록이 전부이다. 잘 써먹은 트레버 호프먼이 대단한 거지, 보여주기 정도로도 구사할 수 있는 투수 자체가 씨가 말라서 다른 구종에 밀려날 일 자체가 없었다는 얘기. 즉 원래도 사용자가 드문 매우 마이너한 구종이다.

 

 

 

 

A type of ball type. The basic principle is similar to a knuckle ball, a ball held with the entire palm of the hand and thrown by suppressing rotation. Unlike knuckle balls, there is little lateral change, and it draws a so-called parabolic trajectory that rises upward and then goes out at the peak. It can be seen as similar to a curve ball. The speed is slow enough to change up, and the trajectory resembles an ifus ball, but the speed is a little faster. Changes occur very quickly compared to other breaking balls, making it relatively easy for batters to distinguish, but the unique drop is advantageous for inducing hitters. The ball is placed between the pinky and the thumb, and the fork ball is used in a fork ball method, but the mechanism is similar to this one, considering that the ball is thrown by reducing the number of revolutions.

To sum up in one line, the ball has few rotations like knuckle balls, and is as slow as change-up and drops like a curve. This means that the ball has all the characteristics of the three breaking balls.

Compared to the change-up, there are more disadvantages than the change that is greater, so it is currently being lost. However, if the strength of the change-up is that it is slow and looks like a fastball, there are still pitchers who use palm balls well because there are ways to use them as a pitch type that embarrass batters with a big drop in addition to their strength as an off-speed pitch.

Strictly speaking, the Pambol is dead because pitchers used in the first place are very rare. Why did Trevor Hoffman learn the Pambol from Donnie Elliott so hard? Also, who is famous for Pambol before and after Trevor Hoffman? There is only a short list of 20 or fewer players on the English version of Wikipedia. Trevor Hoffman is amazing, because the pitcher himself can be used to show off his skills and skills never gets pushed out by other pitchers. In other words, he is a very minor pitcher who is rare in the first place.