A New Season, A New Grip?

With my other blog, I had an opportunity to have a productive discussion on Chen's changeup grips with few very knowledgeable baseball bloggers.


Obviously I was younger, the debate was a bit more intensified, the oppositions argued that Chen threw a split-changeup instead of a splitter.

The fact is that Chen has at least alternated two or more changeup grips over the course of his career:

A grip with small gap between middle, ring and pinky finger

A more traditional changeup  

Base on the an interview in early 2015, Chen also has added a palmball grip to his changeup collection.

I still consider following screenshot more as a split-like pitch unless proven otherwise:

A split-like or forkball grip in Chen's early career

I don't know if it's just me, but I find more similarity between last two grips in comparison to any other changeup grips I have shown.