[KChiefs1]

Originally Posted by Wilson8

Shamelessly stolen from a Royals related web site.

Starting pitchers (5) - Kris Bubic, Danny Duffy, Brad Keller Mike Minor, and Brady Singer
Trying to get there - Jackson Kowar, Asa Lacy, Daniel Lynch, and Ervin Santana

Relievers (8) - Scott Barlow, Jesse Hahn, Greg Holland, Jakob Junis, Josh Staumont, and Kyle Zimmer

Trying to make it - Scott Blewett, Ronald Bolaños, Wade Davis, Carlos Hernández, Richard Lovelady, Jake Newberry, Carlos Sanabria, Eric Skoglund, Gabe Speier, Daniel Tillo, Angel Zerpa, and Tyler Zuber

NEW — Jakob Junis showed up to Royals spring training with a totally new arsenal.

His 23-year-old brother, Noah, is to thank.

A story about baseball's fragility, pitching development and two brothers who love what they do:https://t.co/5Jtxv2ehye pic.twitter.com/YYbcV1w0uU

— Alec Lewis (@alec_lewis) February 25, 2021

Jakob, 28, has long been a mostly one-trick pony, dominating hitters at times with his slider. He threw it 46.2 percent of the time last season, according to Brooks Baseball, making it by far his most-used pitch. He knew he’d need something more in his arsenal to progress, to remain in the big leagues, to help the Royals win games. So he set out to develop a new pitch. It turns out, he developed two: In pursuit of that cutter, they stumbled across a promising change-up as well.

His 23-year-old brother’s ingenuity made this possible. Because while Jakob was trying to make his way as a pitcher, his little brother was quietly shooting up the ranks as a pitching coach.

“How much he’s helped me,” Jakob said of Noah, “is truly a blessing.”

Noah stayed at Jakob’s house for the first month, and Jakob entrusted him with his pitching development in full. The younger brother wrote out the older’s baseball-specific workouts. As Jakob started to ramp up his throwing, Noah and Jakob together refined Jakob’s mechanics. Jakob shortened his arm action, becoming more efficient. They also streamlined Jakob’s lower-body movement. Then they started talking about specific pitches.

First, Jakob had to find his slider, which, well, wasn’t too difficult after all. In 2018, Jakob’s slider averaged 82.2 mph. In 2019, it averaged 82.4. In 2020, it averaged 80.1. Quite simply: Jakob just needed to throw the pitch harder. That, combined with Jakob’s move toward the middle of the rubber, opened the pitch back up for business.

Then came the cutter. Royals pitching coach Cal Eldred had long thought Jakob to be a candidate to throw the pitch. Jakob had tried it in the past, messing with grips, but rather than spinning toward his glove side, the pitch would run away similar to a two-seamer.

Dude, this is ridiculous, Jakob would say. I can’t throw this.

Jakob told Noah the backstory, and Noah agreed with Eldred: Jakob being able to throw a cutter made sense. Why? Jakob’s slider has been his bread and butter, and the cutter is thrown from a similar wrist position. So Jakob tried to throw the pitch, trying out different grips. One day, he threw a couple of good ones — but at 83 mph. He knew it needed to be faster. But behind him, observing information from the Rapsodo pitch-tracking technology, Noah was excited.

“The shape was there,” Noah said. “He was getting a feel for it, and the spin efficiency and horizontal release angle led me to believe there was more in there.”

Noah was right. Weeks later, as Jakob started to ramp up, the cutter velocity jumped to 88 mph and 89 mph. It was a success, but not the only one. Jakob and Noah had also talked about a change-up grip he had once used in a game against the New York Yankees. Jakob threw an off-speed pitch that moved so much it ran into the handle of Giancarlo Stanton’s bat, resulting in a popup toward second base. Problem was, the next time Jakob tried throwing the pitch, it moved the wrong way. So he threw the grip away.

Developing a change-up had always been difficult because Jakob supinates his wrist (turns it to where his thumb ends upward) as opposed to pronates (thumb ends downward). Noah knew that for the pitch to work, the seams on the baseball had to be oriented just right. He suggested Jakob try the grip again. He did. The pitch worked. They would troubleshoot it consistently, and Jakob started to get a feel.

“It’s just purely a grip thing,” Noah said. “He had to get a little more behind it to get those seams in the right spots to where it takes off and catches that laminar flow.”