Offspeed
Palmball
An old-school slow ball. You bury the ball deep in your palm and squeeze — the whole hand drains the speed while the arm still looks like a fastball, so it arrives soft and late with a little sink. Trevor Hoffman built a Hall-of-Fame career on his.
The grip
Cradle the ball deep in the palm, wrapping the fingers around it in a C-shape with the closed end of the horseshoe seam against the palm. Squeezing the ball with the whole hand is what kills the speed; the deeper and tighter the grip, the slower the pitch.
What it does
Thrown with identical fastball arm action so it mimics a fastball out of the hand, but the deep palm pressure strips speed through hand pressure rather than spin, arriving noticeably soft with a late, gentle sink. The deception comes from the matching arm action, not the movement.
What it really is
An old-school changeup that deadens speed through deep hand pressure rather than finger snap or spin; it sits in the changeup family alongside the circle and three-finger changes. Trevor Hoffman's palmball-grip changeup is the modern reference.
Who throws itTrevor Hoffman, whose palmball-grip changeup is the modern gold standard and his career out pitch; earlier practitioners include Roy Halladay.
Study this first
The palmball is an old-school member of the changeup family, sitting alongside the circle and three-finger changes. The filed Circle Change is the modern grip that took its place as the default offspeed.
Basic file
This pitch has a sourced one-line grip and movement and an honest explanation, not yet a filed specimen with authored grip geometry and a full craft chapter. A fuller breakdown is coming. Sourced, not corrected.
Others in the offspeed