Meet Daniel Norris' New Changeup

It takes some pitchers years to learn, develop and master the art of an effective changeup. Incredibly, Daniel Norris has done it in less than a week.

John Lott of the National Post has a great piece detailing the latest weapon in Norris’ arsenal, and it seems like a secondary changeup was just casually weaved into his repertoire. This new changeup is designed to induce swings off the plate from right-handers.

The pitch might only be in its infancy, but it’s already working well. Daniel Norris’ new changeup was on full display versus the Baltimore Orioles yesterday, as he fanned seven batters in total and at times made hitters look downright silly.

Norris now has 21 K’s through Spring Training, which is the second most among all pitchers (Max Scherzer has 23).

After the jump, check out GIFs of Daniel Norris’ brand new changeup in action against the Orioles.

Versus Adam Jones

This is Adam Jones’ attempt at hitting Daniel Norris’ changeup, and not only does Jones miss by a landslide, but Norris actually bounced the pitch off home plate.

Versus Manny Machado

Here’s Manny Machado’s encounter with Daniel Norris’ changeup, and he doesn’t fare much better than Adam Jones did. To a right-hander, this is such a deceptive pitch; it appears that it’s going to break into the strike zone, but then it just dies in the batter’s box.

Versus Adam Jones … Again

No, this is not the same GIF as two above, but it’s nearly a mirror image of what occurred. This time, Norris didn’t bounce the pitch off home plate, but Jones waved at it far outside the zone nonetheless.

Versus Chris Davis and J.J. Hardy

And just for fun … this is Daniel Norris’ famous curveball, which evidenced by the GIF had equal effectiveness against both left-handers and right-handers. This is one pitch that’s going to carve up a lot of AL East hitters this year.

Image via Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports