Submarine (baseball)

In baseball, a submarine is a pitch in which the ball is released often just above the ground, but not underhanded, with the torso bent at a right angle, and shoulders tilted so severely that they rotate around a nearly horizontal axis.

This is in stark contrast to the underhand softball pitch in which the torso remains upright, the shoulders are level, and the hips do not rotate.

Gravity plays a significant role, for the submariner's ball must be thrown considerably above the strike zone,[1] after which it drops rapidly back through.

Past major league submariners include Carl Mays, Ted Abernathy, Elden Auker, Chad Bradford, Mark Eichhorn, Gene Garber, Kent Tekulve, Todd Frohwirth, and Dan Quisenberry.

Watanabe has an even lower release point than the typical submarine pitcher, dropping his pivot knee so low that it scrapes the ground.