default-cbs-image

What you're about to see is a Johnny Cueto changeup from way back yonder on April 26. Why is the author waiting until this late hour to draw it to your attention? His tardiness is owing to the fact that the Internet conspired to keep it from him until very recently.

Anyhow, in the course of that 11-strikeout, shutout performance against the Padres, the Giants' right-hander presented Adam Rosales with a two-strike, 84-mph changeup, at which Mr. Rosales flailed and missed. You are about to witness said changeup. If you who are reading this are not a major-league hitter but are somehow under the impression that you could hit major-league pitching, then the following color-television footage should disabuse you of those notions ...

And the people of baseball gasp as one. We know how well Cueto hides the ball and throws off the hitter's timing with his boogie-music delivery, but then you get that filth. It looks just like the fastball out of the hand -- coming at you in the same "tunnel" -- but then it dives just before it reaches the plate. Filth. Filth, I say. Also note that that's a somewhat unconventional righty-on-righty changeup (something Cueto isn't averse to using). That's one of two changeups on which Rosales whiffed in this particular game.

The larger point is that when you're asked whether you could hit a Johnny Cueto changeup -- and it's a matter of time until you're asked this very question in a public forum -- you should be honest with yourself and others say, "LOL, no."