DEAD FISH CURVE:

Kuwata's sushi-ball has the raw material: Pirates' Japanese legend leans on ultra-slow pitch for early success (Dejan Kovacevic, 6/26/07, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Maybe Masumi Kuwata should call it the sushi-ball.

Like the seaweed that wraps the traditional Japanese dish, the pitch rolls unpredictably and not very attractively as it approaches home plate.

Like the varieties of raw fish and rice inside, no one can guess what is coming. [...]

Whatever it is called, the pitch in question, the one Kuwata throws at a tantalizingly slow 66-68 mph, has been the buzz of an otherwise moribund road trip so far for the Pirates. And that is mostly because it is as difficult to describe as it is to hit.

"I think it's a curveball," left fielder Jason Bay said.

"Looks like a changeup to me," first baseman Adam LaRoche said.

Even Heberto Andrade, the team's bullpen catcher who sees more of it than anyone, does not have a definitive answer.

"I know it moves a lot," he said.

And the man himself?

"Maybe it's a slider," Kuwata said, grinning. "No, really, it's just a curveball. I use many pitches, and that is the one that goes the slowest."

How, then, to explain the way it dives into the dirt, as if to corkscrew a subway tunnel? Or how it can have a similar corkscrew effect on the batter?

"Maybe it's the deception," Kuwata said. "Maybe they can't see it."

More likely, observers say, the batter simply cannot adjust.

When Kuwata was in the early -- and brilliant -- stages of his 21-year career with the Yomiuri Giants in Japan, he was a flamethrower, routinely achieving 95-96 mph. He developed a versatile arsenal, as most pitchers there do, but the heat was the thing.

"I used to throw very hard, you know?" Kuwata said. "But I have had too many things happen to me, too many surgeries here and here and here ..."

He pointed to his elbow, shoulder and each of his ankles.

"Now, of course, I do not throw so hard."

His fastball seldom clocks above 86 mph, the speed of many pitchers' sliders. But, when blended with his curveball, slider, changeup and ... sushi-ball, the velocity becomes relative.