Eddie Kutt’s specialty as a pitcher is changing speeds among his four-pitch repertoire.
That’s all normal among most relievers in baseball. The pitch that Kutt uses to change speeds, however, is anything but common.
The freshman right-hander leans on the rare Vulcan change-up to throw batters off-guard, and it’s helped the Westlake, California, native rise to the top among coach Rob Smith’s bullpen arsenal. Kutt has garnered a flashy 1.93 ERA and leads all Ohio relievers with 18 2/3 innings and 15 strikeouts in 2018.
“A lot of kids in all types, high school and college baseball, they're mostly just hunting fastballs,” Kutt, who throws his fastball just below 90 mph, said. “Having a pitch that you throw 80 percent of the time being an off-speed, which I have with the change-up, it's going to help you change speeds a lot more."
The Vulcan change-up, which tends to move downward as it approaches home plate, is gripped between the middle and ring fingers and received its name from the Vulcan salute used by Spock in the Star Trek series. The pitch is thrown by only a handful of MLB pitchers and varies from the more common three-fingered change-up and four-fingered circle change-up pitches.
But Kutt, who throws the Vulcan change-up just below 80 mph, still stands out from the small batch of pitchers who have mastered the odd grip.
Most pitchers rely on fastballs more than their off-speed or breaking pitches, but Kutt’s Vulcan change-up is his primary weapon of choice when he’s on the mound. Kutt mixes it with a fastball, curveball and cutter to offset the batter’s swing timing.
Kutt, who attended Westlake High School of the Marmonte League, used the pitch to adapt to the advanced offensive talent he found at the high school level.
"(The Marmonte League) is very competitive, so there's a bunch of D1 guys going there,” he said. “I felt like all those guys, if you don't change speeds, they're going to hit everything you have.”
Kutt’s frequency of using the Vulcan change-up varies depending on how frequently he’s used in a series. If it’s his first time against an opponent, he’ll almost exclusively throw the Vulcan change-up and force batters to adjust from the higher frequency of fastballs they likely saw from Ohio’s previous pitcher.
If he’s called to pitch again later in the series, he’ll mix in his other three pitches more frequently to ensure that any batters with a good memory aren’t waiting for the Vulcan change-up.
The intricate formula worked especially well in Ohio’s 9-8 win and series sweep against Towson on March 11. In his second appearance of the three-game series, Kutt ramped up the usage of his other three pitches and threw four scoreless innings to end the game and seal his first collegiate victory.
His performance gave Ohio a chance to come back from its 7-0 deficit after two innings.
“I love having him in our bullpen,” Smith said. “It's a great weapon to have. If you get to the middle part of a game and you're in a position to win that game, it's nice to have someone you can bring in to throw strikes, miss a bat. He's got a couple different ways to get you out.”
Smith said he expects to continue using Kutt at a similar rate from the bullpen as Ohio begins Mid-American Conference play. All of the Bobcats’ remaining weekend series are against MAC opponents, and Ohio will begin the important stretch with a three-game series at Bowling Green next weekend.
“He's done a great job adjusting,” Smith said. “He's been a big bonus to us, and he's certainly a guy that, come conference play, we're going to lean on quite a bit."
