I was watching today's game and noticed that McClellan, from the CF view camera, placed the ball in his glove in preparation for his 2-seam grip. When he went quickly after placing his hand in his glove, the pitch was always a 2-seamer. There was only a slight delay for his changeup. When he threw his curve ball, however, the delay was much more pronounced. I'm not sure that there was that much movement in the glove when he changed to the curve ball grip, but he did take considerably more time to throw the curve ball than either the change or the 2-seamer.

I don't know how to create a gif file of McClellan's inning today and the Pirates didn't give any indication that they were reading his pitches, but I could tell as the pitch was thrown what pitch would be thrown. I missed 1 change up thinking it would be a 2-seamer but nailed every curve ball after the first one. If an amateur like me can see that on video, others can as well. For years people have been talking about how good McClellan's curve ball is and it certainly has a lot of bite. But last year, according to fangraphs, last year his curve ball was 4 runs below average for every 100 curve balls thrown. Only Carlos Zambrano, among pitchers with 140+ innings, had a curve ball that was worse last year than McClellan's. That doesn't make any sense.

Since I can't add the video file, I would encourage anyone who has an mlb subscription to go back and watch the 9th inning. Notice how much longer it takes McClellan to throw his curve ball than it does to throw his 2-seamer. The 2-seamer comes out of his glove quickly after his hand goes in. There's a noticeable delay prior to the curve. Watch it and see what you think.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2012_04_22_slnmlb_pitmlb_1&mode=video#gid=2012_04_22_slnmlb_pitmlb_1&mode=wrap