Does Greinke yell ‘swing’ when he pitches? Solving a frivolous mystery

I would have sworn I heard it.

For more than six months, I thought the idea of it was crazy. Early in spring training, a scout had texted me a wild theory. Zack Greinke grunts while delivering nearly every pitch, but sometimes, this scout was convinced, he would yell, “Swing!” I made a special point to pay extra attention when Greinke threw, but I only heard grunts. “I don’t know, man,” I told the scout. “Just sounds like grunting to me.”

But then earlier this month, in the fifth inning of a game against the Rockies at Coors Field, Greinke threw a change-up below the zone to Rockies catcher Tony Wolters and I heard it. It sounded clear as day to me. I texted the scout to assure him that he’s not crazy. But could anyone else hear it? Or was it just the two of us?

I had to find out.

This was a mystery that could not wait. There were four innings to play – the Diamondbacks actually won this one, 6-3 – but this was important. Why did I want to know so badly? It wasn’t, as the scout wondered, because I thought hitters might find it a cheap tactic. As far as I can tell, there is no rule preventing a pitcher from yelling anything he wants as he throws a pitch. I mostly hoped it was true because it would be really, really funny.

To find out, I needed to hear from hitters. The first thing to do was pull up which hitters have the most history against Greinke. It’s a long list, full of potential witnesses. I scrolled through it, making note of the hitters I knew personally. This guy had 40-something plate appearances, that guy 50-something, another guy in the 30s. Altogether, that would be hundreds of pitches of evidence, not to mention all the grunts and yells they might have heard from the dugout or on the bases. Then, I sent some texts. Surely, someone had heard it before.

“God I hope he does,” replied one hitter who seemingly wanted it to be true as much as I did. “But no.” But then another batter returned a text, and it was much more promising.

“He’s said a few things as the ball is in the air,” the batter texted. “I’m sure ‘swing’ has come up as well. Usually I heard the words knowing he missed his pitch. Sometimes just that would throw me off on a pitch I should’ve hit.”

This was something! Not only had I now established plausibility – he was sure “swing” had come up, after all – I’d also uncovered a potential new motive. If Greinke was yelling “swing” indeed, the most obvious reason was to try to subliminally convince the batter to oblige. But maybe that was the opposite of his purpose. Could Greinke be yelling it to make a hitter hesitate?

I wanted to know more. Had this hitter actually heard “swing” like I did, or was it that he simply wouldn’t be surprised to find out Greinke was yelling it after the fact? I replied, asking what words he’d heard specifically.

I got no response.

I needed to talk to hitters in person. So, for the next two weeks, I wandered into opposing clubhouses armed with an explanation I hoped would be disarming to a bunch of professional athletes who had no idea who I was. “Hi, I’m Zach Buchanan. I cover the Diamondbacks for The Athletic,” I said. “I’m hoping you can help me solve a very stupid mystery…”

Just about everyone I approached was receptive to the idea, even if they couldn’t provide much help. One hitter guessed Greinke probably does yell “swing,” but he admitted he’d never heard it himself. Others had heard plenty of things – mostly cursing when Greinke knew he missed his spot – but never the word I was hoping for. It’s not like they’re up there to have a conversation anyway. “If you can hear it while you’re hitting,” one hitter said, “you’ve got other problems.”

There were split opinions on just how effective such a tactic might be, anyway. One opposing batter thinks Greinke will “grunt when he’s throwing an offspeed pitch to make it seem like he’s throwing a fastball. It’s just mind games.” But would yelling “swing” have any effect? Is there even enough time for that to register? Just about every hitter said no. “It’s not Little League,” another said. “’Hey batter batter swing…’”

I was left with scant evidence, but the absence of evidence is not proof. Even though the hitters hadn’t been able to help me, I’d run into others — broadcasters, visiting team PR officials, folks listening from my vantage point — who’d long been convinced he was saying “swing.” It wasn’t time to give up yet.

It was time to turn to the tape.

Here is the video of the pitch in Colorado that caught my ear. There’s ambient crowd noise and someone chanting “HERE WE GO WOLTERS HERE WE GO!” before Greinke winds up. Then, as he throws the pitch and before you hear the pop of it hitting Jeff Mathis’ glove, you hear a grunt:

You can convince yourself all the elements of “swing” are there. The “s” sound is the faintest, but the “ee” vowel sound is clear. It seems to cut off on a similar consonant, too. It could be “swing,” but it could just as easily be “sling” or “sting” or just plain gibberish. This wasn’t enough to reach a conclusion.

With the help of a YouTube tutorial to augment my rudimentary audio editing skills, I went about cleaning up the audio track. I muffled as much of the background noise as possible, although the pro-Wolters chant remained. Then I boosted the volume just on Greinke’s grunt. This was the result:

All the same sounds. Much louder, but no more distinct. I realized I could go on forever like this and never find the right clip, mixed the right way, to prove that Greinke was yelling “swing” at batters as he threw baseballs to them. If this mystery was to reach a conclusion, I needed to go to the source.

Greinke prefers to talk to the media only after his starts. The way things have been going for the Diamondbacks recently, those games have not created the type of postgame clubhouse atmosphere conducive to posing such a weird question. So, after Greinke dissected his Monday start against the Rockies, I asked if I could bug him a day later about something completely unrelated. He said he’d think about it.

Tuesday, after Greinke did his day-after-starts throwing program, he waved me over. With a good deal of embarrassment, I explained the concept. At last, I was close to an answer. Did he, in fact, yell “swing” when he pitches?

“I’ve never done that.”

Oh. Huh. I guess, uh, never mind.

(Top photo of Zack Greinke by Charles LeClaire/USA Today Sports)