DOWNTOWN –Asked to describe one of the Cardinals top pitching prospect’s unconventional delivery, Quad Cities pitching coach Bryan Eversgerd paused. He took a deep breath. Smiled. Bought time to come up with the words.

“Over the top,” he settled on. Adding: “To the extreme.”

When the Cardinals drafted Rice University righthander Eddie Degerman in the fourth round of last summer’s draft, one of the Cardinals officials involved in the pick described Degerman as a “pie thrower”. A Roger Clemens Award finalist last year after going 13-2 for the Owls, Degerman has a pinwheel delivery that tends to defy description. I’d seen grainy video. I watched him throw a bit in the bullpen last week, but wasn’t able to stay for his start Sunday. That day he was the relieving starter in the Swing’s piggyback system and he earned his first save of the season with four shutout innings.

In  his first 18 innings at Low-A, Degerman has struck out 26 and walked three.  

The deception created by his delivery is a big part of those numbers. But how to describe it. Eversgerd ultimately had the best way to answer the question.

He showed me.

In slo-mo.

Flipping open his laptop, Eversgerd loaded video from  a recent Degerman start and going through it slowly, even stopping the image at several points during his pitch,  the details of the delivery were clear. When his arm is at its highest,  milliseconds before release it’s possible to draw a  straight line from hand,  bisect his body, to his lead foot. That line is perpendicular to the pitching rubber. Not only is it a true 12 o’clock-release, it’s fast. Real fast.

He has the swiftest pitch-to-plate delivery on the Quad Cities team.

But it’s always best to go with the  source. A Q & A with the 23-year-old righty:

DG: I wanted to ask more detailed questions about your delivery and how you developed it or how it started. Has it always been that way?

Degerman: Ever since I can remember, since I was 12 years I’ve been throwing that way. I’m not sure if somebody taught it to me or if I just picked it up, but when I started throwing I just felt comfortable with it. I just kept throwing with it.

DG: Can you describe it? Have you come up with a way to describe it?

ED: I kind of come straight over the top with my arm. Sometimes I even have to bend my body out of the way because it’s so over the top. … I’ve seen some pictures that kind of seem not right with me leaning way over to the side.

DG: So you’re not aware of it being as dramatic as it looks?

ED: To me it feels like a normal throw.

DG: If you threw with a more traditional delivery do you think you’d have has much success?

ED: I’m not sure. I’ve been throwing like this for so long. … I think sometimes it adds a little deception. It’s something you don’t see all the time. I would think it gives a little more break to my curve ball, a different angle and a different end result. Maybe at first a little deception.

DG: How was it last year, the first taste of pro ball?

ED: It was different - playing every day, having to throw every five days instead of every week. That took a little while to get used to. Once you start playing, it’s the same game. It’s fun.

DG:  Do you have a feel for how that deception will work the fourth or fifth time you see a guy? Do you think the deception that your delivery has is something that  hitters will get a read on?

ED: If they see it enough they probably do start to get a read on it. Then it’s just you have to pitch. If people see you a few times, that will give them an advantage because they’ve seen it before.

DG: You throw a curve, the fastball, a changeup and sometimes, I’m told,  people watching the game mistake your curve for the changeup …

ED: I think there have been some games where I haven’t thrown the changeup that much and people think I’m mixing it in. I’m really not. I’m trying to start to mix it in more and feel better with it.

DG: Did anybody ever try to change your delivery?

ED: My first college (UC Irvine) I had a coach, I don’t know if he really liked what I was doing. He had me try submarine sometimes.

DG: Really? The exact opposite?

ED: Yeah. Yeah. He thought it might be more natural for me. I didn’t really pitch there so it really wasn’t an issue.

DG: When you try to throw submarine that has got to feel bizarre, even unnatural to you after throwing so far over the top …

ED: No it wasn’t too bad. I would do both then. That was a little weird. It was only for that one fall because my coaches at Ricce didn’t try to change me at all. They just let me do my thing. It was only the one year.

DG: How did that work against hitters when you would switch between deliveries?

ED: It worked out. The submarine worked better against righties. Lefties would kind of have a big view of it. It was OK. It was not something that I wanted to keep doing. I only threw fastball, changeup from down there. I didn’t mess with the breaking ball.

DG: Even as a youth — nobody tried to tinker with the delivery?

ED: Never really happened. I was usually getting people out at that age. I guess they decided not to mess with what was working.

DG: If you played a position in high school or earlier did you throw that way?

ED: I played outfield, so I guess I might have thrown that way. I never really thought about it. Now, I’m trying to throw just my pitches like that. Everything else I’m trying to throw at a lower angle. Throws to bases. I’ve been working on that in (pitchers fielding practice).

DG:  In college, would you go over the top even on those throws to first?

ED: Yeah. I can’t tell you what it was like for my teammates to field it.

DG: I’ve heard your delivery described as “pie-throwing”. What are some of the descriptions you’ve heard?

ED: I’ve heard “Iron Mike”, like those pitching machines.

DG: That’s pretty good.

ED: Yeah. That’s the one I hear the most.

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