There was a point in my blogging life in which I was infatuated with pitching mechanics. I stumbled upon the now-defunct SB Nation blog Driveline Mechanics thinking it was a scouting-type site. It wasn’t — not in the way I was hoping, anyway — but I was intrigued and quickly became a fan of featured writer Kyle Boddy. From there I devoured much of what was available on Chris O’Leary’s site. For those of you that have been reading for awhile, this was the stretch where the “Inverted W” and the timing flaw associated with it made regular appearances in my posts.
At some point I started drifting away from the biomechanics scene. I believed that there was a lot to what I had learned, but the differences between one human being and the next made it a frustrating study. Not all ligaments, muscles and bones are created equal. Two pitchers with the same “bad” mechanics might have very different results health-wise given their genetics, just as a pitcher with “good” mechanics could still break down. There were — are — some interesting trends out there but at some point I decided to focus my attention elsewhere.
A March 2009 post titled “Stephen Strasburg & Drafting Bad Mechanics” is one of the most popular posts in this site’s history thanks to a high Google ranking in what has become a hot topic. The pictures in the post have been lost, but you can still get the gist. I wrote about Strasburg’s inverted W and boldly proclaimed:
It’s all a gamble. Chances are, Strasburg isn’t going to spend much time in the minor leagues, much like Lincecum (63 IP), David Price (109 IP), Mark Prior (~60 IP originally) and other advanced pitching prospects. The faster he gets to the bigs the more you get out of him before he inevitably blows out his elbow, but there is no way of knowing how long a guy with sketchy mechanics will last. Some will get through several hundred innings before getting hurt– perhaps even making it 6 seasons to free agency– while others will hurt themselves in their first professional season.
Indeed, Strasburg did blow out his elbow in his first professional season. This post isn’t a platform for me to pat myself on the back, however; I’m actually a little bit self conscious of that phase being archived for all eternity given my own uncertainty and frustration in that area of study. I bring it up because Tom Verducci has now brought Strasburg’s supposed bad mechanics to the masses in an article titled “Mechanical flaw will be red flag for Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg“.
The answer to why Strasburg blew out — and why his future is a risky one — may lie in his mechanics. Several pitching coaches quietly predicted Strasburg was at risk before he broke down. He will continue to bear risky loads on his elbow and shoulder unless he changes the way he throws.
To understand the danger of the glitch, first you must understand the most critical point of a pitcher’s delivery. The pitching motion is a kinetic chain of events, carefully calibrated and timed, like a Formula One car’s engine, for maximum efficiency. But above all others one link of the chain is most important: the “late cocking phase,” or the phase during which the shoulder reaches its maximum external rotation with the baseball raised in the “loaded” position (typically, above the shoulder) and ready to come forward.
Verducci goes on to further describe the “glitch” and Strasburg’s motion, noting that his elbow raises above his shoulder which disallows his arm to rotate around before his lead foot plants. It’s the same stuff I was trying to push onto you back then. A lot of the stuff in there reads like it comes directly from O’Leary’s site though he is not mentioned in the article by name (I suspect he could be the “leader in the field of pitching biomechanics” Verducci quotes, however).
The Nationals didn’t express any concern over Strasburg’s mechanics when Verducci spoke with them. Instead, they are planning on changing his approach. They want him to throw fewer changeups and curveballs and instead employ a two-seamer-heavy mix. Whether this will help or not, it will be interesting to see what it means for Strasburg’s performance. That’s a post for another day (and, possibly, another website and writer).
Verducci was apparently convinced by his research enough that he believes Strasburg should change his mechanics now to avoid future injuries. I don’t necessarily disagree, but I worry that trying to reverse years and muscle memory while working around a Major League calendar could actually lead to an injury. Then again, pitchers make mechanical tweaks every offseason.
Also, while health should be the most important thing — ballplayers are people, after all — it’s worth noting that a Strasburg with new mechanics probably isn’t the Strasburg that took the nation by storm. That Strasburg might not be worth the first pick in the draft or the record signing bonus he received.
Strasburg aside, I wonder if this mainstream article could cause more people to take an interest in this area of study. Many words have been written about the Verducci Effect, so maybe this is next. What could that bring?
Verducci buying in could be enough, I suppose, but it’s this bit that could really catch people’s attention:
How important is this specific timing? I spoke with a key decision maker for one club last week who, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said his club will not consider any pitcher — by draft, trade or free agency — who does not have the baseball in the loaded position at the time of foot strike.
As you might have figured from the title, my March ’09 post wondered how front offices view mechanical analysis that strays from the tradition “fluid” versus “herky-jerky”. Here ya go.
Bloggers and forum users love to “help” out their teams. This could be all they need to start pouring through the material put out by guys like O’Leary, Boddy, Trip Somers and others.
I won’t be out to lead the charge this time around, but I’m definitely interested in seeing how many Verducci can convince to study this stuff and what it does for the science.
Check out the aforementioned Kyle Boddy’s quick take on the article at his new residence. Kyle’s been a friend to Pro Ball NW for a while now and really knows his stuff. For those of you Seattleites who play ball or have kids that do be sure to check out his training services.
Original Story:
http://www.proballnw.com/03-2011/step...
