THT: Buchholz vs. Kennedy

No-hit wonder Clay Buchholz or Ian Kennedy? Whom would you rather have? Let’s use video and try to answer this question…

Here’s the link to the article at THT

“Different ways to attack hitters. Similar success so far in their careers.

THT: Jake Peavy’s Max Effort Mechanics

Here's the link to the article at THT.

".....Peavy is a max-effort pitcher with high risk/high reward mechanics....."

THT- The 2007 Draft Awards

The draft’s winners and losers plus awards such as “best mechanics” and “best swing.” Who were this year’s worst picks? Here’s the link

“What else can I say? Excellent arm action, very good tempo, smooth yet aggressive. Firms up the front side very well. TINSTAPP and all, but Porcello’s mechanics are just phenomenal.”

Edwar Ramirez: Selling the Changeup

I don't care who you are, what your mechanics look like and what pitches you throw. Check out Edwar Ramirez's stats this year in the minors. Here's the link to his stats for his minor league career.

Let me give you a brief rundown of his statistical performance:

2007: 56 2/3 IP, 26 H, 22 BB, 102 K's, 0.79 ERA...over 16 K's/9 between AA and AAA
2006: 56 IP, 93 K's, ridiculous numbers (indy ball and High-A)

After a successful debut where he struck out the side, he got lit up (after a long time between appearances) in the appearance before he got sent down last time. Now that he's back up in the bigs, I thought the timing was right for this piece.

Ordinarily, you would expect someone who puts up strikeout numbers like this to have an overpowering fastball and some nasty slider/splitter kinda pitch. Well, Edwar Ramirez doesn't have an overpowering fastball or a killer slider. What he does throw is one of the best changeups in all of baseball. Not only does it have good movement and speed differential from his fastball, but what he does best is that he "sells" his changeup.

I have done a…Read More ...

THT: Chamberlain or Hughes-Who has the better mechanics?

“...right now, from a mechanical efficiency point-of-view, the choice is clear.”

Here’s the link to the article at The Hardball Times:
Joba vs. Phil

THT-The Four Greatest HR hitters of Alltime

What can we learn from the powerful swings of Ruth, Aaron, Barry and A-Rod? Here’s the link to the article at THT.

“And although Aaron and Ruth belong to different eras and competed under different circumstances, we stand to learn a lot from analyzing their powerful swings.:

Carlos Beltran- A quick Study of His Swing

My biggest influences when it comes to understanding what a good swing looks like (and hitting in general) are Jeff Albert and ex-big leaguer Tim Hyers. I work with Tim on a daily basis (He’s my boss, by the way), and the experience I’ve gained by just listening to him talk about hitting has been invaluable. These two really know their stuff.

In the next day or two, I will be coming out with an article that compares Babe Ruth’s swing to Barry Bonds and Hank Aaron’s swing to Alex Rodriguez. Hyers recently did a “voice analysis” of Carlos Beltran’s swing for one of his players, which he graciously shared with me. Even though this was a quick analysis of Beltran’s swing, I thought he excelled at mentioning some of the things you’ll hear me talk about in the Ruth/Aaron/Barry/A-Rod article.

In particular, when it comes to Barry and the Babe, you’ll hear me talk about “scap load” (or loading the hands/shoulder), which Beltran demonstrates here…

Here’s the link to the analysis that Tim put together. It is a six-minute analysis that is better than anything you’ll hear on Baseball Tonight.

Enjoy…

THT: D-Train’s Mechanics: A video analysis

Comparing the current version of Dontrelle to the ‘05 and ‘06 versions....

“If you’re the Marlins, do you want the slow and controlled 2007 version of Willis? Or do you prefer the “out of control,” legs flying everywhere, high-energy, looks like he’s rushing, aggressive 2005 version of Willis?”

THT: Scouting The East Cobb Braves: Part 1-The Hitters

A little video scouting report on some of the members of the 2008 Draft Class…

“I have little doubt that Hightower will be one of the top catchers in next year’s draft, very little doubt.”

Breaking Down The Draft: The Sleepers and the Overrated

Part 5 of the series takes a look at 15 more prospects, including some interesting cases:

“I’m like you in that I’m not big on the “tall and fall” guys, I’m more interested in the violent, twisting sonsabitches like Lincecum.”

Thanks again to -Joel Zumaya, Guitar Hero- for the excellent quote. 

“Prospect” Report: The BBTF pitching evaluation

Subject: 29 year-old pitcher. Likes to drop down, but is working on re-learning to throw over the top in order to better understand and apply his pitching philosophies.

Consider this clip....



1) Strengths?
2) Weaknesses?
3) What was I working on? Who was I trying to copy? What was I trying to do?
4) What was the velocity on this pitch?
5) what else do you notice?

Next clip....



Same questions...

Next clip...



1)Better/Worse than the previous clip?
2)What was i working on?
3)What are the differences?

And finally, since my changeup kinda sucks, I was thinking that could use this as a changeup...



Let me have it. Do unto me as I do to other pitchers. Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated.

THT: Breaking Down The Draft: Ten More Prospects

Ten more video breakdowns, including Kyle Russell, Will Middlebrooks, Matt Harvey, Nevin Griffith and others.

“Russell has huge power potential. If the Cardinals can work on shortening his swing just a bit and fixing his swing plane, Russell will hit for a ton of power.”

As always, questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome....

THT: Breaking Down the Draft’s 1st Round: picks 21-30

Video analysis of picks 21-30 in this year’s draft.

In case you missed them: here’s the links to picks 1-10 and picks 11-20

Quick Take: King Felix and Tempo

Earlier tonight, friend of the blog Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus sent me this article on Felix Hernandez, where the author says this:

"Hernandez and pitching coach Rafael Chaves have studied tapes of those two dominant games in April and compared them with the recent struggles. They think he has been rushing through his delivery."

The article continues with the unthinkable:

"We want maybe a little bit of hesitation at the balance point instead of rushing through it," Chaves said. "Get to the balance point, spend a little bit of time in it, then explode from there."

After surviving the mild heart attack that soon followed, I told myself: "Keep an open mind, maybe slowing down his body is helpful to him in the short term." I'd like to again point out that any interruption in momentum to me is detrimental, especially with a pitcher that has Hernandez's arm speed. Basically, the less "body" you use to throw, the more "arm" you have to use.

Will explained that he was a little skeptical of the article's assertion that the reason that Hernandez was struggling was that he was being too quick and "rushing through the balance point." Naturally, so was I.…Read More ...

THT: Breaking Down The Draft’s 1st Round: Picks 11-20

Here’s the link to Part 2 of the article, which covers picks 11-20.

Questions, comments and suggestions for players to be reviewed in parts 4 and 5 of the article are welcome.

In case you missed it, here’s the link to part 1(picks 1-10)

THT-Breaking Down The Draft’s 1st Round: Picks 1-10

A video look at the Top 10 picks in this year’s draft

As always, questions, comments, Job offers, and suggestions for part 4 and 5 are welcome.

Prospect Report: The Mechanics of Steve Palazzolo

Steve Palazzolo is a 6’10” 265 lb. RHP out of Division 2 UMass Lowell. After pitching in the Division 2 World Series twice in his career and writing his name all over the record books, Steve went undrafted out of college. He soon signed with the Florence Freedom of the independent Frontier League. A move to the bullpen jumpstarted Steve’s career in 2005 as he anchored the bullpen for the Can-Am League champion Worcester Tornadoes. That offseason, the Brewers signed him at a tryout camp in January 2006. Starting the 2006 season at Low A West Virginia Steve struggled at the outset as the organization had him working from multiple arm slots and continued to tinker with his mechanics. After dedicating a month at extended spring training to work from a consistent arm slot and add a new slider to his repertoire, Steve joined Helena of the Pioneer league. He enjoyed a lot of success as Helena’s closer, showing consistent velocity while continuing the development of the slider. After making some changes to his mechanics in the offseason and pitching well in Spring Training, he was released by the Brewers. Steve joined the Nashua Pride of the Can-Am League, where he…Read More ...

The New and Improved Josh Beckett

Want to know what´s gotten into Josh Beckett?

Here´s the link to the article at The Hardball Times

As always, questions/comments are greatly appreciated.

THT- Carlos Zambrano’s Arm Slot-Cause for Concern?

Is Big Z hiding an injury? Let’s see what the video tells us.

Here’s the Link to the article at The Hardball Times.

Let’s talk about Arm Slot--A video review of Jonathan Papelbon

Let me start with a question I've been getting more and more in the past week or so....

"Is Papelbon hurt?"

While there is no way I can say for certain, there have been several warning signs in the past week. I'm not the only one who has been monitoring the situation. Here's what friend of the blog Steve Palazzolo had to say about Papelbon on Will Carroll's Under the Knife column on May 9th:

"Papelbon’s arm has been noticeably lower in all or parts of his last three outings, with Friday May 4 being the worst....Recently his arm has lowered a bit and can best be described as his throwing hand getting too far away from his body. When he’s at his best, he’s getting 'through' the ball and throwing downhill with a straight four-seamer.Against the Twins on Friday night he was flying open with his front shoulder, causing the lower slot and hindering his deception......Based on last year's shoulder problems, this is obviously a concern, but it’s hard to say if he’s hurt or if it’s just a mechanical anomaly. Since most shoulder problems usually result in velocity loss, I’m hoping it’s just a temporary bump in the road…

Read More ...

THT: Phil Hughes Part 2: More video analysis

I’ve heard some compare him to Clemens. Clemens? That’s heresy.

A follow-up to last week’s article on Hughes’s mechanics

The link to part 1 of the article is here.

If it Ain’t Broke….A video review of Phil Hughes’ Mechanics

Here’s the link to the article at The Hardball Times.

As always, questions/comments/job offers from MLB are welcome. Enjoy…

Baseball Analysts-ARod Swing Mega-Analysis

Jeff Albert, co-moderator of the blog, on A-ROD

Quick Mechanics Take-Russ Ortiz

First of all, don't worry. I'm not predicting a monster season for Russ Ortiz.

What I do want to point out is that his mechanics have changed for the better from last year to this year and he's throwing harder because of it. I actually wish I had video of him of years before last so that I could show how much worse he was back then even compared to '06. However, I have a clip from last year and a clip from this year, and the change is significant.

When I first saw Ortiz throw this year, it instantly jumped out at me... HE'S BREAKING HIS HANDS LATER.

"Breaking the hands" or "hand break"-- The point at which a pitcher's throwing hand and glove separate during the motion. Basically, it's when the ball first comes out of the glove.

If you've read my work, you have heard me talk about "early" or "late" hand break.

On the article about last year's draft, I wrote on Andrew Miller, for example.....

Takes the ball out of the glove too early for my liking.

On the Mulder article, I suggested to Mark Mulder....

2) Break your hands later--- If you’re going to be…

Read More ...

THT-Breaking Down the Broken Down---Mark Prior

A video review of Mark Prior’s Mechanics
by ChadBradfordWannabe

THT- Mark Redman-Today’s Worst Arm Action in the World

I give you Mark Redman

Bringin’ Some Sidearm Cheese--Pat Neshek

As many of you may know, I have a special place in my heart for sidearmers and submariners.

Here's one of my favorite sidearmers, Pat Neshek, of the Minnesota Twins. Unusual in many ways, especially because he's one of the few sidearmers that can bring it.... I mean REALLY bring it.

For those of you who have never seen Neshek's delivery, you're in for a treat.



I could watch this clip over and over and over and it would still amaze me.
How do you come up with a delivery like this?

QUICK CAPSULE REVIEW OF HIS DELIVERY

He doesn't exactly follow the "book" on what you're supposed to do mechanically. No kidding.

1) He doesn't keep his posture well. Notice how his torso is up, then he bends down like he's going WAY low, and then pops back up and delivers completely sidearm.

2) Doesn't exactly close his hips up does he? No leg kick either.

3) His elbow ends up a little lower than his shoulder. Also note the unusual finish. I cut out the final few frames (I shouldn't have), but when you see him pitch next time, notice the Shooter McGavin finger point at the end of…Read More ...

Bringin’ Some Serious Cheese: Rich Harden

Here’s the link to the article at THT.

Questions/comments are always welcome.

Controlled Fury: Tim Lincecum

Last year, I wrote an article where I reviewed the 1st round picks in last year's draft

Here's what I said about Tim Lincecum:

#10 - San Francisco Giants - P Tim Lincecum

Really goes after it. Check out how his front leg, just before landing, seems to step over an imaginary object and then land? This helps the hips turn faster. He couples it with a late hand break and a very quick arm. At 10, he’s a steal. THIS is how you use your body to throw. Straight over the top release point in which he is forced to yank his head out of the way. Might scare some, doesn’t scare me.....certainly not when you’re this efficient with your body. This is my #1 pick, hands down.

Grade: A+

Time will tell with young T-Link (that's my attempt at a nickname) with respects to his degree of success in the majors. However, in this article, we'll examine my above review and see, once we slow him down on video, if I was close to my initial assessment.

Shall We?

The controlled fury that is Tim Lincecum:


TEMPO

I always start with tempo. And with T-Link, I'm not going to…Read More ...

Matt Cain Mechanics Breakdown

I wanted to keep my articles here, so here’s a link to the link:

I give you, Matt Cain