Some corrections were made to a professional baseball pitcher that raised more questions than answers. It was stated that the pitcher “redoubled his efforts to not spin off his landing foot as he released the ball.” According to him,” my pitching coaches, for years they’ve been telling me to do it this way.”
These statements bring several factors to mind. First, how was it determined that a pitcher spins off his landing foot as he releases the ball? Second, is this a needed or desired action? Third, why do some pitching coaches advocate this action while others are against it? Read more… »
I’ve been reading about the trials and tribulations of pitcher Shawn Hill. He has had some of the top minds in orthopedic surgery – Drs. Lewis Yocum and James Andrews — review and discuss his problems but to no avail.
The bottom line is that the best doctors, who are best known for their operations on baseball players, and the medical and training staff of the Padres baseball team, have not been able to determine the cause of pain in his reconstructed right elbow. As a result, he remains on the disabled list. Is there nothing else that can be done? Read more… »
It appears that some professional teams now require a starting pitcher to throw a changeup on about 15% of his pitches. If they do not, they are relegated to the bullpen or back to the minors.
This new policy raises several questions. First is, exactly what do they mean by changeup? When I ask different coaches they invariably answer with,” well you know it’s when the pitch is different, you could have different speed and/or direction”. Is this the off-speed pitch that was once popular? Read more… »
Posted on May 30, 2008 under Baseball jargon, Pitching analysis |
Unless you have some preconceived notions or ideas of what a particular pitch is, it should be very frustrating to read the many statements by pitchers and coaches, especially pitching coaches. For example, it is not uncommon to hear or read that a pitcher is working on developing a better changeup or more effective slider or a better curveball, etc. What is lacking in these comments is exactly what they are working on and more importantly, what exactly the pitch is.
If you’ve played baseball, most likely you’ll say that you know what these pitches are. But do you? If you read carefully the comments made by different pitchers and coaches you will see that very often the descriptions of these pitchers are quite different. There is no consistency as to what each pitch should do or does. For example, the curveball has often been described as a ball that breaks left or right while others define the curveball as one that sinks or drops rapidly. How is this different from a sinker? Read more… »
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