Mechanics and the Brain
June 2, 2015
As with any season there
are a number of players whose performance doesn’t line up with expectation.
Sometimes it’s simply a matter of the sample not being large enough for the player
to revert to career norms. Other times, and what I hope to offer some useful
analysis for, something has changed that might affect the player’s performance
going forward or at least merits further examination/correction. Obviously I
haven’t analyzed everyone and the only reason I’ve delved in depth with these
few is because they are on my XFL team. I will get around to more of them this
month, but for now here is what I have.
Stephen Strasburg
About a month ago, Pedro
Martinez did both an excellent video breakdown and a demonstration of good
pitching mechanics. He was very thorough, starting with the plant foot and
working all the way through the final wrist snap. During each phase he
explained the importance of that piece of the puzzle. For example, the plant
foot should point toward the plate so the body would naturally focus the energy
toward the target rather than being re-directed artificially with the shoulder
or arm, either of which would exert potentially injurious stress on that part.
Also, the torso needed to be perpendicular to the ground throughout the
delivery for part of the same reason. This facilitates the natural release of
the hips, thereby efficiently transferring the energy from the leg drive toward
the shoulder. The shoulder would then have a straight line to deliver the arm
whip and the wrist snap to complete the motion. This foundation generates much
of the velocity and also keeps the whipping action of the arm and wrist in a
straight line with the target so that they continue to scale.
In Stephen Strasburg’s
case, it is this foundation that is creating some problems. Whether it was due
to his spring ankle injury or not is unknown. What is known is that during the
plant phase of his delivery, his foot is not pointed toward the plate. It is
slightly off kilter. This in turn leaves him slightly off-balance, leaning to
the left, which forces his hips to open early resulting in an in-efficient
transfer of the energy. In order to compensate for the loss of energy, he has
forced his shoulder to exert more than normal which is causing both stress
(hence the occasional discomfort) and for the ball to tail away to the right of
the target. In
The additional problem is
that Steve McCatty isn’t really a mechanics kind of
pitching coach. His forte is the psychology of pitching. Someone in the Nats front office probably needs to call Pedro Martinez and
ask him for a favor because without someone to break down and repair
Strasburg’s mechanics, this issue isn’t going away. That’s the physical side. He still needs to mix his pitches
better.
Julio Teheran
Teheran’s problems are a
little more mysterious. He’s not using his 4-seam fastball as much and using
his two seamer almost twice
as often as previously. The reason for this is probably an effort to get more
ground balls - which he has achieved - but the cost has been more than it’s
worth. His control has suffered, with his walk rate almost twice as high as
last year, and he’s leaving more pitches up in the zone to be hammered,
resulting in a home run rate double the previous two seasons. I don’t know if
this is a resultant issue or just something that happened to occur at the same
time, but velocity on both his slider and change-up have also dropped
dramatically. For the past few years his slider has been clocked around 89 mph.
This year it’s below 83. Likewise his change-up has dropped in velocity from 87
to 82. I’m not sure if Roger McDowell is a mechanics guy or a psychology guy
but Teheran probably could benefit from a mechanics guy and probably a return
to the style he was using last year, groundballs or not.
Derek Holland
Derek Holland is enduring
a similar experience to that of Strasburg, only on a much more serious scale.
Last year he missed much of the year with a knee injury. When he came back, his
mechanics were altered slightly in order to compensate for the weakened
foundation. This year he started with those same mechanics, which were
effective but not what his body had been used to, which then caused a physical
problem in his shoulder. Hopefully the time off has gotten him to full health
and he can resume pitching with his normal mechanics.
Jon Gray
Delving into the minors a
little here, but Jon Gray’s issue was largely mental. To begin the season he
was trying to blow everyone away with his fastball. A good fastball, certainly,
but the problem was that he wasn’t able to pinpoint its location and despite
the high 90s heat, batters were able to square up the center cut delivery. In the
high altitude of
Drew Hutchison
There is nothing wrong
with Drew Hutchison that a good psychologist can’t fix. His problem has been
that he tries to overpower hitters when he sees them the third time through the
order instead of using their anxieties in his favor. Everyone knows the Blue
Jays can hit. So all a Blue Jay starter has to do is last 5 or 6 innings and he
knows the offense will score enough runs for him to leave with a lead. That
will put the pressure on opposing hitters to press in order to make up the
difference. Hutchison pitches like that for the first 4 innings of the game.
Batters post an OPS of .622 for the first four innings
of the game. But in the 5th and 6th innings they crush
him for an OPS of over 1.100. From the videos I’ve
seen he’s overthrowing either trying to blow them away or to empty the tank.
Regardless, he’s losing location and the results are a lot of hard hit
balls.
One of the remarkable
things about Hutchison’s - and for that matter Taijuan
Walker’s - season so far as how disparate his home and road splits are. Hutchison’s
ERA in home games is 2.97 this year. It’s 7.80 on the road.