Fascinating discussion on pitching mechanics

[Boy Howdy]

Great read!

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=7171

Just one short excerpt to help you decide if you want to click:

BP: You also said that some scouts hate to see a pitcher land with a closed stride. Why?

DT: When evaluating a pitcher, many coaches and scouts follow the conventional wisdom of 'stride straight at the plate,' as pitchers that land open or closed are often assumed to have other mechanical flaws that are associated. So we did some research, using motion analysis numbers and 3-D video, to test the mechanical implications of an open or closed stride. We use a sample of 33 pitchers, aged high school to professional, and look for correlations or trends in the data. We also take a look at elite major league pitchers, using photos provided by Getty Images. The NPA Model is rooted in the motion analysis of elite pitchers, and we have found that mechanical efficiency is strongly related to performance, and that the best pitchers of all time have consistently displayed many of the same mechanical advantages.

[longflyball]

I don't think it is a coincidence that the game's best pitchers tend to have deliveries that are beautifully efficient and pleasurable to watch, while mediocre pitchers tend to have deliveries that are ugly and awkward. There are exceptions, of course, but I wonder if others have noticed the same thing.

[RShack]

I don't think it is a coincidence that the game's best pitchers tend to have deliveries that are beautifully efficient and pleasurable to watch, while mediocre pitchers tend to have deliveries that are ugly and awkward. There are exceptions, of course, but I wonder if others have noticed the same thing.

They started doing motion-studies on this stuff after Koufax was done. Later on, they took film of him and analyzed his motion. They concluded that the man was perfect. They said there was nothing to tweak. Nothing. Koufax was not a highly educated man. He didn't have a degree in physics. But he talked about physics a lot. Most ballplayers don't talk about physics much, but Koufax did. He did his homework, and he did it all by himself, without everyday-video and motion-studies and experts to help.

According to what I read before, the motion guys said that Koufax made himself perfect. In this article, DT refers to somebody else "having plenty of Koufax in him, both good and bad". That's the first I ever heard about Koufax doing anything bad. I wonder what he meant.

ps: The DT being quoted is not *our* DT ;-)