Bradley Raises a Difficult Question About McDowell

[Tapate50]

Simple solution, do what the White Sox do?

 

[GovClintonTyree]

When he was hired, it was explicitly stated that he was abandoning the Mazzone "throw a lot" program. I remember reading this at the time with a sense of foreboding, that has more than been proven justified.

I don't know that McDowell needs to go, necessarily, but the team HAS to change something. Our pitching program is a meat grinder.

It worked so well we stopped doing it.

 

[GovClintonTyree]

Never said Hanson was fine. Just said I wasn't able to find any obvious timing issues, and cautioned that weird looking mechanics don't always mean bad mechanics. Sometimes guys can do weird looking things and still hit the important parts. Lincecum is a great example of that. Now the negative to Lincecum is because of how athletic his mechanics are, as he aged he is not able to complete them with the same consistency as he used to. Which is why I believe his BB rate started rising pretty fast, not able to consistently repeat his mechanics and I think long term it will lead to health issues.

Beachy didn't have an inverted W, that was Medlen. Beachy had some of the worst hip/shoulder separation. I never even made it up to analyze if he had an inverted W or not. Hip/shoulder is enough of a killer as it is.

And if you don't know why it's called the Inverted W you've never asked or never read up on it. Here's the answer

http://www.chrisoleary.com/projects/pitchingmechanics101/Essays/DeathToTheInvertedW_FAQ.html

so basically it was originally called that and out of deference to the person who popularized it (even if he didn't figure it out) peopel stuck with it. It will be called an M at some point I believe. Probably when people get tired of saying or typing inverted W over and over again.

Yeah, you linked the same article the last time I tweaked you about the inverted W. Thanks for trying to educate me.

 

[Chico]

Every single guy mentioned in this thread got hurt...because that's what pitchers do. Roger hasn't developed a year-upon-year ace? What does that even mean? How many "aces" are truly elite for more than a few years...and then get hurt? I think Braves fans have a hard time understanding just how rare Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz really were.

Pitchers get hurt all the time. That's why I think the best strategy is to stockpile and grow your own arms, ride them until they break, and then move on to the next guy in line.

This is the strategy they're going with and I like it. The Rays have been very good at this and have stayed competitive with no money.

 

[GovClintonTyree]

I don't care what your mechanics look like in slow-motion; if you're throwing with that much effort on every pitch, like Hanson did, you're not going to pitch for very long.

It was just an incredible amount of torque.

It was just a matter of time.

 

[GovClintonTyree]

JJ was a knee. Hanson was a shoulder. tehran is a mystery. Beachy, Medlen, venters, O'Flareity were elbows.

Can you lump all of those into one box?

I think so. Here's why. If the problems are the result of max effort, overuse at a young age, or lack of consistent arm strength building (throwing less, throwing harder), you don't know which part might wear out first, as it depends on individual physiology.

Even what we consider "clean" mechanics puts an inordinate amount of stress on the body in a way it wasn't designed for.