Pitching Mechanics: Danny Duffy
by Kyle Boddy on Jan 31, 2010 10:02 PM PST
in Pitching Mechanics
11 comments
In a long-standing tradition of allowing Royals fans and writers on my staff influence me, I've been dragged out of hibernation to comment on Daniel Duffy of the Kansas City Royals.
Jeff Zimmerman sent me an email with a clip of Duffy (if you send me an email with an animated GIF of a pitcher, there's a very good chance I'll write an article here despite what I've said in the past) and told me that Keith Law of ESPN had this to say about him:
"His delivery is ugly, from the arm action to the stride to the recoil at the end..."
Jeff doesn't think it's that bad. Who's right? More after the jump, including the aforementioned animated GIF...
11 comments | 0 recs |
News: Yeah, it's me.
by Kyle Boddy on Jan 19, 2010 3:15 PM PST
in News
1 comment
Hey everyone!
Long time, no see. A few months, actually. I haven't been posting on this website for reasons that I alluded to in my previous post:
There, I said it: I'm afraid that every mechanical breakdown of a pitcher I make is really just undermining the work of people like Dr. Fleisig at ASMI and Eric Cressey at Cressey Performance. So, I've decided to do something about it
Fortunately, I have been doing something about it. My training site has been regularly updated and is being built into something reasonably large, I'm going to be setting up a strength and conditioning facility inside a previously-existing batting cage facility (with plans to open my biomechanics lab there in the next few months), and I've done some very cool work with various kinematics analysis packages. I recently wrote an article on my other blog titled "Kinematic Analysis: Wrist to Elbow Relationship" that included this chart:
Here's what I said about it over there:
What does this chart tell us? Well, the red and blue numbers are measured in pixels and detail the wrist and elbow’s paths, respectively. In this student’s case, the pitching elbow rapidly outpaces the pitching wrist, causing the forearm to lay back fairly rapidly in MER. The sum of all the deltas in the right-hand column expresses the absolute difference in rates of change between the two segments of the arm and tells us something about timing flaws. While not every pitcher should be within a given range, this is but one more variable that we use to analyze a pitcher’s mechanics and can tell us a lot about how the arm is used.
It's interesting stuff to be sure!
However, I regret to say that I can't envision too many more posts here, especially of the variety that involve armchair analysis of a pitcher using 30 FPS game video. I've come around to thinking that I need to re-develop my thoughts on pitching mechanics, and while I still strongly believe in a lot of what I've said before, rehashing the same thing over and over again isn't all that productive.
I'll be sure to update this blog with my findings, though.
1 comment | 0 recs
Florida games the system. They fleece other teams of their best prospects, develop and use them while their cost is low and trade the subsequent stars for more prospects. They field generally competitive teams on a low budget. Maybe twice a decade they supplement with some veterans and make a World Series run. They should be the example for small market franchises.
The Big Lead, believe it or not
26 days ago
devil_fingers
3 comments
0 recs
In a great article in Hardball Times annual, Greg looks at the batted balls at the new Yankee Stadium and Citi. The interesting finding is that while Yankee Stadium turns long flyballs into HR, it also turns almost-long flyballs into outs. Citi field however turns almost-long flyballs into hits. So, this would be an example of where the HR park factor and the Runs park factor on non-HR are not directly related (either unrelated, or inversely-related).
Let’s face it. Cub fans know the guy is a problem. Not everyday, of course. When things are going well, all is good with the world. But when things don’t go his way, his behavior is just unacceptable. Do we really need the tantrums? The way he looks like he’s going to clock an ump? Ripping people in his own clubhouse? Ripping up the clubhouse itself? Ripping his own management? Always finding someone else to blame? And maybe most unforgivably of all, the crazed antics on the field–all that’s a disrespect to the game itself. But you know what? Cub fans love it. Because this guy is Lou Piniella.
Remaining Unsigned Arms
by hazel on Dec 16, 2009 5:20 PM PST
4 comments
It's hump day of finals week, so I'm making this one short, but I wanted to get a word in on the recently non-tendered arms before any of them get...tendered.
4 comments | 0 recs
Brett Myers is not a nice person.
by hazel on Dec 10, 2009 2:42 AM PST
9 comments
Congratulations to d-list darling Rich Harden on his nice new $7.5M deal. At this point it's either the Mariners- a team he would fit extremely well on, with a great defense and a spacious ballpark, and one of the worst teams with which you could possibly sign a contract to rejuvenate your pitching career, the Texas Rangers. Have I mentioned I love and hate Jack Zdurencik?
Now, Brett Myers.
9 comments | 0 recs
CHONE's 2010 hitter projections are here!
It's a wonderful time to be baseball nerd.
2 months ago
devil_fingers
2 comments
1 recs
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