Thank you!

I was thinking Joba’s follow-through was “ugly”; like he hits an invisible wall. But your analysis is much more enlightening.

Joba firms up the glove arm too late and also not very well. An open glove usually indicates a soft front side. You can see this in the picture of the 1st base view you posted. Compare him to a guy like Clemens who clenches his fist and squeezes the glove during the stride. This creates tension in the front side of the upper body and keeps things “tight”. Clemens is already firm when he lands.

Looking at the last 3 frames of Joba going into release, he “hunches” his back. This indicates he has relaxed his rhomboids and most likely elevated his scaps. Elevating the scaps can lead to impingement as well.

He can improve his glove arm action and reduce the extension of his front leg. The glove arm should match the arm slot.

“He can improve his glove arm action and reduce the extension of his front leg. The glove arm should match the arm slot.”

That is such a great phrase. I hope you don’t mind if I use it in the future (I’ll be sure to credit you).

If Joba never “relaxed his rhomboids”, he would not be able to deliver the ball because his scapula would be retracted. At some point, the scapula has to protract, otherwise the humerus would not be able to rise overhead to get to the delivery point.

And the Rhomboids are not the most important muscles in terms of controlling the Scapula during overhead motions such as throwing – the Serratus Anterior and Lower Trapezius are. They act as dynamic stabilizers in a force couple.

This is part of a comment I posted where i originally found this article:

I think he’s (you are) looking for something that doesn’t exist. The follow through is a problem, I will admit. But Chamberlain doesn’t make the inverted W. His elbow is BELOW the level of his shoulder, which is exactly where it should be (do a google images search and see for yourself).

The inverted L that he (you) claims Joba makes is just completely false. The motion itself (the L) is a valid criticism of some pitchers, but Joba simply doesn’t do it. Look at the picture where he is trying to show the inverted L…. His elbow is below the shoulder, and it isn’t bent anywhere close to 90 degrees.

The inverted L and W are definitely things that pitchers should avoid doing. And if you (the reader) actually know what he (the writer) is talking about when he throws out the terms, you will see that Joba does neither of them. The only thing that he mentions in the piece to be worried about is the extremely short follow through.

Good stuff Kyle. As I imagine you know, Joba had injury issues at Nebraska. One reason the Yankees were able to get him is he had a mediocre senior season after an outstanding jr. year. Most of this was because of injuries and that was with him only pitching once a week.

One suggestion: Is there any way you can give us the ability to pause and stop the video clips you put up? It’s kind of distracting to see all the movement when I’m reading the paragraph above the video and I’d like the capability to pause at a certain spot of the video to check certain things out.

I think Greinke is pretty close to perfect…
I do not see a problem with Joba as to stress to his shoulder. He actually gets to what I call the “cocked position” easier tha Wang with less arm drag…
Just my view.

Relaxing/releasing the rhomboids allows him to release the ball, yes. But I am referring to his follow-through. Mike Marshall teaches his pitchers to contract the rhomboids BEFORE release.

If Joba were to contract his rhomboids and “clamp” down the scaps, his upper back would not “hunch”.

i agree with you about his followthrough (although i wouldn’t have used greinke as an example – he does come all the way through the ball, but the balance is not there, which is why he falls off to the left, and also allows for inconsistency and even left hip muscle injuries), but the “hung arm” thing is a bit ridiculous. This positioning is what allows him to hide the ball, along w/ his fantastic arm speed, which is why he gets so much velocity and deception. It’s somewhat injury-liable, yes, but so is every high-velocity delivery (except maybe clemens, maybe). There is certainly room for improvement in his mechanics, namely in the followthrough, but there is no real cause for concern otherwise. On another note, I’d love to see analysis of Ian Kennedy’s motion. It looks like he’s throwing the ball with almost no stress on the arm, which would presumably keep him away from arm injuries.

I have a question. Looking at Prior and Ryan and then looking at Joba there are two things that stick out. 1) Joba does not have his elbows as high as Prior does and 2) his right elbow is not as cocked as Ryan’s. He looks more like an inverted parentheses than either an L or a W. Does this observation mean anything or is it just a function of the photos you could get?

Do Joel Zumaya, please.

I read the comment about him hunching his back, and when I look at the picture, it looks like Joba does this following the transfer of weight to his front foot. In the video of Greinke, it also looks like he hunches his back as a necessary part of the release, as Chris mentioned. It looks to me like Joba’s stiff front leg makes this hunching more pronouced, whereas Greinke keeps his front knee more bent (though it does look weird how he ends up kind of looking backwards at home plate). Any thoughts?

And today August 6, 2008, Joba is meeting with Dr Andrews regarding his pitching shoulder.

Are you forgetting that Prior and Joba have different body types?? Prior is very tall and long limbed, while Joba is compact.