Tampa Bay Rays' hurler Andy Sonnanstine pitched a solid game against the Boston Red Sox in the fourth game of the ALCS, allowing four runs (three earned) and giving the Rays' bullpen a rest by going deep into the game.

Here's a quick analysis of his pitching mechanics:

Tempo: Sonnanstine is painfully slow to the plate - 25-26 frames from maximal leg lift to footplant. This might be a reason his fastball is below average in velocity (87.69 mph mean velocity per PITCHf/x Player Cards)

Arm Action: Sonnanstine has a ton of reverse rotation, taking the arm well beyond the acromial line and forcing it into a "scapular load" pattern. This is dangerous, as injuries to both the anterior and posterior regions of the shoulder (specifically SLAP tears) can happen as a result. However, his pitching arm is vertical at footstrike/shoulder turn, so this should help to minimize problems on his elbow. I would estimate that Sonnanstine will experience shoulder problems before elbow problems, but the fact that he throws a lot of soft breaking pitches indicates that he supinates the release of one or more of them, which will cause his olecrenon process to slam into its fossa and possibly cause advanced UCL tears.

Followthrough: You can clearly see in this video that he is "pulling" this pitch across his body, the biggest indicator of a supinated release. This looks to be a cut fastball or slider that got away from him. He has a decently aggressive finish, sticking the PAS shoulder into the target, but when you combine the pull across his body and the gloveside flyout, it's not very good.

Sonnanstine is slow to the plate, throws pitches with a supinated release, and pulls his arm across his body to throw his breaking pitches. Mechanically, I give him a Below Average.