Robert Ross is a 19-year old LHP from Lexington Christian Academy (Kentucky) who stands 5'11" tall and weighs 185 lbs. He was drafted just ahead of Tyson Ross; the two are not related. Robert's fastball sits around 90 (but can reportedly touch 94) and he pairs it with a slider that needs improvement and a changeup that is average. Like most MLB-bound prep pitchers, Robert lived comfortably off his plus fastball and didn't refine his secondary offerings much since he didn't need it against typical high school competition. Still, Robert's stuff is pretty good already and he's still very young, so expecting a lot of change is not totally out of the question.

The folks over at Lone Star Ball have requested that I take a look at Robert, and that a Rangers blogger named Mike Hindman didn't like his mechanics. After reading Mike's blog post, I thought that I'd be on the same side as him - after all, he even uses the terminology "Inverted W" to describe Robert's arm action:

I'm not terribly bullish on young pitchers who grew up dealing a hard slider, especially small pitchers. They tend to have significant arm problems at some point.  Compounding that potential problem, I'm not enamored of the inverted W that shows up in this picture and is evident throughout his pre-draft scouting video.   Pause the video at 1:51, 1:57 and 2:10 for examples of what I'm talking about.

The video in question can be found here at MLB's Draft Tracker website.

I agree with him that young pitchers who grew up throwing sliders are a concern, but it is entirely possible that he could have learned a pronated release or threw it so infrequently that his arm is still fine. His comments about the Inverted W are interesting, but a quick look at the video doesn't show me anything conclusive. I have to wonder if he just looked at the video in real time and didn't slow it down, and the fact that he said "Pause the video at THIS specific time" leads me to believe that this is the case.

Now, your eyes simply cannot process all the information in a pitcher's delivery without the help of slow-motion video. For more on this phenomenon, read this very insightful article about frames per second that states:

So the question "How many frames do I need to make the movie flickerfree" = to not see the blackness between the frames (about 70-100 fps) doesn't answer the question "How short can a bright image be to see it?" = the Airforce question and this doesn't answer the question "How short can a (not bright) image be to see it?".

So the conclusion is: To make movies/Virtual Reality perfect, you'd have to know what you want. To have a perfect illusion of everything that can flash, blink and move you shouldn't go below 500 fps.

The most common perception amongst video junkies and people who study the human eye say that our eyes can perceive about 72-80 fps alone. Assuming that the most gifted person in the world could see 100 fps, that is still just 20% of the theoretical framerate necessary to have a perfect illusion of everything that can flash, blink, and move.

When asked about how they will know if a player is going to be successful, scouts will often say: "You will know it when you see it." And I agree. The problem is that unless you are watching a performance in high speed, you never will see it...which implies...

...that scouts never have really seen it.

Now, obviously, there are things you can pick out from 30 fps video that is helpful. However, I wanted to illustrate the point that you need high-speed video to make any real claims, and at the very least, need to slow down 30 fps-quality video to adequately process what information you do have available.

With all that out of the way, let's look at the pitching mechanics of Robert Ross...

Well, the first red flag is the fact that he has a Yankees uniform on!

Actually, the more I watch him pitch, the more I like this kid's mechanics. Here's why:

Tempo: Ross is 17-18 frames from maximal leg lift to footstrike, despite his high leg kick. This is Excellent.

Arm Action: This is where the blog writer is concerned - he thinks there is an Inverted W (or hyperabduction) present in Robert's delivery. Is there? Well, the video doesn't seem to bear this claim out if you watch it frame by frame. Here's the closest point to an Inverted W that I can find:

This doesn't look like an Inverted W to me at all. Now, while it's true that Robert does not use a true pendulum swing arm action (it goes down and back but the elbow does a bit of the lifting to the cocked position), he gets the arm up early and it is nearly vertical when the shoulders begin to turn. I would give him an Above Average grade here.

Ball Release: Robert's delayed torso "stack-and-track" phase (ASMI's term) is really good. He delays the unloading phase of his arm quite well and it happens late in the delivery. As such, he will probably release the ball closer to home plate than most pitchers his height, and should give him a little more perceived velocity as a result. In this video, he has an extremely hard pronated release, which is outstanding. Excellent.

Followthrough: Robert keeps the center of mass moving forward as long as possible and has a high glove finish to establish a firm front side at release. Though the glove pulls back afterwards, it's not an issue for me - when you compare the followthroughs of Aaron King and Robert Ross, you will see how the two differ and why Robert's is far superior. Excellent.

Overall, I really like his mechanics! I think his shoulder will hold up fairly well, and the hard pronated release of his fastball will do a lot to protect his elbow (and give him life on his fastball, which he is known for). We can't know for sure how he throws his slider (without high speed video), but it's probably a supinated release and thus dangerous on his arm. In general, I prefer supinated curves to sliders due to the pressure a slider puts on the elbow, but I realize that sliders are called strikes more frequently and are easier to learn to throw.

Thanks to the guys at Lone Star Ball for the request!