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Quick Hit: Pedro Strop (Hyperabduction)

Strop_medium

Pedro Strop has a loose, whippy arm action with good velocity to go with it - 93-96 mph heater, 82-86 mph slider, and what appears to be a splitter or split-change as you can see in the picture above.

Readers tipped me off to Pedro through ProspectTube, and the first thing I noticed was that loose arm. However, a more detailed analysis of the video shows that he has classic signs of hyperabduction - Strop takes his elbow well above and beyond the acromial line, which will unnecessarily stress the anterior portions of the shoulder as well as the glenohumeral ligament (tip to seattle_pt1).

However, Strop's injuries are to his elbow - stress fractures at the tip of it, to be precise. Google searches will turn up multiple pages that confirm this, and many sites will say that it is a rare problem. It actually isn't; not for pitchers. "Stress fractures" at the tip of the elbow are olecranon fractures, and they typically occur when you fall directly onto your elbow. However, baseball pitchers are at-risk for this type of injury when they release their pitches with a supinated grip, as they are slamming the olecranon process into its fossa, irreversibly lengthening the ulna bone, irritating the hyaline cartilage, and damaging the UCL.

Here's a clip of Pedro Strop, taken from that YouTube video:

Strop_medium

Though it's tough to tell due to the background, if you look carefully, you can see that arm creep up into hyperabduction very quickly.

Pedro Strop has UCL bruising/tears as well, which correlates well with my analysis.

Strop's mechanics remind me a lot of Andy Sonnanstine's:

Sonnanstine_medium

I think they are both at-risk for similar types of injuries - I would not be surprised to see Sonnanstine go down with an olecranon fracture, though it's a lot more common to see UCL ruptures first.

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+1

Very interesting read.

Did Jon Daniels downsize your old position at Dunking Donuts?

by lonestarJon on Jan 10, 2009 12:53 PM PST to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

spot on

i’m still wondering where this kind of arm action is being taught.

Mass X Acceleration = Force

by SteveP on Jan 10, 2009 11:27 AM PST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Strop was converted into a pitcher

like Madrigal was. Someone should have taught him along the way that throwing like that is going to lead to serious injuries.

By 2028, Mark Teixeira will be in the HOF.
-The Outlaw

by Gdawg on Jan 10, 2009 4:07 PM PST to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Views

These two pitchers -at least from these views – appear to have quite a different delivery…except maybe at their release (’whipping’). Perhaps you could post profile/side views of each next to each other.

by DisabledListInformer on Jan 11, 2009 9:59 AM PST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

I've got it!

Freddy Garcia. Exactly that sort of long-arm move in his windup.

Space.

It's a problem we face.

So we never go anywhere.

We just stay in one place.

by hazel on Jan 21, 2009 7:57 AM PST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

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