Felix Hernandez

#34 / Pitcher / Seattle Mariners

Height: 6-3

Weight: 230

Bats: R

Throws: R

Born: Apr 08, 1986

Part One of our Pitcher Profile on Felix Hernandez talked about his statistical prowess and a cursory look into his PITCHf/x data from the 2008 season.

In this post we'll discuss his pitching mechanics and project how he'll hold up in the long run for the Seattle Mariners.

The Mariners are big proponents of "Tall and Fall" mechanics and have publicly told Felix to "gather himself over the rubber" to find his "balance point."

[Felix] Hernandez and pitching coach Rafael Chaves have studied tapes of those two dominant games in April and compared them with the recent struggles. They think he has been rushing through his delivery.

"We want maybe a little bit of hesitation at the balance point instead of rushing through it," Chaves said. "Get to the balance point, spend a little bit of time in it, then explode from there."

No offense, but this advice is pretty dumb (specifically the bolded part). I'll explain after the cut...

Detroit's pitching coaches told Justin Verlander the same thing when his velocity was dropping from the usual 97-99 mph to 91-92 mph, and - Voila! - it jumped back up. Does this cue actually mean anything? Well, you tell me - does this guy "get to the balance point?"

How about this guy? (Credit: Chris O'Leary)

What you see with the best pitchers is "drifting" through the balance point, not "stopping" in the balance point. This cue is really misleading and quite annoying.

Anyway, moving on...

Tempo: Unfortunately you can see this "gathering" at the balance point in Felix Hernandez, just like the Mariners want. I'd prefer to see him drift through the balance point (like Lincecum) and take advantage of gravity to get into footplant, since it's a lot less work for him to do. Still, Felix is 21-22 frames from maximal leg lift to footplant, which is just slightly Below Average. (We want to be < 20 frames.)

Arm Action: Though there is evidence of "scapular loading," it's not the same as Homer Bailey. There is no evidence of Hyperabduction, and Felix seems to passively allow his arm to enter horizontal shoulder abduction with the elbow as he breaks his arms in a pendulum swing motion. Take a look at Homer Bailey and compare it to Felix above:

Can you see the differences? Here's a closer look:

As you can plainly see, Homer Bailey "throws" his arm behind himself in reverse rotation and abducts it very forcefully - Felix does not.

Felix also has better timing, though it's somewhat borderline - his arm is not fully vertical at the point his shoulders begin to turn, which will lead to higher loads on his UCL and his shoulder.

Still, overall I see a lot of positives. Above Average.

Ball Release: I love Felix's release of his fastball - very forceful with a high arm slot. You can see him forcefully pronate through release on this pitch as well, which explains the insane horizontal movement he gets on his two-seam fastball. There is no arm recoil and he sticks his pitching-arm shoulder into the target. Excellent.

Followthrough: People tend to make a big fuss about Felix's headjerk, but ASMI's initial studies of head jerks in pitchers indicate that they have no correlation with poor control. This makes complete sense, because throwing a baseball is a very proprioceptive action, and staring at the target at release isn't likely to help you with your control - everything leading up to the release is what matters. It's the same with hitting - the best hitters don't see the bat from launch to contact. We know that seeing the barrel hit the ball is impossible (Dr. Robert K. Adair proved it in the Physics of Baseball), but it's important to note that the best hitters hit behind the baseball and don't even bother to try to see the barrel all the way in. Proof? You got it.

Felix has a great followthrough phase - he uses the glove arm exceptionally well, finishing up near the shoulder and firming up through release. His body continues to turn, there is no recoil, and he does not stop the momentum with active braking of his arm. Excellent.

Though I have reservations about the amount of horizontal shoulder abduction in Felix's delivery, overall I have to give him a very high grade for both his performance and his durability. I think that with proper conditioning and reasonable use of his arm in games that Felix has a good chance of having a long career in the majors without many injuries.