I know, I know - I'm a bit of a Rays homer. However, there's good reason for all the Rays pitchers on my weblog! They still have a number of excellent pitching prospects which can make an immediate impact on the big league level.

Anyway, I was browsing ProspectTube, looking for a video of Brett Cecil (I'm supposed to do a joint project with them - sorry for the delay, guys!), and I ran into this great video of Jake McGee:

Now, I realize this isn't at 100% intensity, but it's a pretty decent video. Here's what I think:

Tempo: 22-23 frames from maximal leg lift to footplant. This is pretty slow, but surely some of it has to do with the fact that it's not competitive pitching. Incomplete.

Arm Action: I really, really like it. He gets the ball up in the driveline early and he doesn't appear to forcibly put his elbow into horizontal shoulder abduction (scap load). He has a nice, smooth arm circle that goes down, back, and up. Very Good - Excellent.

Ball Release: Jake features a great "stack and track" phase (Tom House's concept) and has a tight front side, as evidence by his glove position up near the shoulder. Excellent.

Followthrough: Jake sticks his pitching arm shoulder into the target, does not feature any arm recoil, and has a great deceleration phase. Excellent.

All in all, there's a ton of positives here. Granted, it's not competitive pitching and it's only one view, but we can take something from it.

EDIT: Check out the comments and the video linked in them (thanks Andy). Competitive pitching shows Jake McGee "leaking the front side," meaning he turns his shoulders before foot contact. As a result, he opens up too early and his arm ends up doing a ton of the work. This might explain his recent TJ surgery.

On an unrelated note, I apologize for the lack of updates (from me, anyway - devil_fingers has been doing great work) - work has been busy and I've just started coaching my local HS baseball team again, which is a constant grind. We have some promising young arms and should compete fairly well, though we play against much tougher schools who have sophomores and juniors (I coach a freshmen-only team). If you're in the Seattle area, shoot me an email (link at the bottom of the page) if you want to check out a game.