Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Strasburg mechanical issues?

I did an interview on Jeff Erickson's Blog Talk Radio show last Friday and the guest host asked me if I was concerned with Stephen Strasburg's mechanics.  Having watched Strasburg so many times in person, it was actually an odd question to me, because his mechanics always seemed very solid.  He throws very free and easy, not a max-effort guy at all, and if anything I thought his windup was refined from last year to this, better balanced.  

Then yesterday, Avenger-In-Chief passed this along to me...the Mariners' fan blogging doesn't interest me that much, but the website he linked to did...Driveline Mechanics.  Now, watching through this guy's Strasburg posts and his analysis, a second and third look is giving me more and more doubts.  Not about Strasburg, more about the analysis.  Speaking with great authority on a subject can make you sound really smart and knowledgable, but you also might be wrong.  I noticed in the comments that the poster's analysis was criticized pretty firmly.  So I'm just presenting all this for informational purposes, and perhaps I can float it along to Will Carroll over at Baseball Prospectus, who I respect a lot on mechanics and pitcher injuries.  Please follow the links and form your own conclusions.



By the way, Strasburg's next start will be Friday against UNLV at Tony Gwynn Stadium, and I'll be calling the game on XTRA 1360, a 6:05 first pitch, so please tune in if you can!  There will also be video coverage as usual on goaztecs.com.
Posted by Craig E at 9:14 AM

3 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 12, 2009 at 8:44 PM

    Dealo, You have won central heating and Air. And here to present you with your prize is EL ROJO MAGNIFICO..!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 12, 2009 at 9:03 PM

    Ok so after looking at the sites and the pitchers who use that certain delivery. You either have the tragic career of Mark Prior or the HOF career of John Smoltz. Interestingly enough both have had injury problems like the sites said. Both had Tommy John Surgery but Smoltz found a way adapted, developed new pitches, relied on deception and location before his velocity came back,rehabed and earned his way back onto the field. Prior ended up with more shoulder problems. Is it the end result of bad luck? Work ethic? IDK. But this definetly raised some issues about investing in Strasburg long term.

    Good find.

    Channer

    ReplyDelete
  3. Craig EMarch 12, 2009 at 9:26 PM

    The issue, of course, is whether or not this guy's analysis is reliable.

    After I posted this yesterday, I did a little poking around and what I heard and found was not complimentary to the Driveline Mechanics guy. It doesn't mean necessarily that he's wrong either, but he may not be the ultimate authority on the subject.

    ReplyDelete

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