September 20, 2014

SLIGHT CHANGES BIG RESULTS

In a long ago post, I mentioned the fact that pitching mechanics are slight individual variations on a theme. Youngsters are taught basically the same thing: foot on the middle edge of the rubber, hold the ball this way for a fastball, and throw 3/4 to overhand while pushing off the mound downhill toward the plate. The few that get the mechanics know that the power of pitching comes from the lower body and not the whip of the arm. It is the concert of the physics of motion, stored torque energy and release that is the foundation to the art of pitching.

Pitching coaches stress repeatable release points. If you divide an old analog watch dial in half, those are the potential release points from overhand near noon position to submariner near the 6 o'clock position. Even with the same grip on the ball, a pitcher can have a dozen different "pitches" based upon release point alone.

But that is not the only adjustment a pitcher can make to help pinpoint his control. One of the pitchers I remember clearly who used a different approach on the mound to help temper his wildness was Dontrelle Willis. The quirky lefty had an old corkscrew wind-up to begin with, but he found out that if he moved is push-off foot to the farthest edge of the rubber toward first base, he would sidearm his fastball and slider at left handed hitters and catch the inside strike while the batters are bailing out of the box (since the pitch looks like it begins inside the batter's box and coming toward the batter's rib cage). If a pitcher moves his foot location on the rubber, he changes the angle of attack toward the plate.

It is strange that more pitchers and pitching coaches do not experiment with these slight variations. Because the results can be significant.

Fangraphs’ Jeff Sullivan looks at Jake Arrieta‘s breakout season through a historical lens, noting that he has the sixth-largest season-to-season K-BB% improvement since 1920 (min. 75 IP each season) and the single largest FIP- improvement in that same span. Sullivan looks at how much more effectively Arrieta has repeated his mechanics with the Cubs, and he also points to the fact that Arrieta has doubled the usage of his hard slider/cutter while moving to the third-base side of the rubber. Both David Ross and Ryan Zimmerman  have noted that Arrieta now busts right-handed hitters inside at a much greater rate because he appears to be “throwing behind you” before his ball breaks over the plate.