BMac's New Mechanics
by rooster on Sep 2, 2009 12:27 PM CDT
27 comments
BBTN had some initial thoughts from Trip on BMac's new mechanics. So, I've made side-by-side frame shots using last night's start against Toronto (Sep 1) and his shutout start against Houston (May 24), and I have interlaced Trip's comments in order to see what Trip is writing about.
via sites.google.com
Trip's comments
Another important change is in how McCarthy picks up the baseball. His old way was a very vertical pick-up that featured an inverted arm position -- the inverted 'W'. Now, McCarthy swings his arm down, back, and up. This takes a lot of stress out his pick-up, but if you were watching him closely, you could see that his elbow still gets pretty high and pretty far behind his back.
via sites.google.com
Trip's comments
McCarthy's glove arm is now a far more active part of his delivery. He uses it to keep his shoulders closed deeper into his delivery, and he uses it to gain some rotational leverage as his shoulders finally do rotate. Before, his glove arm swung his shoulders open early and then played dead.
via sites.google.com
Trip's comments
McCarthy's glove arm is now a far more active part of his delivery. He uses it to keep his shoulders closed deeper into his delivery, and he uses it to gain some rotational leverage as his shoulders finally do rotate. Before, his glove arm swung his shoulders open early and then played dead.
via sites.google.com
The release is what stood out to me. BMac seemed to me to fall forward not as soon in his motion as he used to. Maybe that is a trick played on my eyes by virtue of his glove hand not hanging down as it used to. These frames, of course, are not precisely aligned, so the forward position of his upper body in the right image might be simply nothing more than a later moment in his delivery. It looks to me, though, that with his new mechanics his arm comes through a little bit ahead of his body compared to in the past and he is in a taller, more balanced position. It was that body-flinging-downward motion that always made me think of him as a stork falling over his feet. BMac's previous motion always brought to mind a scene from Disney's Robin Hood.
via sites.google.com
12 recs |
27 comments
Email
Print
Comments
Good idea
posting the pics. The differences are subtle and Trip gave a good description.
G G G E-flat_______ F F F D__________....
by t ball on Sep 2, 2009 12:43 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Great stuff
Thanks.
Remember Red, hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.
by WyoRanger on Sep 2, 2009 12:50 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Meetin' you is a real treat... a real treat!
Thanks for the memory.
(Wife) "So what do you want to watch on the T.V.? UFC or porn?"
(Husband) "Hmm... well, porn, I guess."
by mtex on Sep 2, 2009 12:53 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Good post
Worth noting that it’s not a quick-fix
McCarthy’s timing is going to come and go as he adapts to these new mechanics. His velocity will probably be down for a little while as a result. Another growing pain will probably be random bouts with a loss of command or control. In all, the changes he’s made so far have been positive, and you certainly can’t argue with the early returns.
by oc on Sep 2, 2009 12:57 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Thank you Maddux
Remember Red, hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.
by WyoRanger on Sep 2, 2009 1:18 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
The ironic thing might be that with these changes to his glove hand BMac might be slightly taller in his release
(or so it appears to my untrained eye) which would mean he could throw downhill a little more which is one of the things Connor tried to get BMac to do.
Wonderboy, what is the secret of your power? Wonderboy, won't you take me far away from the mucky-muck now. -- Tenacious D
by rooster on Sep 2, 2009 1:30 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
I noticed that too
In every picture it looks like he’s taller throughout his delivery.
Remember Red, hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.
by WyoRanger on Sep 2, 2009 2:39 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
McCarthy never really had a problem throwing downhill.
His release point has pretty much always been above 7 feet. The top of the strike zone is typically about 3.5 feet tall.
by NoNameOnCard on Sep 2, 2009 11:20 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Do you think...
all that “tall and fall” vs. “drop and drive” buzzword stuff we heard about McCarthy last year had much to do with his mechanical problems?
by jwiscarson on Sep 3, 2009 9:37 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
NoNameOnCard may have already answered that question in a thread on BBTIA.
July 3 BBTIA entry on the impending overhaul of BMac’s mechanics
A snip from the comments:
When you say “were to maintain a more vertical spinal orientation”, that sound very similar to “pitching taller” which was what Mark Conner had McCarthy doing. Many people seem to think that that is what led to his previous round of injuries. How is a “more vertical spinal orientation” different from “pitching taller”?
July 4, 2009 at 1:48 AM | NCRF
NCRF: It is part of pitching “taller.” It is also a part of a healthy release and deceleration phase. If “pitching taller” caused the first stress fracture, then what caused this one in the same place? If nothing else, this injury should absolve Connor of much of the wrong-doing he was inappropriately assigned regarding McCarthy’s health.
I can’t speak to Connor’s methods or his teaching cues or what he was actually trying to have McCarthy do because I have no idea about any of those. You’d have to ask McCarthy or Connor about that.
July 4, 2009 at 3:15 AM | Trip Somers
I wish a more in depth article from Baseball Time In Arlington raising some of these issues with quotes directly from Connor was still available. It was linked by AJM but no longer exists.
Wonderboy, what is the secret of your power? Wonderboy, won't you take me far away from the mucky-muck now. -- Tenacious D
by rooster on Sep 3, 2009 12:03 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Interesting.
I’d never considered that leaning forward or to one side could so drastically alter the trajectory of a pitcher’s arm.
by jwiscarson on Sep 3, 2009 12:53 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Thanks for poisting this.
I don’t have the time to run through and make images like this. I really appreciate the helping hand.
Posting from mobile, so this is also a reply to standing taller…
I think his chest is taller when he releases the ball now. By promoting shoulder rotation toward the plate, he literally has to stand taller than he had been. It’s another subtle difference, but I think it’s there.
by NoNameOnCard on Sep 2, 2009 1:51 PM CDT via mobile reply actions 0 recs
Houston game... McCarthy's dark past.
Toronto game… Future’s looking bright?
Or, maybe it’s just the brightness setting on the media player.
Wonderboy, what is the secret of your power? Wonderboy, won't you take me far away from the mucky-muck now. -- Tenacious D
by rooster on Sep 2, 2009 1:54 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Im confused
BMac threw a complete game shutout in Houston. Why is that his dark past?
Bryan Smith (12:17:17 PM PT): Justin Smoak and Josh Hamilton. The AL West might just have found their Bash Brothers, v. 2.0.
by bigsteve on Sep 2, 2009 2:02 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
I'd take 7 innings with 2 earned runs consistently
over the occasional complete game shutout followed by long stints on the DL any day.
by macromorgan on Sep 2, 2009 2:09 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
well, um
hm. yeah, not gonna generate much velo with that delivery. wonder how long slow, slower, slowest will be effective.
by SteveP on Sep 2, 2009 2:10 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Presumably
as Trip seems to say, as he gets more comfortable with the new mechanics he will be a bit less deliberate/slow and velo will go up a bit.
G G G E-flat_______ F F F D__________....
by t ball on Sep 2, 2009 2:39 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
It looked like to me
that he seems to raise his glove hand higher, thus hiding the ball better. That might mitigate some of the effects of the loss of velocity. When I pitched in high school (can’t believe I just wrote that) we were taught to lead with the glove hand at the same height as our release point, and that would make the pitch harder to pick up. And it certainly looked like that’s what McCarthy is doing — not that many hitter were way behind his fastball though.
That's why they call them business sox
by egriffey on Sep 2, 2009 3:06 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Very interesting.
Just saw this as Trip linked it to me.
Webmaster of Driveline Mechanics
http://www.drivelinemechanics.com - An Unconventional Look at Scouting
by Kyle Boddy on Sep 10, 2009 1:36 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2009 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
