Bobbleheaddoll Thrower

Cap_n>Is this pitcher available for signing?

Mechanics and methodical movement in forward movement are absolutely magnificent>

I have never used that term here before, if that tells you anything.

Shep

The young man looks good overall. His stride foot does appear to be landing on the heel, however. And his body is overrunning the stride leg. I realize that this is what some teach. I would prefer to see more hip rotation rather than the torso overrunning the stride leg.

Obviously the young man has worked hard on his mechanics.

tend to agree with texan but he does look like a work in progress..leftys just look different when they pitch.

That's beautiful

A really nice motion - one item I really liked was the tuck of the glove back into the body - getting that pull from the right side.

A little overstriding perhaps - leading to a flat rather than toe down landing... but I am really stretching to find that criticism...

Nice stuff!

Fair balance....good direction...keep glove over front foot and work to it...this will prevent premature spinning and promote forward handspeed that is desireable for ability to throw all pitches....he gets through the pitch and doesn't spin till after he releases the ball, just be aware of front side leaving before you get through the pitch........when he starts to the plate he may want hands and front leg to be in sync....his leg starts down and forward but his hands are still together a little longer and they don't separate till leg has started down and forward..remember that the leg kick provides momentum but more importantly it allows you to use your lower half which you appear to be doing ......AND it allows your arm time to catch up w/ the rest of your body, in that area I feel you are lacking a touch.....at foot strike you would like your back (throwing) elbow at or near shoulder height....

Basically what you are doing may cause you throw the ball up or up and armside......think about throwing the ball THROUGH your catcher...all the while working to your front side......

Instead of thinking about a bunch of mechanical stuff......separate your hands when your front leg starts down and forward and see how close you can take your nose to your catcher while maintaining a solid/balanced finish..

All in all you look pretty solid.....the thing you do can cause you miss up in the strike zone...(and by UP, I mean thigh to belt high)

All of the above are fixable and not major problems to correct.......

Delivery is coordinated and somewhat fluid......

I would say the arm action is subpar.

Can he throw harder than low 80's?

How old is he? How big is he? How hard does he throw?

I think he's too deliberate. I count about 33 frames from high knee lift to release. Most hard throwers are 25 frames or less. I think he's stalling at high knee lift. I also think his rotation into foot plant is too drawn out. In hard throwers, especially shorter pitchers, I see a late much more violent rotation of the hips into foot plant. He looks big so he may be able to get away with it.

A very linear (i.e. straight towards the plate) delivery in my opinion. He also appears to be pushing a bit. I think that too is related to poor rotation (of the shoulders). His arm action, from high zone to release, gives me the impression he's spent some time with the "towel drill".

These are just my opinions.

Jason

How hard does he throw?

Thanks for the comments.
He was 17 when I shot that video.
At the finish he comes up a lttle early because the mound is too small for him. he usually stays low and his kick leg lands parallel tp his stride leg.
His late hand break does help keep his weight back. I like his plant foot almost planted before he drives to the plate. This gives him control.
He maxes at 84mph but his off speeds are his strenghts.
He needs lower and upper body development to get his velocity up. He is 6'3" 170lbs.

Thanks Cap_n

Flip that is slow motion.

You can't throw hard by throwing soft....

Light a fire under him.

quote:

He maxes at 84mph but his off speeds are his strenghts.

You're welcome.

What's special about his off speed throws? What's their velocity and does he throw with the same arm speed as his fast ball throws?

BHD, you have a PM.

Yes Cap_n he uses the same arm motion. Generally 10-12mph slower.
If he is on his game his offspeads break at the front of the plate which is hard to pick up and he throws them for strikes.

BobbleheadDoll,

I hope you were kidding. Of course the clip is in slow motion. You can open animated GIFs in Quicktime and view the clip just like it's shown here or frame by frame. That is what I did. He's at least 33 frames from hand break to release. That's a pretty slow tempo based on what I've seen from high level hard throwing pitchers.

I mentioned the towel drill in my previous post. Has he used that drill at all?

Jason

BobbleheadDoll,

I wanted to thank you for posting a clip of your boy. It's not easy to do that and hear comments from strangers. Especially comments that aren't necessarily complimentary. Hopefully you understand that nothing I say is personal. I'm guessing your boy is a decent pitcher. I just think he could be better.

Of course that's only my opinion, which may or may not mean anything to you or anybody else for that matter.

Thanks again for sharing!

Jason

Flip I put it out so I can take the comments.

I can assure you that is slow MO campared to his delivery speed. I have the original of corse and that would put me to sleep if that was his full speed motion. I don't know why it is slower than the original but it looks like half speed.

quote:

I don't know why it is slower than the original but it looks like half speed.

It's always like this. You need to down load the clip and run it on your own computer to see the real speed. There are no duplicate frames, there are no dropped frames. When this is the case, you can generally count frames.

It appears there's 19 frames from hand break to release, which is pretty good, but 32 frames from high knee to release, which is pretty slow...if you want to compare his style/tempo to high velocity throwers.

This young man's mechanics show what hard work can do, very impressive. Love the way he gets out over his plant leg @ release. As Tx mentioned, he does appear to land on his heel rather than toe. Also, he "swings" his leg up a bit rather than lifting, might want to experiment a little there, these two may be related. This may help bring his windup delivery closer to stretch delivery and improve overall command. I am assuming his stretch will not want the lead leg to go back behind plant leg in order to help hold runners. Best of luck!

Thanks Yank.
His pickoff is excellent and head goes to the plate during the pickoff and trails back towards 1st base. He is actually looking at home plate when he starts to throw over.
At the top of his lift at balance point he goes straight out at a 45degree angle.
He upsets a lot of players and parents but not UMPs. Take more than 2 primary steps and you are usually gone.

BBscout I am not sure why the clip is so slow. Maybe Cap_n can explain. I was surprised when I saw it.
It was a fairly large file that I e-mailed. I could e-mail it to you.

Thanks Cap'n I was going to send him a bottle of Geritol.

BBscout I appreciate the advice.
I know that the hip turn was what he used to do until The head pitching scout from the Blue Jays stopped him a few years ago.
I don't know what cahnges his college coach has made. Havn't seen him since August.
I will mention your comments when I talk to him tonight.

Thanks

BobbleheadDoll,

I'm curious what you think of your son's delivery.

Jason

Based on results and lack of problems I think it is very good. He is effortless and releases his ball way out front. In the video which was a couple years ago he is not throwing with the intensity that he would show in a game situation. The full length video got raves from College coaches and several offers. Can't be too bad.
He is not as of yet a power pitcher but his control is usually excellent. There is always fine tunning and room for improvement.

I don't see anything "wrong" with the delivery so much. I do think he would pick up velocity if he broke his pitching hand from his glove a hair sooner, so that he could get the arm up in the back sooner and get his hand more out front at release. He has a slight arm drag and while this can increase "action" on the ball, particularly for a lefty, it does hinder velocity somewhat. But 84 mph for a lefty is fine, esp. if he has good off-speed stuff and good spot control. You may lose some tailing action as you get more out front on release, so you have to consider what's more important to you, what works best for him. Ultimately it's more important to get batters out than to light up RADAR guns.

quote:

Originally posted by BobbleheadDoll:
The full length video got raves from College coaches..

Who

BBscout my son rotated is hips slightly and the Scout emphatically told him not to. I even have it on video. He was running an instructional class and did a little demo. It was quite funny. Never forgot it.
I know some scouts have tried to shorten his arm motion. More like an infielders arm motion. he defintely gets more power when he does that.
Midlo makes a good point. Son actually slows himself down to get movement. Even Maddox does that.

Yes I watched it.
I am referring to an interview with Maddux's coach and he did not want him throwing in the 90s. He pointed out that he was more effective in the 80s. He pointed out that he was capable of throwing in the 90s but they backed him off.

I think you move your head a little too much. Most good pitchers hardly move their head throughout the whole delivery. They dont pull it to the opposite side

quote:

Originally posted by smokky1:
I think you move your head a little too much. Most good pitchers hardly move their head throughout the whole delivery. They dont pull it to the opposite side

This is such a load of nonesense.

There is no way you can throw without NOT moving your head at all. Especially to the side.
Take a look at some video of different pitchers. They ALL move their head to the side when they throw.

Rob,

The head is irrelevent after the ball is released....where ever your nose goes so will your back side, which has the ball in it....forward hand speed is important or should I say impairative (sp?)....if you don't have forward hand speed it makes if very difficult to get the ball to do what you want as well as locate it....I think if you look at video of successful MLB pitchers you will find that a great majority keep their nose on the catcher at least untill after they release the ball...if the head or any other part of the front side leaves early it will affect what the arm does...ie. it will not promote forward hand speed, can cause you to push the ball etc.....and with out that you can't throw CB's,SL's, Split's, CH's(w/ armside run/sink) or sinkers properly....

quote:

Originally posted by LOW337:
Rob,

The head is irrelevent after the ball is released....where ever your nose goes so will your back side, which has the ball in it....forward hand speed is important or should I say impairative (sp?)....if you don't have forward hand speed it makes if very difficult to get the ball to do what you want as well as locate it....I think if you look at video of successful MLB pitchers you will find that a great majority keep their nose on the catcher at least untill after they release the ball...if the head or any other part of the front side leaves early it will affect what the arm does...ie. it will not promote forward hand speed, can cause you to push the ball etc.....and with out that you can't throw CB's,SL's, Split's, CH's(w/ armside run/sink) or sinkers properly....

thats the way i was taught. Keep nose to the target. I had control problems before, but now i keep my nose the target and my control is much better.

Maddux is 26 frames to release in his clip.

33 is a lot if the goal is to throw hard. On the other hand, it is an easily identifiable place to pick up velocity. Get to 30 then 27. My bet us that there will be mph's there. I'll bet he can throw from the slide step as hard as he throws full windup. Am I close?

If he gets guys out then so be it. However if he he wants to throw harder...it's there for the taking.

Thanks for posting the clip. You do expose yourself when you do it but it is of great benefit to you and all involved.

Good luck.

quote:

Originally posted by LOW337:
.......I think if you look at video of successful MLB pitchers you will find that a great majority keep their nose on the catcher at least untill after they release the ball...

This is a great example of why "establishment" people are dangerous.

Watch the heads of these 5 pretty good pitchers before they release.

All righthanders. All have their head move significantly to the left to make room for their arm.

Mr LOW337. Just how can a pitcher get his arm perpendicular to his spine, which it has to be for maximum energy transfer, without moving his head aside? If he doesn't move his head he has to throw side arm.





Always.....compare what anyone tells you to video of the best doing it.

Info,

Can I borrow these clips?

Shep

That's what they are there for.

Hopefully you can pass them on to the establishment.