Had a very strange conversation with a 14 year ML position player yesterday. We were watching a HS game, and I mentioned that the kid who was on the mound was having a lot of trouble when runners were on, compared to when they weren’t. That initiated a conversation that took place over a couple of innings, and one that quite frankly amazed me.
He basically took the position that it didn’t make any difference at all whether a P was throwing from the stretch or the windup, and I was taking the position that for most P’s, there is a definite difference, and it can range from just a little, to a whole lot.
We were really goin’ at it pretty good until I tricked him. I asked him if it was more likely that some kind of error would be made in something done with a lot of physical movements, or the same thing being done with just a few. He said, and I agree, that the more movements, the more likely an error of some type would be made.
The I asked him if the action was normally the same, which would be the most beneficial, the many movement execution, or the minimum movement execution. Again he said the minimum one because it would be more likely to be repeatable.
Finally I asked him if he was right and there was no difference between a P throwing from the windup or the stretch, why does any P throw from the windup? I had to chuckle because he didn’t have an answer.
Personally, I’ve tracked many of the differences between throwing from the stretch and the windup for a lot of years now, and I can tell you that in he HS and JUCO P’s I’ve scored, there is definitely a difference in the statistical numbers, and from watching the scouts, there sure seems to be a physical difference in things like velocity.
Anyone car to comment?
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