My rant on the pitching motion

[realmofotalk]

I strongly assert that if America wants to save baseball and their players' arms, the way that pitchers throw a baseball must change, pronto. Major league batters overall are too damn good nowadays and pitchers can't blow away the opposition with natural velocity, so some of them try to exert max effort on every pitch, while others toy with breaking pitches and experiment with throwing sidearm, but eventually the only bowing out is done to elbow ligaments, the rotator cuff, labrum, biceps nerve, triceps nerve, you name it. It is a travesty that many potentially great pitchers have had their playing careers ended on a major injury. It is equally disturbing that this has been happening for decades even with the availability of reconstructive surgery. It's not okay to just say, "It happens all the time." If everyone knew from the beginning that the pitching motion is unnatural and extremely taxing on the arm, why hasn't anything been done about it in over a hundred years?

[HollywoodLeo]

How do you propose they pitch instead?

[GiantsFanatic]

I think the biggest problem is the radar gun, majority of the pitchers in HS/College/Minor leagues who throw hard have egos IMO, and they wanna impress the scouts by showing how hard they can throw, they tend to forget about the fundamentals of the game, especially in baseball cities where kids play baseball year round as oppose to just once.

[realmofotalk]

How do you propose they pitch instead?

A Ph.D. in exercise physics and kinesiology is more qualified to answer that question, but even most people in baseball view Mike Marshall as a mad scientist more than anything. I don't know if his prescribed unorthodox pendulum pitching motion will produce better big league pitchers, but he swears that his methods significantly lower the risk of arm injuries.

Personally, I'd like the return of a baseball that's naturally harder for batters to hit. That way, pitchers wouldn't have to use max effort on their pitches and the fences don't have to moved back (otherwise there is more space in the outfield for balls to drop) as the only way to please pitchers.

[love_that_reefer]

Pitchers need to build their arms more like in the old days when Gibson and Marichal pitched. They would throw all the time and build their arms. They would even throw BP in between starts and they had four man rotations. Pitchers these days don't do this and are on pitch counts. I threw long toss all the time until I got to college and then they had me cut back and my shoulder gave out and I was an OFer!!! Little League coaches need to stop their sons from throwing curve balls and other junk at 10 years old.

[HollywoodLeo]

A Ph.D. in exercise physics and kinesiology is more qualified to answer that question, but even most people in baseball view Mike Marshall as a mad scientist more than anything. I don't know if his prescribed unorthodox pendulum pitching motion will produce better big league pitchers, but he swears that his methods significantly lower the risk of arm injuries.

Personally, I'd like the return of a baseball that's naturally harder for batters to hit. That way, pitchers wouldn't have to use max effort on their pitches and the fences don't have to moved back (otherwise there is more space in the outfield for balls to drop) as the only way to please pitchers.

I found this on YouTube when searching for "mike Marshall pitching"

It's titled "how the average pitcher can throw 90plus mph & b(sic) injury free"



If that's all it really takes then I definitely agree with your rant.*

For a second there I thought you may have been suggesting something unorthodox.

* - Of course, I don't really know if that's an actual video put together by Mike Marshall or if someone just read his material and taped himself.

[Saber]

Mike Marshall is considered less a "mad scientist" than a "huge asshole" in the baseball community.

Nevertheless, the pitching motion is what it always has been, unnatural, and pitchers now must use maximum effort for all pitches, unlike players in the past. You can only manage and minimize the harm.

[HollywoodLeo]

Moving this to the baseball discussion forum.

[iamjetblack]

maybe more like girls fast pitch softball??

[love_that_reefer]

Then no one would be able to hit the ball. There was this show call Sports Science on Fox Sports where they proved that it was harder to hit a softball than a baseball. Maybe it had something to do with Jennie Finch throwing but it was still very interesting. So now hitting a softball is the hardest thing to do in sports.