Down goes Johan!

So, Johan Santana out for the year with minor elbow surgery. I'm no expert on pitching mechanics, but I did write this about him back in June:

Johan Santana - MEH. Elevates the elbow above the pitching shoulder, but doesn't seem to suffer injury. One of the more perplexing ones out there.

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I have said elsewhere that I do not like to see the pitching elbow elevated above the shoulder. Santana appears to do that. I say appears because this is obviously very inexact. Here are a few samples:





Now, like I said, I'm not an expert. I'm also certain you could find plenty of images in which Santana is not elevating his elbow over his pitching shoulder. Using images is the most imprecise way of evaluating mechanics (save watching it live, perhaps). Yet, I can't help but wonder if arm injuries follow trends, and if poor pitching mechanics led to Santana's injury. I won't say that there's causality, but it is enough to make me wonder.

Mechanics Part 2

Today I will continue my rundown of my likes and dislikes of the mechanics of each starter in the bigs. Last time out we looked at the NL East. Today we will look at the AL East.

Yankees
CC Sabathia - LOVE. Like Hamels, a dream.
AJ Burnett - HATE. So many things wrong.
Chien-Ming Wang - used to be a LOVE, now its a HATE. The change no doubt affects his performance. He's dragging his arm late through the zone, which puts greater stress on the shoulder and decreases his ability to effect downward sink on the ball. Thus, tired arm, no sinking fastball.
Andy Pettitte - LOVE.
Joba Chamberlain - MEH. Can't decide on ole Jobber.
Phil Hughes - used to be LOVE, now its a MEH. His arm seems late through the zone too. Scary.

Red Sox
Josh Beckett - MEH. Elevates the pitching elbow a bit too high for my liking.
Jon Lester - LOVE. He's due for a down year because of the Verducci Effect, but I like his long-term chances. And it saddens me.
Dice BB - LOVE. Looks a lot like Kuroda mechanics-wise. Very sound.
Brad Penny - HATE. Like Rich Harden, opens his body early and decreases his ability to generate torque with his lower half. This puts greater strain on the arm.
Tim Wakefield - LOVE. Whatever, honestly.
Clay Buchholz - MEH. See Phil Hughes, same concerns.

Rays
Scott Kazmir - HATE.
James Shields - LOVE
David Price - LOVE. In my top 5 of mechanics-love
Andy Sonnannstine - HATE.
Jeff Niemann - HATE. Not long for this world...

Blue Jays
Roy Halladay - LOVE
Brian Tallet - MEH
Ricky Romero - MEH
Shawn Marcum - HATE
Scott Richmond - MEH
Casey Janssen - MEH

Orioles
Jeremy Guthrie - LOVE
Everyone else will be gone next year.

"I'm not crazy about his mechanics..."

Recently DomeDog and I were having a friendly conversation about a baseball player and I remarked that I disliked said player's pitching mechanics. He responded by calling me a mechanics nazi. This is probably a fair charge. But then I realized that it is possible that some people think I'm full of shit about mechanics, because I never lay it all out there at once. So, I have decided to publish, division by division, team by team, which MLB starting pitchers I love and which starting pitchers I hate. Mechanically speaking. I'm also including a "meh" list, because there are some that I cannot decide on. We will start with...NL East.


The New York Metropolitans
Johan Santana - MEH. Elevates the elbow above the pitching shoulder, but doesn't seem to suffer injury. One of the more perplexing ones out there.
John Maine - HATE.
Oliver Perez - MEH.
Livan Hernandez - LOVE. Makes me sick to say so.
Mike Pelfrey - LOVE. Sad that they've overworked him so far.

Philadelphia Phillies
Cole Hamels - LOVE. Like a dream.
Jamie Moyer - LOVE. Dude is doin something right.
Brett Myers - LOVE.
Joe Blanton - MEH.
Antonio Bastardo - LOVE.
Thumbs up to the Phils.

Florida Marlins
Josh Johnson - HATE.
Andrew Miller - HATE.
Chris Volstad - MEH
Sean West - MEH
Ricky Nolasco - LOVE to MEH. Hard to tell.


Atlanta Braves
Derek Lowe - LOVE
Javier Vazquez - LOVE
Tommy Hanson - LOVE
Jair Jurrjens - LOVE
Kenshin Kawakami - LOVE
5 stars.

Washington Nationals
Stephen Strasburg - HATE
There is no one else on this team worth discussing.