Marshall's Mechanics

Back in December, I published a piece called "How not to throw a baseball", which concerned Yankees' prospect Brett Marshall.  Marshall had TJ surgery last year, and I noted that a gif of him throwing in high school displayed awful mechanics.  Chief amongst my concerns was that Marshall didn't have his forearm vertical at footstrike. This means that when a pitcher's lead foot plants, his arm is supposed to be cocked and vertical, pointing up.  If it is "late", and is horizontal or even pointing down (a la BJ Ryan and Yankees RHP David Robertson, sadly), then you place stress on the elbow ligaments and seemingly increase your risk for rupturing those ligaments and needing Tommy John surgery.  For reference, here is the gif again:

 

Yankees blog NoMaas published an interview with Brett Marshall on Thursday.  Check out this exchange midway through the interview:

GW: Are you planning on changing your mechanics at all due to the injury?
BM: I’ve been working on my mechanics since pitching instructs, since day one basically. I think [my mechanics] hurt me from throwing so much in high school. I played every position there was and never really gave my arm a break. I just had bad mechanics back then. I look at them now and they were not good at all. I’d mainly leave my arm behind and have to catch it up which puts a lot of stress on the elbow.

Emphasis mine.  Marshall is spot-on.  This was exactly my concern, and it is good to see that Marshall will attempt to rectify the problem upon his return.  I'd be interested to know whether this was something that Marshall realized on his own or had explained to him by Yankee staff.  I'm guessing it is the latter, which is encouraging.  Of course, it will remain to be seen if Marshall can recover from TJ, and if his revised mechanics will mean a loss of effectiveness.  One always has to wonder if the risky mechanics a pitcher employs are the reason that the pitcher is able to garner the velocity he needs to be successful, and whether he will still be able to pitch at the same level if he alters them. 

If you have a chance, make sure to check out the interview.  It's an interesting read, especially the parts in which he discusses how the Yankees modified his repetoire. 

How not to throw a baseball

I was doing a little reading on Dellin Betances this morning, and was reminded that he had TJ surgery at the end of 2009. This was disappointing to me because Betances was one of my favorite Yankees' prospects. He's a 6'8", lanky, hard-throwing right-hander from the South Bronx, and he has oodles of upside. Unfortunately, he's been unable to stay healthy.

This led me to remember another Yankees' prospect, Brett Marshall, who was the Yankees 6th round pick in 2008 who had an inconsistent debut in Single A ball as a 19-year old. Despite that, Marshall remains a very high upside prospect for the Yankees.

I don't want to bite Baseball Intellect's material, so I'll simply point you in their direction for a great read on Marshall's mechanics in high school. It's certainly possible that the Yankees' minor league staff made some changes to his mechanics, but given their seemingly poor record with prospects and TJ surgery, I tend to doubt it. Here's BI's gif of Marshall throwing:



There's a lot not to like. Everything's out of joint, timing wise. He elevates his pitching elbow far above his shoulder. His pitching forearm isn't vertical at footstrike. He hyperextends his knee at footplant, thereby increasing the load on his knee. It's obvious that Marshall was an injury risk; the question is whether he would make the necessary alterations to maintain his health. The other big question is whether he's even able to throw with decent velocity and control without employing the risky mechanics that he does.

We'll have to wait to find out. Marshall had Tommy John surgery at the end of 2009.