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One of Bill James' best observations was one that pertained to young, finesse left hand starters.  "Check his balance," he said.  "If he's graceful, if he's balanced, he's got a shot.  If he's clumsy, he's got no chance."  Or somesuch.

Suppose that you stood up right now and practiced something in very slow motion -- say, your runner's stance in the blocks, or your pitching motion, or your tennis serve?  What do you suppose would be the first thing you'd notice?

You'd notice the fact that you toppled over sideways while trying to hold a position.  :- )

If you can pause pretty well with your righty pitching motion... try it lefty.  Now you feel like Smoak.

We Americans have cruddy balance, really cruddy, SUPER cruddy.  We're big and awkward and clumsy and move like baboon with two club feet, not that anybody would ever accuse Justin Smoak of this.  The Japanese think of America as the land of the powerful but unreliable.

You're in runner's stance, in the blocks, and take one hand off the ground and.... whoops!   You're pitching and you try to "pause at the top" and ... whoops!  You fell over.

Japanese pitchers do a lot of this, pausing at the top, and Americans think that they're just being goofy.  Like we always say, it's hard to think when you're sneering.  The Japanese pitchers do it RIGHT IN FRONT OF US and we are totally impervious to benefitting from the display -- we have absolutely titanium-class armor plating against the threat of learning anything.  It's called condescension.

In golf they do this.  "Pause at the top."  The idea is to check your balance, and therefore the precision with which you can deliver the club to the target.  How do you deliver a baseball bat to 1/8 inch tolerance, if your eyes wobbled back-and-forth 3 inches during your swing?

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There are some spots in the movement you can't hold.  A pitcher is hurtling through the air on his followthrough.  He has catapulted himself, has released the energy.  

But!  That doesn't mean he didn't benefit from "correcting" his motion through slo-mo's and still shots.  The mechanics take a naturally "longer" form as they accelerate.  The form is still true to the template -- just stretched like a rubber band.

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Jamie Moyer, and Greg Maddux, seemed able to "pause" their motions at virtually any point.  And what caused this ability to perform their motions in slo-motion?  

Balance, of course.  And what resulted from this balance?  Precision, in delivering the energy to the target more accurately.

Randy Johnson's an epic example.  Early in his career he leaned over way backwards at the waist, and had no idea where the ball would end up.  He fixed his career simply by gaining his balance at two points:

• "at the top"
• at footstrike

There is no overstating the importance of balance in sports.

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We haven't even talked about leverage and power.

Can you pick up a washing machine, if standing on one foot, leaning over, on an icy driveway?  Does a human being's balance affect his power?  I don't know - do his muscles affect his power?  How do you answer that?

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You ask whether I think it matters, that Justin Smoak was off balance last year, and that he'll be on balance this year?  :: shrug ::  You can imagine asking an aikido teacher.  Sensei, do you really care whether I learn to stay on my feet while I deal with a shomenuchi attack, or is it okay if I trip while I do it?  What is the appropriate response to that question?  To check the student into a 12-step clinic, or what?

Did it matter when Randy Johnson found his balance?  Does it matter when any athlete learns how to control his body?

Now, balance-vis-a-vis-precision, that only addresses the question of a hitter covering the ball.  There are a lot of other hitting questions to deal with.

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