Insider - Ian Snell's Mechanical Flaws
=== All Apologies Dept. ===
We write for our friends, not for folks we're hoping will do something about something. But we hope you'll forbear an exception here :- )
Ian Snell has a fundamentally sound pitching motion. But he has one fatal flaw and one painful flaw.
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=== Pop-a-Shot Dept. ===
Ian Snell is throwing the ball with his left ear.
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My basketball sensei is a guy who starred in major-college basketball, set free throw records for his school, coached a big-time high school program, etc etc.
He was a fine baseball player, a star football player, is a single-digits scratch golfer, excellent bowler, etc. He is a genuine Master of sports kinetics, and was the one who helped me learn how to transfer kinetics from one sport to another -- when a principle crosses sports and when it does not.
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In basketball, the two most important shooting fundamentals are (2) vertical forearm at release, and (1) steady head and eyes during the throughstroke.
If you are moving your head even a few inches during your stroke, that is exactly the same thing as shooting the ball at a basket that is moving like a pop-a-shot arcade. The basket moves relative to your eyes -- whether the basket is moving, or your eyes are.
You can't even try to shoot a basketball effectively if your eyes are in motion, sideways, as you stroke the ball.
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In order to accelerate the baseball, Ian Snell holds his chin too high. This creates the "vertigo" effect as if you were falling backwards. There is nothing you can do, to throw yourself off balance, that is worse than looking up toward the sky.
Watch other ML pitchers throw, and you will see that they keep their chins lower than Snell does during his motion.
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But the real problem is: he JERRRRRKS his head around to 1B, in order to get extra torque on his shoulders. His eyes leave the centerline early, and they leave the CL violently, and his head rotates farther toward 1B than other pitchers' heads do.
This not only throws him off balance at the worst possible moment, but..
It causes the plate to move in pop-a-shot fashion, and
Most disturbingly, it implies that he is getting power from the wrong places.
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=== Phillippe Aumont Dept. ===
Most (but not all) ML pitchers have their knees flexed as they decelerate -- when their CGs travel forward, their front legs are strong enough so that they can stay mobile over their front knees.
Snell practically hyperextends his front knee on decel. This is of course a radically unbalanced and violent deceleration.
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=== Timothy Gallwey Dept. ===
Obviously, Snell is capable of throwing with good command, because in 2006-07 he actually did so. IIRC his BB's were 2+ in those seasons.
I haven't even looked it up, but can tell you without checking, that Snell was not using his head to drag his shoulders around the corner in those seasons.
Mechanics usually deteriorate because of attitude problems. Snell's "greedy," anxious body movements suggest that he is simply throwing too max-effort out there.
He needs to get his power from his front hip and torsion, while keeping his head surgeon-calm and "observing" the action, so to speak. If he is snapping his head around to 1B early, he is going to lose command.
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=== No Worries Dept. ===
Snell has the real live fastball as advertised, and has shown #1-2 starter stuff in the past. D-O-V denizens can keep an eye on the lead ear and on the decel, and as soon as M's coaches (or Snell's attitude) takes care of the problem, the M's look like they have a TOR starter.
Wash wasn't gonna be. :- )
BABVA,
Jeff