I’ve been thinking about pitchers who fall off the mound, and in this case, Felix Hernandez. It seems to me, that to get the hand over the ball and still throw 3/4, your upper half has to lean toward the left. This brings the thrower to the first base side naturally (righty), and creates the a natural follow-through for the three-quarters pitcher. I think for these pitchers, falling off of the mound makes that stress you’re talking about to a neutral and balanced state. Whereas someone like Mark Prior, who fell of the mound considerably, but covered his tracks by jumping toward home, is affected more. Prior threw overhand and because he was falling off the mound, it showed poor mechanics which may have lead to his injuries. After looking at many 3/4 pitchers, there seems to be a commonplace in falling off, which physically makes more sense. My hypothesis is that 3/4 pitchers should be falling off the mound to follow through in a neutral position, and thus vouching for pitchers who fall off to get the hand over the ball upon release and still stay closed through their delivery.
Does that make sense? I may be going in the wrong direction with this, but there seems to be no knowns in pitching, and I myself am wanting to learn more about it.
I’m naturally a position player, and am at a small private high school where I am expected to pitch. To me, pitching is fun, but I want to find good mechanics (nothing is set in stone) to fill for this spring. I definitely throw 3/4, there’s no going around that.
It has been reported that Felix threw 94 as a 14 year old. As I look for new mechanics and also keys for safety in accordance to injury, I want to make sure I model myself into a refined pitcher (while I intend to play college baseball and possibly bring pitching to the table). No pitcher is as impressive to me as Hernandez (and I’m an A’s fan). What can you tell me about Hernandez and what I can do as a high schooler to improve my game to a higher level?[/i]