Pitching 3D: Intriguing Arms of the NL Central

With the stability portion of our program in the books, today we'll kick off the power element of pitching mechanics, turning our attention to the pitchers of the NL Central and the mechanical dimension of momentum. Once again, we'll take a three-pronged approach to pitcher evaluation, utilizing stats, stuff and mechanics to study one pitcher for each organization.

Momentum

This is probably the most controversial topic on the mechanics report card. A common refrain that's heard from both scouts and coaches is for a pitcher to not "rush" through his delivery, often paired with instructions to "stay back" to keep from going too quickly through the motion. That's with the bases empty, but with a runner on first base threatening to steal, all of a sudden the mandate becomes "go as fast possible" (i.e. use a slide step). It's a confusing message.

Momentum is measured as a pitcher's speed as he charges down the hill during the lift and stride phases of his delivery. The rationale of the slow-delivery advocates is to keep pitchers from exerting too much effort, as the common perception is that effort promotes undue stress and therefore encourages pitcher injuries. The problem with this rationale is that the "effort" in question is exerted by the pitcher's legs, not his arm.

Momentum is one of the two power subjects on the mechanics report card, along with torque (which will be covered next week). Personally, I like to see a pitcher with a generous burst of momentum that starts early in the delivery, as the extra charge allows the pitcher to lengthen his stride as well as his release point, while safely adding kinetic energy to the system. The preference didn't come out of thin air, but rather from studying the data from hi-speed 3D motion capture which demonstrated that: A) pitchers with strong momentum have deeper release points; B) pitchers with strong momentum are better at repeating the timing of lift and stride; and C) the greatest pitchers of the last several generations have utilized great momentum to their advantage.

Part A is critical yet under-appreciated, as a deep release point will increase the perceived velocity of a pitcher's fastball while his breaking stuff will feature later movement, giving the batter less time to identify the incoming pitch. Part B is true across sports, and while working with the folks at Titleist Golf we discovered that humans have a natural timing of weight shift that is remarkably stable across the population, averaging close to 1.0 seconds whether talking about a pitcher's lift-and-stride, a batter's weight shift or a golfer's swing.

Admittedly, parts A and B are based on information that was obtained in behind the scenes (though folks can check the book by me and Tom House to see the evidence), but part C is made obvious by spending a little bit of time in the video archives at MLB.com. Pedro Martinez had plus momentum, earning a 60-grade on the scouting scale. The charge of Randy Johnson was even better, grading out at a 65 thanks to an outstanding early move that led with the hip and got his momentum started at the beginning of the delivery. Nolan Ryan? Try 70-grade momentum and one of the deepest release points that the game has ever seen. The effort didn't stop him from pitching 27 seasons in the majors, including 22 of at least 150 innings pitched.

For 80-grade momentum look no further than Tim Lincecum:

Contrast the Lincecum delivery with the early motion of Lucas Giolito (clip is from 2012), whose delivery features 20-grade momentum that makes it look like he's pitching in slow motion during the lift and stride phases of his delivery:

In fact, momentum is the lesser-recognized element that made the high mounds of the 1960s such an advantage for pitchers. No pitcher was gaining the full height of the mound at release point because nobody releases the ball from directly on top of the stripe, 60 feet, six inches away; they all advance down the mound before releasing the baseball, traveling five-to-six feet on average and landing on a much lower part of the slope. What they did gain was an uptick of momentum, as the taller mound resulted in a steeper slope, allowing gravity to do its job. The result was a deeper release point that meant that pitchers were taking even less advantage of the mound's height, bringing them further down the mound and closer to ground level. Check out Bob Gibson. He sure didn't seem to be adhering to any "don't rush" tactics, instead charging like a freight train down the elevated mounds.

There are two phases to momentum. The first is from the moment that the front foot lifts off the ground until the knee reaches it's maximum height (a.k.a. the "top" of the delivery), and a pitcher with strong momentum will get going toward the target during the lift sequence such that the center-of-mass (approximated by the belt buckle) has already covered some ground at this point in the motion. The second phase occurs from max leg lift into foot strike (when the front foot touches back down), as the pitcher is advancing his stride down the slope of the mound. Some pitchers will have a weak first move but a strong second gear, others will exhibit a smooth acceleration throughout the phases of lift and stride and still others will slow down during the second phase of momentum. The momentum grade is impacted by these techniques.

Momentum is the least-weighted grade on the report card because it is paramount that a pitcher maintains elements such as balance and repetition above whatever momentum he brings to the table. From a coaching standpoint, the goal isn't to get a pitcher to go as far and as fast as he possibly can, but rather to go as far and as fast as he can while maintaining balance and utilizing a timing pattern that he can repeat. Low momentum is more acceptable if a pitcher receives high scores for balance and repetition, but most sought-after are those pitchers who can display a healthy combination of both power and stability.

(stats for stuff provided by Brooks Baseball)
Jake Arrieta
The Arrieta intrigue peaked at this time last year, and now the question is where he ranks among the greats of the game. That said, he's only two-and-a-half years removed from being cast away by the Orioles, and the secret to his success lies in his momentum, upping the factor of intrigue as it pertains to this stage of our mechanical romp through MLB.

Stats: For the first four years of his career, Arrieta compiled an ugly 5.23 ERA across72 starts and more than 400 innings. He was traded to the Cubs early in the 2013 season, and though he failed to inspire much confidence that year (total ERA of 4.78), he turned the tide as one of the most surprising pitchers of 2014 and won an NL Cy Young Award in 2015. Every part of his stat-line improved, but the most glaring stat is a walk rate that sunk from 10.2 percent in 2010-13 to just 6.0 percent over the last two seasons.

Stuff: Arrieta always had good stuff, even during his days of struggle. Through 2013, the right-hander had averaged 94.0 mph on his fastball with multiple breaking pitches that flashed plus, but his command of the arsenal left much to be desired. Then he gained a full tick to his fastball and his breaking pitches seemed to get sharper, with the curve and slider accounting for two-thirds of his strikeouts over the last two years.

Mechanics: His timing for lift-and-stride was incredibly volatile early in his career, a factor which wrecked his pitch command. Arrieta's tendencies to "stay back" and go slowly into foot strike muted his release distance, giving batters more time to pick up the spin on his breakers. In the past, he failed to generate the amount of kinetic energy that we see now, as Cubs pitching coach Chris Bosio has worked with Arrieta to find a more powerful stride, including more consistent momentum and timing.

Momentum Grade: 60

Stats: Cingrani has posted some ridiculously-high K rates at every stop, including 10.0 K/9 (26.1 percent) at the big-league level and an astounding 11.8 K/9 (33.9 percent) in the minors. Meanwhile, his penchant for the free pass has worsened to the point that it has tarnished the rest of his stat-line – in 2015, Cingrani's walk rate in 33.3 major-league innings was a horrific 6.8 BB/9 (16.1 percent). Walks weren't a problem for him in the minors (2.8 BB/9), so his struggles from 2015 may have been a blip on the radar.

Stuff: He brings league-average velocity to the table, even in shorter stints of relief, with a fastball that registered 92.9 mph on average last season. The value represented a half-tick increase from 2014 yet fell short of the boost that one might expect, though he displayed an ability to reach back for 95 mph at times. He threw the fastball a whopping 86.0 percent of the time in 2015, off-setting the heat with the occasional slider, often dropping the breaking ball on hitters in the first pitch of an at-bat to keep them from sitting dead-red on the fastball.

Mechanics: Deception is the name of the game for Cingrani, who keeps the upper-half closed (turned away from the hitter) so that the front shoulder doesn't "fly open," effectively hiding the ball from opposing bats. His pace to the plate is slow and his stride length is not impressive, earning Cingrani a lowly grade of 35 on the momentum scale.

Momentum Grade: 35

Stats: Jungmann came up in June of last season and enjoyed instant success, including a 2.42 ERA through his first 16 starts at the big-league level. He had a brutal final month, however, allowing 24 earned runs in his final five starts (22.7 innings) to raise his ERA to 3.77 by the end of the season.

Stuff: Perhaps he was gassed from pitching the longest season of his career (25 more innings than his previous high), leading to the rough finish. The counter-argument would cite the fact that Jungmann's league-average velocity remained very consistent throughout the season, even as he was getting lit – his September velocity of 92.2 mph was just a hair off his 92.5 mph average for the season. Jungmann mostly survives on two pitches, the fastball and a curve that he brings 25 percent of the time yet was responsible for the majority of his strikeouts last season.

Mechanics: His momentum is very interesting, but not because it's particularly fast or slow, but due to the off-angled course that Jungmann follows during the stride portion of his delivery. The right-hander takes aim at the third-base dugout, and then after foot strike he redirects everything back toward the plate. The fact that he is so far off-line effectively decreases his release distance in terms of progress toward the plate, a factor which knocks his momentum grade into below-average territory. He has one of the more extreme examples of a closed stride, such that he lands far to the arm-side of being lined up with his target, a tactic that often causes scouts to say that he "throws across his body."

Stats: Minor-league stats can be deceiving and some have cast a critical eye towards his numbers, questioning whether they'll translate to the bigs, but Glasnow has been a strikeout machine on virtually every rung of the minor-league ladder. He has 501 strikeouts over 383.1 frames of pro ball (11.8 K/9), including a robust 11.2 K/9 last season split between Double-A Altoona and Triple-A Indianapolis. He has proved to be extremely tough to hit (5.4 H/9) or take out of the yard (0.4 HR/9) during his career, and he has given up just six homers over the last two years combined (223.7 total innings). The only defense for opposing batters is to get on base via the walk, as Glasnow has posted 4.2 BB/9 in his minor-league career.

Stuff: We don't have Brooks data for Glasnow, but scouting reports have given him modest grades, fueling much of the skepticism that surrounds his long-term potential. The fastball sits in the low-to-mid 90s with late movement, a pitch that he offsets with a plus curveball and a changeup that could develop into an above-average pitch. The whole arsenal is solid yet underwhelming for a pitcher whose minor-league stats jump off the page.

Mechanics: Glasnow has one of the deepest release points in the minors. It looks a bit bizarre to focus on the part of the mound where the grass meets the dirt, because Glasnow's front foot lands close to the fairway and he releases the baseball far in front of that foot. His massive stride is fueled by plus momentum that works in conjunction with a big leg lift to delay foot strike, allowing him to track closer to the plate. He works to further extend his release point with solid posture and a stable glove position. Such impressive depth helps to explain the mismatch between Glasnow's numbers and his raw stuff.

Stats: Rosenthal led the charge of 100-strikeout relievers back in 2013, carrying a 34.7 percent K-rate to help personify an era of closers whose impact could be felt beyond the saves category. He hasn't reached the same level of strikeout efficiency nor pitched quite as many innings in either of the two seasons since, but Rosenthal has settled into a comfort zone that includes more than 80 strikeouts and at least 45 saves in both of the last two campaigns. The walk rate spiked in 2014 to 13.6 percent, but he corrected the problem last season with an 8.7 percent rate that was more in line with career norms.

Stuff: Not only has Rosenthal maintained his upper-90s velocity throughout his four years in the majors, but the right-hander also upped the ante in 2015 with an average velocity of 98.5 mph that was the highest of his career. His secondary of choice is an 87-89 mph "changeup" that can give batters fits in two-strike situations; he also throws a pair of breaking balls but everything plays off the fastball and its 76.9 percent usage pattern.

Mechanics: It's more common to find pitchers with big momentum in big-league bullpens, as the perceived effort attached to such deliveries is quite often deemed unfit for the workloads of a starting pitcher. Rosenthal is no exception, as the former starter brings a tremendous charge of momentum that – along with his triple-digit heat – strikes fear into the hearts of opposing batters. He doesn't utilize ideal technique, opting for a drop-n-drive strategy that lowers his Y-plane balance as he bursts toward the plate, but Rosenthal reaps advantages to his release distance as well as his overall mechanical efficiency that are rooted in his elite momentum.