From the Archives: Outside Pitch
A little Sunday reading for you…
Mike Marshall is probably the most polarizing figure in the (small) world of pitching mechanics. His ideas are so drastically different from the norm that it is difficult for people to take him seriously. Also, a lack of results in pro baseball have given his doubters more ammunition.
Marshall claims that his style of pitching a baseball will end arm injuries, and allow pitchers to throw more efficiently than they do now. While the second claim has been refuted by many, and I don’t agree with Marshall on that point either, the claim that pitcher health is all but certain is pretty much accepted. But are people willing to give up performance in exchange for health? There are ways of incorporating some of Marshall’s teachings into the current pitching motion that could greatly increase the chances of staying healthy. Guys like Roger Clemens and Dan Haren, whether knowingly or not, display certain aspects of the Marshall pitching motion. You can find the Jeff Passan article on Yahoo right here.
If you would like to learn more about the Marshall pitching motion specifically, you can visit his site here (be warned, it’s a HUGE amount of reading), or read a primer by Chris O’Leary here.
For those of you who missed it the first time, the Jeff Passan Yahoo article is below.
