http://tinyurl.com/6dur8c
By Alex Eisenberg
April 14, 2008
Over a year has past since Francisco Liriano underwent Tommy John surgery and
the much awaited return of Liriano came and went as the phenom threw his first
pitches since 2006 on Sunday.
Carlos Gomez, a former pro player, Hardball Times and Baseball Think Factory
writer, and now a pro scout for the Arizona Diamondbacks broke down Liriano's
mechanics last year shortly after Liriano's injury and had this to say:
"Leave the kid alone. Note to the Twins: Forget this ever happened. Change
nothing. Don’t slow him down. Don’t have his arm action get longer. This
is a fluke injury. His arm is getting used to the new stresses he is
putting on it. If anything, work on making the ligaments stronger. Train
the elbow to handle those new loads and more"
Of course, opinions varied. Chris O'Leary of The Pitching Mechanic said this:
"As it turns out, Liriano's mechanics resemble those of Mark Prior. This
makes it logical that Liriano would have similar problems."
Before getting into my opinion, let's do the before-and-after. First up is the
animation Gomez used for his analysis:
自從2006年Francisco Liriano受傷之後，不知不覺間已經過了一年多了...
Carlos Gomez，這位前THT的投球分析專家、現在響尾蛇隊的球探，在去年Liriano受傷後
曾寫了一篇分析文章，文章上這樣說：
"不要為了避免受傷去改姿勢，他已經習慣現在的姿勢了，這次的受傷只是個意外。如果真
的要做什麼改變的話，只需要再加強手肘部份以強化韌帶就夠了"
當然，也有人持相反意見，Chris O'Leary說：
"照現在的情況看來，Liriano的投球機制就像是Mark Prior，這也讓Liriano一直有傷病問
題"
在我的分析開始之前，先來看看Liriano受傷前後的幾段影片：
First thing we should take note of is the tempo, where the pre-injury Liriano
is faster. We can see this because the clip is synchronized to release and the
pre-injury Liriano has a higher leg kick and therefore a longer distance to
travel.
However, the key thing here is the arm action. Liriano showed off an earlier
hand break on Sunday, which isn't a good thing. The biggest arm action
difference is the scap load. In Gomez's words:
"Quick, aggressive, short. Yes, yes, and yes....Frame 20—Look at that
position. You will see a still shot of this position later. WOW!! Look at
the level of horizontal loading of the arm. In other words, he reaches
back well. Not towards 2nd base, but towards 3rd base. Also note the elbow
above the arm. Love it."
What about now?
The differences look pretty obvious. Gone is the pre-injury horizontal loading,
where he would load his arm toward third base (not second) and would bring his
elbow above shoulder's height.
Gomez also said this:
"He doesn’t have the separation between upper and lower body as a lot of
power guys. His hips lead, but it seems like he rotates upper and lower
body as a unit more than a lot of power pitchers."
This aspect does remain the same. Without that separation, Liriano might
possibly have needed his pre-injury arm action to produce the kind of quality
stuff he threw. And that is the question: was his pre-injury arm action the key
factor in the quality stuff he threw?
A couple still shots to illustrate the differences below. Both stills are
immediately before the forearm rises above the elbow and gets ready to assume
a throwing position.
The image on the left (5 frames before release) is one of the stills Gomez used
in his analysis. The image on the right (6 frames before release) is Liriano on
Sunday:
首先會先注意到的是節奏，受傷前的Liriano比較快。他有較高的抬腿和更長的跨步。
不過，真正的重點是揮臂。在週日的復出戰中，Liriano表現了一個較早啟動的揮臂，這不
是件好事。可以在scap load（手臂往後拉的動作）中看出這之間的差異。在Gomez之前的
分析中提到：
"快，又有侵略性...哇，看看他現在的手臂，向後拉得多漂亮？能量累積得真好。注意他
的手肘比手臂高，好傢伙"
那現在呢？
沒了，好動作通通都沒了。
另外Gomez也有提到：
"和一般的強力投手不同的，他上下半身協調的很好，在開始轉腰的時候看來就像是完整的
個體"
Liriano還是有保持這項優點。也許只要找回揮臂動作就能找回之前的stuff。問題來了：
揮臂動作是Liriano受傷前那種stuff的來源嗎？
再來看看幾張揮臂時的圖片吧：
The major differences are boiled down to two still images. An aggressive fury
of power and momentum on the left and a safer, controlled action on the right.
My opinion? I prefer guys with aggressive mechanics but to do everything
possible to lower the risk of injury without hurting the quality of the
pitcher's stuff. You have a risk/reward scenario here.
If I had a choice of:
A.) taking the pre-injury Liriano with the pre-injury mechanics or
B.) taking Liriano with "safer" mechanics but producing only #3 starter stuff
I would take choice A. Any starter that can give you quality innings is
valuable, but true #1 starters, true aces are of an extremely rare breed. So I
take my chances. The question I have is if his mechanics can be altered to
where the quality of his stuff rises close to where it was before, but also
lessens the risk of injury.
Enough About Mechanics, What About Results?!?!
His fastball, normally 93 - 95, sat at around 90 while his slider lacked that
hard bite we're used to seeing. Both pitches also lacked oomph.
As expected, Liriano was rusty. He didn't command his pitches all that well.
However, it isn't his control I would worry about. We need to see if his stuff
can return to the quality it once was or at least get close to it.
One start is hardly enough to make the judgements on, so my advice would be to
sit back, see how he develops, and make changes only when (or if) it becomes
obvious his stuff isn't coming back. When that moment is only his coaches can
decide.
受傷前的動作看來充滿侵略性、power、和動量。受傷後看來是個比較溫和而容易控制的動
作。
我的意見？我希望在不降低投手的stuff的情況下來減少受傷的風險。假如給我兩個選項：
A.)照舊
B.)現在的姿勢，降低受傷風險，但也使stuff下降到三號投手的水準
我會選A。一個工作馬很有價值，但一個真正的ACE更加難得。我現在對他的疑問是，他能
不能在降低受傷風險的同時回復他以往的stuff？
所以，結果呢？
速球大概在90mph左右，滑球犀利度不若以往，現在的動作看來缺少活力。
Liriano現在的投球看來還還有點生疏，有點不太能控制球。當然，我不擔心這一點，比較
要注意的是stuff能不能回到過去？
當然，一場比賽的樣本數還不太夠，我會再多觀察幾場，要是他的stuff還回不來的話我會
再寫出我的建議。