Posted by Doug Thorburn on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 7:44 pm

The top of this year’s draft was not as arm-centric as 2009, when 9 of the first 12 picks were pitchers, and 19 of 32 overall. This year the top dozen were balanced at six bats and six arms, and the trend continued throughout the first round, finishing with 15 pitchers among the first 32 players chosen. 

Ole Miss left-hander Drew Pomeranz was anointed the title of “top college arm” in a draft that was shallow in southpaws, landing him in Cleveland at #5 overall as the second pitcher off the board. Solid and projectable, Pomeranz was seen as a safe choice that could reach the majors quickly, in contrast to the risk/reward of a younger player like Jameson Taillon. In fact, the pre-draft profiles for these two hurlers could not be much more different.

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Drew Pomeranz

LHP, 6’5”, 235 lbs, Ole Miss

Pick #5 overall, Cleveland Indians

The disparity extends to mechanics, as Taillon and Pomeranz are night and day when it comes to how they deliver a baseball. We get some different angles for the scouting video of Pomeranz at mlb.com (found here), with a camera behind the plate and some views from each baseline. There are also a few warm-up pitches to dodge before getting to the good stuff.

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First Movement to Foot Strike

Pomeranz has a motion that starts out polished, with steady balance as he gets into max leg lift. The left-hander also does a great job of directing his linear momentum toward the plate immediately from the setup position, which can be seen with the side view starting at 0:17 into the clip. Everything from first movement to maximum leg lift is mechanically sound.    

The delivery begins to unravel as Pomeranz approaches foot strike. His momentum takes a hit after max leg lift, and the lefty fails to capitalize on the strong elements earlier in the kinetic chain. The result is a stride that is shorter than one would expect from a pitcher with such impressive early momentum. The progression for Pomeranz is the exact opposite of Jameson Taillon, who starts off shaky before gathering balance and momentum as he hits his stride.

Pomeranz does exhibit good tightrope balance with opposite and equal arm angles into foot strike, though his method of finding opposite-and-equal is unique.

I rarely focus on arm action, given an adherence to the concept of, “the arm belongs to the pitcher.” It is also very difficult to assess the throwing arm using standard video, because the arm is moving much too fast for the eyes to catch up. That said, Pomeranz’s arm action is such that it needs to be addressed, with a funky PS arm that looks like something straight out of a George Clinton video.

Pomeranz pronates his throwing arm extremely early in the pitch sequence, beginning when the hands separate after max leg lift. Pronation refers to how the arm rotates or twists. To see for yourself, hold out your arms with palms facing downward, and then rotate the forearms so that the thumbs point toward the ground (like turning a doorknob).

Every pitcher experiences pronation at some point in the delivery. It’s a biomechanical inevitability that a pitcher’s arm will pronate after release point on every pitch, as a safety mechanism. The opposite of pronation is supination (rotate thumbs toward the sky), a karate chop motion that is a key component of most breaking pitches. 

Early pronation is common on changeups, and is necessary for a pitcher that throws a circle change. Pomeranz does have an effective circle change in his arsenal, but nearly every pitch that he throws features early pronation, and the degree of pronation varies based on pitch type.

The unusual technique could be a natural aspect of Pomeranz’s signature, though it is difficult to ascertain from a handful of pitches on 32 fps video, and in the footage it appears that he is manipulating the early pronation beyond signature.

The worry here is with the curveball, which requires supination to be executed properly. The curveball is already a physically demanding pitch, due to the amount of pronation necessary to rotate the arm out of its supinated position after release point. If Pomeranz is beginning with a pronated forearm before supinating the curveball, then the arm is doing a lot of extra work while complicating the pitch sequence.

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Foot Strike to Release Point

Pomeranz uses more of his upper body to generate torque and velocity, creating solid hip-shoulder separation despite a modest hip-turn.

The delivery gets progressively worse as Pomeranz continues down the kinetic chain. The slowed momentum takes away from his ability to track toward the plate after foot strike, and outstanding balance falls apart as Pomeranz tilts his head and spine severely to the glove side.

The posture is of particular concern. The lefty contorts his spine like he’s trying to dodge a bullet in the Matrix, bending like the head of a hockey stick by the time he releases the baseball. Pomeranz has probably been encouraged throughout his career to “get on top of the ball,” and it’s clear that that he is physically altering his natural balance to achieve a higher arm slot.

Many pitching coaches place a heavy emphasis on the angle of an incoming pitch from the point of view of opposing hitters. Pitchers are encouraged to adjust their natural deliveries to create that angle, and the prevailing instruction is to throw over-the-top.

The goal of throwing over-the-top is to generate downhill plane, resulting in more groundballs and minimizing the platoon advantage of off-handed hitters. It’s the corollary to the idea that guys with low arm slots have heavy platoon splits.

Left-handed starters are specifically targeted for downhill plane, due to the preponderance of right-handed hitters they have to face. There are about 65% more right-handed batters in the majors than there are lefties, according to The Book, and opposing managers are notorious for stacking the lineup against left-handed starting pitchers.

In general, breaking balls are tougher on like-sided hitters, while off-speed pitches are more effective when facing bats from the opposite side. The changeup is thus a key pitch for southpaw starters.

There’s not much debate to this concept, but what often gets overlooked is the necessary mechanical tradeoff of creating angle on hitters. Postural stabilization is one of the most critical variables in the mechanical efficiency equation, and sacrificing posture to create angle raises a variety of red flags.

Poor posture is a precursor to injury, which is reason enough to seriously question the balance of pros and cons with an over-the-top delivery. On the mound, an unstable posture typically leads to an inconsistent release point, throwing a wrench into pitch command and control. The inappropriate head movement also costs a pitcher distance on his release point, and spine tilt as extreme as that of Drew Pomeranz can cost the pitcher up to 5 mph of perceived velocity. That’s the brief version, but we go much more in-depth on the issue in “Arm Action” (shameless plug).

The release point distance is restricted due to the combination of poor posture, a moderate stride, and a soft glove. Pomeranz has a funky glove that mimics the throwing arm, pronating the GS arm so that the mitt points toward the ground, rather than swiveling the glove palm-up. Pomeranz stabilizes the glove out in front, though he lets it swing wide compared to an ideal position over the front foot.

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Grades

Balance                                    45

Momentum                               50

Stride                                         50

Hip-Shoulder Separation      55

Posture                                     35                   

Glove Position                         45

Repetition                                 40

GPA: 45.7

The individual grades for Pomeranz reflect a stark contrast from those of Jameson Taillon, despite their similar GPA’s. Pomeranz hovers close to the middle of the bell curve for nearly every measure, whereas Taillon drifts toward the extremes.

Pomeranz does not have anything that grades out as exceptional, and only his hip-shoulder separation appears to be above average. The strongest mechanical points are his balance and momentum during the earliest phase of the delivery, but those grades are tempered due to poor adjustments after max leg lift, resulting in average marks overall.  

The left-hander also struggles with his repetition, with pitch-by-pitch variations in mechanics, timing, and sequencing. For example, the degree of spine tilt differs on every pitch, as does the time that Pomeranz initiates the posture change. In the scouting video, head movement begins prior to foot strike on most of the off-speed pitches, but it doesn’t kick in until after foot strike for the fastballs.

The result is an inconsistent release point, which explains the poor walk rate at Ole Miss this season (4.4 BB/9). The pitch-specific tendencies will also function to tip his pitches against advanced hitters, and Pomeranz will need to improve his timing consistency in order to succeed at the highest level.

Pomeranz has room for improvement across the board, but he lacks the raw components to reach the ceiling of a player like Taillon. Pomeranz is physically more mature, but he has much further to go in order to achieve elite-level mechanics, and will likely never match Taillon’s current grades for hip-shoulder separation or posture. Taillon has a slightly higher mechanics GPA now, and is likely to expand that gap over the next few years.

Taillon is the easier project, from a coach’s standpoint. Improved conditioning and a couple of early mechanical tweaks will shore up his weak links, whereas Pomeranz will need to make more dramatic adjustments to his delivery, even if the arm funk is left untouched. The college product has mechanics that have been hard-wired through experience, and it will be a greater challenge for him to realize improvements.

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The Pomeranz delivery begins as a work of art, but it ends up a dilapidated mess. The arm funk might be the least of his worries, and it’s surprising that his draft stock was not impacted by the odd arm action. Teams typically stray away from anything unorthodox, especially when it comes to pitchers. I am less than optimistic about his chances to quickly climb the minor league ladder, and though he has the potential to make some substantial improvements, there are steep steps to climb before he gets there.