Scott Dolan Posted July 20, 2015 Report Share Posted July 20, 2015 Actually, his foot is about 22-24" from the rubber. Not 60. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GA Russell Posted July 20, 2015 Report Share Posted July 20, 2015 This reminds me of the NBA ca. 1970 deciding not to call travelling, fouls and stepping off on the pivot foot.But why didn't you feel that way when every other pitcher pitching from the stretch wasn't getting called for balking when their back foot left the rubber before the ball left their hand? Scott, what you say is news to me. It's been quite a while since I saw a big league game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dolan Posted July 20, 2015 Report Share Posted July 20, 2015 (edited) GA, here is a slo-mo of Zack Greinke, one of the best pitchers in the game currently sporting 43.2 scoreless innings for the Dodgers. just as an example. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iRPtVfEz4es Edited July 20, 2015 by Scott Dolan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gould Posted July 20, 2015 Report Share Posted July 20, 2015 Anyone examining that video should appreciate the massive difference between Grienke's motion, in which his foot has travelled perhaps 6-12 inches from the rubber when he releases the ball, and Capps who is about 6 feet closer to the plate when he releases the ball.It's a completely unfair competitive advantage, for a guy who doesn't need it considering he throws three-digit gas and has a wipe out slider now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dolan Posted July 20, 2015 Report Share Posted July 20, 2015 He's closer to home plate (though not anywhere near 6ft closer) mostly due to his long stride and absurdly low arm angle. Kind of reminds me of Joakim Soria to a certain degree. But, I posted the video as a response to those who thought it was a balk simply because his back foot left the pitching rubber before the ball was released. The back foot has been leaving the pitching rubber before the ball is released since before I was born. None of this is to say that what he's doing won't be addressed in the offseason. But, as of right now, it's most definitely not a balk, and deemed a legal pitch by the league office. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gould Posted July 20, 2015 Report Share Posted July 20, 2015 The diameter of a pitcher's mound is 18 feet. The rubber is in the middle, making it 9 feet to the leading edge. The video shows him releasing the ball practically on that edge. There's also this from the article: According to data belonging to Major League Baseball Advanced Media, Capps gains an extra 8.2 feet with the extension in his delivery — a half-foot more than any other big-league pitcher — thus shrinking the distance to home plate from 60 feet 6 inches to 52 feet 4 inches.So you're right, it's not six feet closer. He's 8 feet closer. But if everyone else is about two feet closer (the Grienke vid looks more like a foot, but still) ... then he is in fact six feet closer than almost any other pitcher. SRead more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/mlb/miami-marlins/article27416770.html#storylink=cpy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dolan Posted July 20, 2015 Report Share Posted July 20, 2015 (edited) Again, his very low arm angle and long stride play more into that then the hop/slide step. Greinke's back foot comes down around 18" from the rubber. Capps looks to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 30" max. So, a difference of maybe one foot. But release point, not foot placement, is what we're talking about here. From your quote: a half-foot more than any other big-league pitcherDoes that give him an advantage? Of course. It's the same reason why Randy Johnson was so successful as well. What was he, 6'10" or something like that? Cat could hug a small building with the wing span he had. Greinke takes a much smaller stride angle, and is 3 inches shorter than Capps (6'2" vs 6'5"). Greinke also has a much higher arm angle. So, just in this particular example, Greinke has a tighter stride angle, higher arm angle, and is physically shorter (which logically would also lead to a shorter wing span). All of those are huge factors in the release point. I don't know if you saw the program, and I can't even remember what station it was on, but back when Joakim Soria was closing for the Royals he was absolutely dominant (I'm sure you remember that as he and Papelbon were two of the best closers in the game at the time, only your boy Papelbon was closing for championship teams). They interviewed a lot of batters that Soria regularly faced and they all basically said the same thing: that the ball, defying physics, seemed to "speed up" as it crossed the plate. So the folks that put this program together started looking into how that could be. What they found were all the factors I mentioned above. Longer stride, lower arm angle, etc...There was another pitcher they featured as well, though for the life of me I can't remember his name. But they did some kind of bizarre scientific analysis on it and found that the release point of Soria and this other cat were closer to the plate than other MLB pitchers. So it showed, for example, that Soria's 94mph fastball seemed more like 98-99mph to the batter. I read something the other day that said Capps' 98mph fastball was more like 103mph to the poor sap standing at the plate. It all makes sense, and yes that half-foot in the quote you posted does indeed make a difference. How big or how small is something I can't determine. They'd have to compare him to the pitchers with the half-foot shorter release point, I suppose. But, when you can throw as hard as he can, even the smallest advantage could be huge in the grand scheme. Would he be less effective without the hop/slide step? Probably. But how much? Edited July 20, 2015 by Scott Dolan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GA Russell Posted July 21, 2015 Report Share Posted July 21, 2015 GA, here is a slo-mo of Zack Greinke, one of the best pitchers in the game currently sporting 43.2 scoreless innings for the Dodgers. just as an example. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iRPtVfEz4esThanks for that! Yes, that was a balk too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dolan Posted July 21, 2015 Report Share Posted July 21, 2015 GA, here is a slo-mo of Zack Greinke, one of the best pitchers in the game currently sporting 43.2 scoreless innings for the Dodgers. just as an example. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iRPtVfEz4esThanks for that! Yes, that was a balk too.Hahaha...No, it wasn't. But here, this is Greg Maddux "balking: And Nolan Ryan balking:And of course, Sandy Koufax…balking: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GA Russell Posted July 22, 2015 Report Share Posted July 22, 2015 Thanks for those, Scott! Of course, those were indeed balks, even if they weren't called. The purpose of the rubber is to regulate how close a pitcher may be to the plate. If his foot is off the rubber, he's too close! In time, the pitchers developed the practice of placing their back foot not on the rubber, but touching the front of it. Thus, they needed to dig a pit in front of the rubber.And in the Greg Maddox case, you may recall that the umpires in those days were not calling the strike zone; so I guess we shouldn't wonder why they didn't call the balks either! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dolan Posted July 22, 2015 Report Share Posted July 22, 2015 Seriously? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dolan Posted July 22, 2015 Report Share Posted July 22, 2015 OK, GA. Here are the official rules from MLB.Please show me where any of them say that any of the pitches we've seen are balks. http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/official_rules/pitcher_8.jsp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim McG Posted July 23, 2015 Report Share Posted July 23, 2015 Today's sporting news headline:"Barry Bonds has been cleared of obstructing the justice during his grand jury testimony"And I told you so.http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_28516097/barry-bonds-case-officially-over Now stop it.Just...stop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aggie87 Posted July 23, 2015 Report Share Posted July 23, 2015 Stop it? You're starting it again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soulstation1 Posted July 23, 2015 Report Share Posted July 23, 2015 (edited) So Mr Bonds* is now "clear" of those charges??OK.... Edited July 23, 2015 by Soulstation1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dolan Posted July 23, 2015 Report Share Posted July 23, 2015 Today's sporting news headline:"Barry Bonds has been cleared of obstructing the justice during his grand jury testimony"And I told you so.http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_28516097/barry-bonds-case-officially-overNow stop it.Just...stop. Stop what? He wasn't shown to commit perjury. What's the big deal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted July 23, 2015 Report Share Posted July 23, 2015 With the MLB trading deadline coming up, any moves you'd like to see your favorite team execute? Or not execute? (In my case, dearly hoping that NY does not give away Aaron Judge or Luis Severino. Pretty much hoping, in fact, that they make no major moves whatsoever.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim McG Posted July 24, 2015 Report Share Posted July 24, 2015 Giants are riding a 5-1 hot streak right now. Hopefully, they can keep it going against their cross Bay rivals: The Oakland A's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted July 24, 2015 Report Share Posted July 24, 2015 Why can't I get the ignore feature to work??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim McG Posted July 24, 2015 Report Share Posted July 24, 2015 And will somebody please beat the Dodgers when the Giants win or are on an off day. Geez. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted July 26, 2015 Report Share Posted July 26, 2015 (edited) Yankees-Twins tonight... wow! Edited July 26, 2015 by ghost of miles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted July 27, 2015 Report Share Posted July 27, 2015 The Royals sure upped their odds of being the AL's representative in the World Series with the acquisition of Cueto today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim McG Posted July 27, 2015 Report Share Posted July 27, 2015 I sure wouldn't count them out...tough and talented squad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aggie87 Posted July 27, 2015 Report Share Posted July 27, 2015 (edited) Interesting survey done here: http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/america-has-spoken-mlb-steroid-users-should-lose-a-third-of-their-stats/59% of all respondents think that MLB players who were known to use PEDs should either have their HR records stripped entirely, or perhaps more intriguingly, reduced by a percentage. If you were to reduce the know PED users stats by either 20% or 33%, the leaderboard would change as follows: edit - sorry for the large size - I have no idea how to make it smaller. Edited July 27, 2015 by Aggie87 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim McG Posted July 27, 2015 Report Share Posted July 27, 2015 Hey...Giants sweep and are just one game back of the hated Dodgers!Woo-Hoo! As a side note: Tim Hudson became one of only a few pitchers to beat all 30 current MLB teams. His former team, the A's, were the last team he needed to beat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_forumlogo.png.a607ef20a6e0c299ab2aa6443aa1f32e.png)
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.