5-1-12 Tribe at Chicago White Sox

[pup]

His mechanics seemed to work just fine a couple years ago. He got dinged up and someone decided to tweek them. Now the Tribe wanted to overhaul them.

Bad idea.

Are we sure that Ubaldo didn't change them himself when he got hurt during Spring Training 2011? That's what Westbrook did when he hurt his oblique in 2007. He altered his delivery to come back faster and then the added strain on his elbow led to 2008's Tommy John.

I don't have a link for that, but back in summer 2008, Poove and I had a guy named Kyle Boddy from Driveline Mechanics, a baseball training website, on our Sunday night podcast, and he told us that was more than likely the reason.

Not out of the realm of possibility that Ubaldo altered his mechanics after he had the hip problem and then developed a lot of bad habits.

Boddy used to do side-by-side comparisons of pro pitchers and post them on his website. Maybe I'll track him down and see if he has the time to look at Ubaldo in 2010 and then Ubaldo now. His analysis was always very detailed.

Thought I remembered talk of the Indians "straightening" his delivery out and cutting down on movements.

But I could have Andy Pettited that.

[skatingtripods]

Thought I remembered talk of the Indians "straightening" his delivery out and cutting down on movements.

But I could have Andy Pettited that.

You're probably right.

I'd like to see a side-by-side of early 2010, 2011, and 2012 and see if there are any discernible differences. Maybe they wanted to "straighten" out what he changed following Spring 2011?

Who knows. Only thing we know for sure is, that cat's a total mess.

[pup]

Thought I remembered talk of the Indians "straightening" his delivery out and cutting down on movements.

But I could have Andy Pettited that.

You're probably right.

I'd like to see a side-by-side of early 2010, 2011, and 2012 and see if there are any discernible differences. Maybe they wanted to "straighten" out what he changed following Spring 2011?

Who knows. Only thing we know for sure is, that cat's a total mess.

[noddingheadupanddown/]

[skatingtripods]

I reached out to Boddy from Driveline Baseball. Here's what he tweeted last night:

Driveline Baseball ‏ @drivelinebases
Wow. Working on an Ubaldo then/now comparison. The difference between 2010 and 2012 is ridiculously huge. This is almost never the case.

Mechanically, that is. Writing it up for THT tonight; we'll see when it gets put into the hopper.

Ubaldo article in the hopper at THT. Hopefully it'll go up on Friday. Just wait until you see the side-by-side comparison, @MLBastian.

It's completely shocking. I'm serious. I can't wait until this goes up. I almost want to publish it on my site right now it's so absurd.

[pup]

I reached out to Boddy from Driveline Baseball. Here's what he tweeted last night:

Driveline Baseball ‏ @drivelinebases
Wow. Working on an Ubaldo then/now comparison. The difference between 2010 and 2012 is ridiculously huge. This is almost never the case.

Mechanically, that is. Writing it up for THT tonight; we'll see when it gets put into the hopper.

Ubaldo article in the hopper at THT. Hopefully it'll go up on Friday. Just wait until you see the side-by-side comparison, @MLBastian.

It's completely shocking. I'm serious. I can't wait until this goes up. I almost want to publish it on my site right now it's so absurd.

Any chance he shows a transition from one to another, or is it a light switch?

[peeker643]

I reached out to Boddy from Driveline Baseball. Here's what he tweeted last night:

Driveline Baseball ‏ @drivelinebases
Wow. Working on an Ubaldo then/now comparison. The difference between 2010 and 2012 is ridiculously huge. This is almost never the case.

Mechanically, that is. Writing it up for THT tonight; we'll see when it gets put into the hopper.

Ubaldo article in the hopper at THT. Hopefully it'll go up on Friday. Just wait until you see the side-by-side comparison, @MLBastian.

It's completely shocking. I'm serious. I can't wait until this goes up. I almost want to publish it on my site right now it's so absurd.

What's THT?

I don't follow Bastian. Cannot get into that guy's stuff. Tries too hard IMO.

Make sure you advise when it goes up.

Really interested to see this.

[skatingtripods]

Any chance he shows a transition from one to another, or is it a light switch?

I imagine he'll have side-by-side .gif files in the article and explain, in a physiological sense, why it has caused his velo to drop. His background's in physiological sciences or something like that, so the whole purpose of his Driveline Baseball is to teach proper throwing mechanics to pitchers so that they throw with the least amount of stress.

If his Hardball Times articles are like the ones he used to have on his blog, he might even have Ubaldo broken down frame by frame.