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Written by Joe Janish
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Tuesday, 29 July 2008 |
 (Editor's Note) For weeks, MetsToday.com's Joe Janish, a former college
baseball player and coach at St Peter's, has been concerned about Mets'
right-hander John Maine's mechanics. On his own site, and on
GothamSportsRadio.com's “Live From Mickey Mantle's”, he has been quite
vehement in his ooinion about Maine's inconsistency being a mechanical
one, not a location (an opinion espoused by yours truly). With the
news that Maine has a mild strain og his rotator cuff, it seems like
Janish has been right along. Below is a story he wrote just before
Maine's injury on Monday night, and it's a damn good read. - MH
As mentioned by Lee Mazzilli a few weeks ago on SNY (and at MetsToday
last week), John Maine has a minor mechanical flaw in his delivery that
is causing his command to be off. In fact, that same flaw is likely the
reason for Maine's "shoulder stiffness"
Mazzilli used stop-action video to show Maine opening up his front shoulder too early. This causes his right arm to lag behind, and his hand to get to the side or under the ball. In turn, his release point is also off -- generally a little higher than normal. These actions prevent Maine from putting his pitches where he wants them -- the tipoff is seeing his fastball and changeup fly up an in to righthanders / up and away to lefties. In addition, because his body is too far ahead of his arm, Maine is putting considerable stress on the muscles and tendons in his right shoulder.
However, it is not as simple as telling John to keep his front shoulder closed. I've been teaching pitching mechanics for almost 20 years, and know that the command being off, and the front shoulder flying open, are symptoms. Usually, a symptom like that is caused by something else not as noticeable in the delivery -- something happening earlier in the motion. It can be as simple as a tilt of the head, placement of the foot on the rubber, or in John's case, where he's breaking his hands.
Since joining the Mets, this opening of his front shoulder has been occurring on and off, and it's the result of his habit of "carrying" the ball back toward centerfield during his leg lift. If you watch John Maine pitch -- and it's most noticeable from the stretch -- you often see his hands go back behind his ear during the leg lift, causing the left shoulder to turn toward second base and the right arm to start the throw from a position too far behind the right hip, toward first base. Remember learning in science class the idea that "every action results in an equal and opposite reaction"? The opposite reaction of that rotation is this: when he comes out of his leg lift, to begin his stride, the front shoulder is already starting to open up. In other words, the previous over-rotation is causing an equal and opposite over-rotation. All pitchers use hip rotation to help generate power, but there is a delicate balance between rotating enough, and over-rotating.
To get an idea of how Maine's flaw is affecting his shoulder, try this. Stand straight in front of a mirror with your arms at your sides. Raise your hands up from your sides to shoulder level so that your body forms a "T" in front of the mirror. Keeping your hands up and remaining straight, rotate your hips slightly to the right, and your left shoulder "in" (toward your right shoulder). Now, lock your hips but move your left shoulder "out". You should feel your shoulder blades pinch together and a slight strain in the back of your right shoulder. It's not exactly the same as what Maine's doing, but it gives a rough idea of what happens when the arm is lagging behind the body. Imagine that slight strain on your right shoulder over 100 times a game, with the full, violent force of a 95 MPH fastball, and you can start to understand how a tiny flaw in pitching mechanics can cause an injury.
Hopefully, the MRI today will show no serious damage. However, that doesn't mean John Maine is "OK". Rather, it means he's lucky, and he needs to correct that minor flaw to avoid any future injuries. What John can do -- and has done in the past -- is adjust where his hands go up. He can try stopping his hands once they reach shoulder level, or better yet, bring his hands up closer to the middle of his body, in line with his belly button and toward his chin for example, to keep that front shoulder from over-rotating.
This can be fixed in about 10 minutes -- with no Jacket required.
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