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Silva: Will Anyone Listen to Mike Marshall? |
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Written by Mike Silva
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Monday, 24 December 2007 |
If you were the owner of a major league team and someone knocked on
your door telling you he could improve your pitching staff would you
listen? If this man claimed to be able to prevent injuries while
enhancing performance what would your reaction be? Now if I told you
this man had a Cy Young Award and a PhD in kinesiology would you at
least give his theories some credence? Former fourteen year major
leaguer and 1974 Cy Young Aware winner Dr. Mike Marshall possesses this
information. The problem is none of the thirty major league teams wants
to listen.
Click Here to Listen to Dr. Marshall on Gotham Baseball Live (insert link to show)
Dr. Marshall basically advocates changing the pitching motion to work more in a forward manner. No longer will you see the crazy leg kicks or side arm motions that have become popular in recent years. You simply will motion forward and throw more “on top of the ball”. He believes so much in this method that he has started a website to promote the theory: www.drmikemarshall.com. There you can get his books and videos virtually free of charge. For those that are committed to the program you could even go to his Florida compound for only $10 a day. Those students will be exposed to a seven day week training for about 280 days of the year. Want proof? Look no more to former Tampa Bay Devil Ray Jeffrey Sparks.
Sparks pitched for the D-Rays during the 1999 and 2000 season. You are probably like me and hadn’t heard of him until now. In two seasons he pitched 30 innings giving up only 19 hits while striking out 42. Right before his release in 2000 his ERA was a respectable 3.54. So what happened to Jeffrey Sparks? According to Marshall the team found out about his training and quickly dismissed him citing the nearly one walk per inning rate. When I pressed Dr. Marshall about the walks he claimed that its hits not walks that he is concerned about. I even mentioned some how some pitchers rather give up a homer then walk people because it prevents long innings. Dr. Marshall continued to express that, with time, Jeffrey Sparks would have honed his craft and became “one of the best relievers of our time”. He felt that with continued dedication to the program there would be improved moment and velocity. These improvements would have decreased walks while still keeping the bat from hitting the ball. There is even a video on his site that shows many all stars looking foolish against Sparks.
Despite his claims and subsequent proof of accomplishments, the mainstream does not want to embrace Dr. Marshall’s techniques. Dave Duncan has called Marshall a “joke”. Executives around the game are unanimously not ready to hand over their “assets” to a person that some feel is preaching quackery. When I brought up Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson’s “pyramid” he discussed a conversation he had with him. Marshall remembers Peterson calling him and asking him how he gets his pitchers to “stay aggressive” on the mound. His response was “give them the information and tools to throw pitches the batter can’t hit”. In short, forget the mental games and nonsense and give your pitchers skills.
He challenges anyone to combat his education and scientifically prove their theories. When I explained how programs like the “Joba Rules”, year to year innings increase percentage, and pitcher abuse point’s formulas are practices the mainstream uses to prevent injuries he responded with a chuckle. “The traditional pitching method makes even a 100 pitches dangerous”, he explains. Unless you institute my program you will “continue to see the same type of injuries that happened to pitchers like Cris Carpenter, Kerry Wood, and Mark Prior”. With this kind of confidence how could I argue the point further? Just listening to the technical aspect of his answers made me believe he knew what he was talking about
I then asked what would he do if he was the pitching coach of a team? He would primarily have three starters. Those three starters would pitch on the same two days every week. He would have a fourth starter that would pitch only on Thursday. His claim is this type of rotation would prevent atrophy on the muscles thus improving their skills and decrease the chance of injury. Despite the well laid out plan only one owner in the last thirty years has offered to hire Marshall to run his team: Bill Veeck. Unfortunately he was still pitching for the Minnesota Twins at the time.
Dr. Marshall is 65 years old and doesn’t know how much longer he will be able to provide this type of information. He is passionate about the game and his theories. His fear is that no one in the mainstream will pick up on this knowledge and we will continue to abuse pitchers of all ages. His theories certainly are radical, but isn’t change always perceived that way? Baseball has embraced weight lifting, video, and other practices that were deemed “foolish” many years ago. With the dearth of pitching and high rate of injuries what harm can Marshall do? Let’s remember baseball is a game that always seems to be slow to change both on the field and in business. I leave you with this thought: a reliever that pitched 200 innings in a season, won a Cy Young Award, and has a PhD is considered a quack, but a catcher with a lifetime batting avg. of .214 is a “genius” by the rank and file. Now I ask you whose resume would you trust with your pitching arm?
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Last Updated ( Monday, 24 December 2007 )
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