On Brandon McCarthy's Impending Mechanical Overhaul
After landing on the major league disabled list for a fourth time in less than three seasons since being shipped to Texas as the primary component of the ill-fated John Danks trade, right-hander Brandon McCarthy has reportedly announced his intention to essentially tear down and rebuild his pitching mechanics-- an enormous undertaking for patently obvious reasons, as the success (or failure) of this newly conceived plan could have major implications for his future as a major leaguer.
I enlisted the aid of Baseball Time in Arlington's and TexasLeaguers.com's Trip Somers in attempting to decipher exactly what McCarthy and pitching coach Mike Maddux intend to do; what follows is Trip's personal analysis of the situation.
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I've pulled some specific quotes from Wilson's article to talk about.
Wilson: "The plan is to completely over[haul] McCarthy’s mechanics. His delivery will be new, his arm slot will change, and he hopes yet again that his injury luck will change, too."
If you keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting the injuries to stop, then Albert Einstein would have called you insane. Mark Prior (Mr. I'm Not Changing) fits the definition. Brandon McCarthy has decided to make some changes. This is great news.
McCarthy's arm slot, though, is not really a part of the problem. Obviously, there's an issue with his arm position in relation to his upper body, specifically his scapula; however, McCarthy's arm was always nearly vertical at release, which is excellent. There's simply not enough information here to know what Wilson (or McCarthy as the source) means by that.
Wilson: "He no longer will make an inverted W with his arm."
Without knowing the exact location of the stress fracture, it's hard to say if McCarthy's "inverted W" contributed at all to this ailment. The term "inverted W" was popularized by Chris O'Leary, and he has written a bunch about this arm position and has even presented an alternate method of scapular loading loosely termed the "standard W." I'm personally not a fan of scapular loading of any kind, but the "standard W" presents less of a timing problem for the elbow. McCarthy may elect to use the "standard W," but my hope is that he abandons scapular loading completely.
Wilson: "The delivery will be longer and smoother with the design of reducing the stress on the prone area."
The prone area, obviously, is McCarthy's right scapula. That bone is the origin for all four muscles of the rotator cuff. As a result, it will always be under a significant amount of stress. The idea here is to get the muscles to behave more naturally. Again, there's a terminology problem here. What does Wilson (or McCarthy) mean by a "longer" delivery? I don't think any measure of lengthening is going to help reduce stress on the scapula.
On my personal blog, I suggested that the problem was related to McCarthy's follow-through. His primary arm deceleration, which is handled chiefly by the rotator cuff, is more stressful than it needs to be because of his forward trunk tilt. He bends so far forward at the waist that his upper arm is moving directly toward his head as his rotator cuff contracts to decelerate the arm (see my original article for greater detail on the anatomy and mechanism of injury). I spoke with Chris O'Leary about this specific part of McCarthy's delivery, and he agreed.
If McCarthy were to maintain a more vertical spinal orientation and get better trunk rotation, his follow-through would be far more efficient. This would actually give the appearance of a "shorter" delivery, so I really have no clue what a "longer" delivery would even look like.
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Reader Comments (8)
I think a big problem with trying to do all this is McCarthy's impending arb years. He's going to start costing more money than it is worth to try and get his delivery less stressful on his body. This isn't a quick fix, and it isn't something that can be done during an offseason. At least an entire year should be spent not only on finding consistency with any new delivery, but also in evaluating the delivery and its impact (positive or negative) on his health.
I'm not exactly sure from a procedural standpoint how to (or if it is even possible) get McCarthy off the 40 so he stops accruing service time, but the Rangers need to get him off the 40 and get him to the minors so he can do all this rework there. I'm sure trying to get McCarthy off the 40 opens the possibility of losing him, but so be it. He's going to cost this cash-strapped organization too much money to try and rework, and ultimately it probably isn't worth it since we have other prospects that can most likely fill whatever role McCarthy would fill.
At this point, it's just throwing good money after bad. The Rangers should just move on if there isn't some way to reduce the financial obligation that McCarthy is going to start requiring.
dirty: That's just insane. First of all, you don't accrue service time just by being on the 40-man roster. You have to be on the 25-man roster. Optioning a player is an... uhh... option. McCarthy has at least 1 option remaining, possibly 2. If the Rangers find that McCarthy's new mechanics don't take right away, I'm sure they'd be happy to option him to let him work on things in the minors.
Secondly, McCarthy's salary *still* isn't over $1MM. The way this season has turned out so far, it would very difficult to imagine McCarthy getting any kind of substantial raise through arbitration. That said, the Texas Rangers don't let their players go through arbitration anyway.
McCarthy and the Rangers are well aware of all of these things. The changes he's making to his mechanics are his choice, but I can guarantee you that it's a choice backed by the front office, Mike Maddux, and anyone else who cares about having a healthy Brandon McCarthy take the mound every 5th day.
Thanks for the article. Very interesting and informative.
What is the timetable on McCarthy injury and when he can return to throwing and working on this new delivery? Also do you have any information on players who have had to make similar changes and what the time line is for McCarthy to be ready to return to the majors?
Thomas: I don't have any information on pitchers who have dramatically changed their mechanics at this level of play. Most guys tend to keep running their old stuff out there until they get tired of rehabbing their injuries. Rudy Seanez is a guy who made major changes early in his career, but beyond that, I really don't know of anyone.
I don't think the process of changing the mechanics will take very long, but it may be a while afterward before his velocity is "acceptable." None of it is going to happen until his shoulder heals up, though. The time table for that is a lot trickier since stress fractures sometimes stop causing pain before they've fully healed. When the pain finally subsides, they'll send him for another MRI to see how it's doing.
TS, thanks for sharing your knowledge and insights. Interesting stuff
Should Brandon McCarthy have a place in the 2010 rotation? Especially if the Rangers dedicate Padilla's salary to Ben Sheets in the post season?.....
When you say "were to maintain a more vertical spinal orientation", that sound very similar to "pitching taller" which was what Mark Conner had McCarthy doing. Many people seem to think that that is what led to his previous round of injuries. How is a "more vertical spinal orientation" different from "pitching taller"?
NCRF: It is part of pitching "taller." It is also a part of a healthy release and deceleration phase. If "pitching taller" caused the first stress fracture, then what caused this one in the same place? If nothing else, this injury should absolve Connor of much of the wrong-doing he was inappropriately assigned regarding McCarthy's health.
I can't speak to Connor's methods or his teaching cues or what he was actually trying to have McCarthy do because I have no idea about any of those. You'd have to ask McCarthy or Connor about that.