Saturday
30May2009
Davis '08 Vs. Davis '09
Joey MatschulatWhat follows is a frame-by-frame comparison of one of Chris Davis's September 2008 at-bats (which produced a home run, as seen at the bottom) alongside one of Chris Davis's Memorial Day strikeouts:
[Direct link available here.]
I've been told by at least one person that this isn't really as illustrative as it conceivably could have been (I didn't have enough patience to root through multiple MLB.com condensed games to find optimal swings to compare, and PowerDirector repeatedly crashed on me), but there are some subtle differences that probably would have been more evident if both of these pitches had been fastballs as opposed to off-speed pitches, yet nevertheless are there ... any thoughts?
Reader Comments (3)
I would like to see this as separate videos so that the images are larger. It would also be a good idea to find two fastballs.
Davis's current struggles are centered on his inability to make solid contact on fastballs. I'm surprised pitchers are still throwing him off-speed pitches in the zone. At this point, they should only be used as "show me" pitches out of the zone.
I think a fastball-to-fastball comparison will show that Davis's hands are dragging behind his shoulder. He typically hits with his front arm (like a golfer) which can lead to twisting and dragging hands.
Looks like he might have some pre-launch armbar going this year, but can't tell for sure-is there any video of him from the side(3b dugout side). Also looks like his front hip is flying open sooner and he is losing the connection between his hip and back elbow.
Hard to tell for sure
Before you even start the video look at his front arm-almost straight and a long way away from his body.