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Instead of 162 they should cut the season to 130. Instead of a five man rotation go for six man rotation. 130 games a season SP pitch once a week 6 man rotation Teams carry 14 pitchers Also, having 2 DH’s instead of 1. Giving more opportunity for power hitters to find a job. 14 position players instead of 13

Simple solution: Limit the low outside strike and raise the actually called strikezone. That makes strikes actually pitches that can be hit, so that hitters are encouraged to swing more, reducing strain on pitchers. Also getting rid of the low outside strike lets hitters not have to hang out over the plate, reducing hit by pitches.

great video, super insightful. thanks!

No one ever wants to talk about labrum surgery tho😐

Between winter leagues, WBC, etc. do we potentially have enough data on pitchers who worked during their offseason and how that affected odds of injury to be useful?

One thing I think gets consistently overlooked: It used to be that if you blew out your arm, your career was probably over. A lot of the guys that are pitching today would have had the talent but not the durability to survive in eras before before Tommy John surgery and other modern treatments. Everyone remembers the 300 game winners, but not the innumerable talented kids whose arms just gave out along the way.

Bottom line is that we''re still in caveman days. not enough data has been collected and not enough kinetics is understood to understand the limits and capabilities o athletes to actuallly know cause and effect.

I think this is true, Trevor Bauer has said that he used to long toss every day to get his arm prepared for the season and I haven’t seen him have any major arm injuries.

I would be careful making arguments based on data labelled "IL Placement", because that's not the same thing as injuries, per se. The rule change that allowed for 10-day stints & changed the name from DL to IL was in that time period, so the definition of the stat itself changed, as did the way teams use the injury designation. Those charts would show huge movement even with no change to actual health. Without taking that into account, much of this analysis falls apart even though it's very well-reasoned.

Lance, as somebody who wants to work in the baseball industry, I really appreciate you!! Keep doing what you’re doing man we love to hear from yoh <3

Any thoughts on the foreign substance ban in 2021 having an effect on injuries spiking then gradually decreasing in the following seasons as pitchers adjusted? I know Glasnow said in an interview that he thought that was a factor that played into his injury when he went out for tommy john right after the ban.

The current delusion that volume is the enemy (aka pitch count) needs to end. Intensity and rest time are the keys you can throw a ton of pitches as long as you rest properly after or you can manage your intensity through your outing.

You mentioned the double hook as a potential idea for MLB. What do you think of going after roster manipulation? Maybe only being able to carry 11 or 12 pitchers and limiting how much roster churn there would be (I can’t name a specific rule but more restrictions on sending guys up and down a ton). I’ve seen stuff from Ben Lindberg on the idea. Love the content Lance!

13:30 heck I'm a bodybuilder and I throw plyos just to move athletically and get external rotation

In npb pitchers have higher pitch counts but an extra day rest and they throw more in spring training and have way less injuries But pitchers really tend to be built differently as individuals

Good umpiring is important Who wants to go through the frustration & anxiety of having guys like Angel Hernandez calling balls & strikes. Too much added pressure & uncertainty doesnt help.

A wearable that measures stress on the arm would be a game changer

No pitch clock Let them take their time

I remember Trevor Bauer had said in the past that even in his rest day, he would rest fully just the day after his starts and then start throwing again, from light exercises to let his joint moving to hard throw progressively till his next starts. I think that's one of the reason he hadn't faced any major injuries in his arms yet in his career and still able to maintain 96mph avg (top at 98-99mph) fastball velo.

Average major league career is 5.5 years. Get in, get paid, get out, invest wisely.

It seems organizations will be happy to use a guy at 98-100 until he blows his arm out and go on to the next guy instead of taking extra care of the pitcher once in the show. I think people are ignoring that it’s not just the guy trying to win a job but also the organization trying to piece together wins however possible.

Hi Lance, fantastic analysis. The workload theory is fascinating but it does beg the question, does the data show that Relief pitchers are getting injured at a higher rate than starting pitchers?

Thank you for the summary and the takeaways, this is definitely not only complex but also a controversial topic. Any of the researchers from the American Sports Medicine Institute ? because they have a ton of data on this

A way to possibly correlate this study is by looking at high school pitchers in the Northern US, compared to pitchers who play year round in warm climates. Or if they’re multi sport athletes who don’t throw a baseball most of the year.

There have also been some logical errors that have occurred on the S&C side such as well since the vast majority of everything that happens in baseball happens in the ATP-CP system and Baseball players aren't long distance runners then we should spend all our time focused on training the main energy system we use. Trevor Bauer's early training career revolved around this type of thinking. The flaw is that the ATP-CP system is regenerated by Aerobic system and the efficiency of that system directly affects how quickly/how long it takes the ATP-CP system recovers back to 100%

If you find guys who are real old timers they would say that if you have arm pain to just "throw it out" meaning to just keep throwing. Reach out to Dana Kiecker who said this to our guys when we were coaching together back then I thought it was one of those outdated sayings but when you begin to think about it from a workload stand point they intuitively knew this from experience. Years later I've confirmed this by having to throw BP on back to back days feeling sore, stiff, and in pain all over thought I would be completely cooked after the second day. Made it throw that whole session and felt like a whole new man after... It blew my mind that I wasn't completely broken and injured afterwards. Key caveats that I think made that experience successful 1) I initially was not throwing high intent but rather very sub-max, distance wasn't super far, backed up and threw harder as my arm loosened up. 2) I was wearing lots of layers (cold up in the Mid-West) and so I got a really good sweat going, I didn't take layers off until my arm felt loose. Raising your core temperature is key IMO.

I would assume this approach is similar to base training in running, swimming, or cycling. You have three variables to work with for workload: intensity, volume, and duration. You cannot increase more than one at a time. Over the course of a season, all three variables are addressed. After the season, allow for a two-week recovery period. Begin with lifting and light throwing, gradually increasing volume. The focus in lifting should be on explosive movements since pitching is an explosive activity, rather than total fitness. Next, increase the duration while maintaining the same volume. This means getting in longer throwing sessions at one time. Once the pitcher has adapted to increases in volume and duration, shift the focus to intensity. However, every throwing session should include some hard throws to ensure the arm doesn’t forget how to throw with high effort. These hard throws should start low in volume-about 5-7 throws at 95% effort-and should be incorporated almost immediately. The key is to gradually increase the intensity throughout the build-up phase. By following this progression, the pitcher will enter the season with the capacity to handle the workload and duration required, while intensity is further developed during spring training and into the early part of the season.

“Use it or lose it” is the simple answer for most guys. For a healthy player to shut it down completely for 2-3 months is a great plan to get them unhealthy by that same time next year

A left handed dominant starting rotations if each starter is good if the bullpen is primarily loaded with right handed dominant relievers. Lineups are usually optimized for opposite handed splits so when a team transitions to a right handed bullpen arm they will be given a matchup advantage.

Awesome stuff as per usual

Do you think Christopher Sanchez can lower his Batting average allowed next season?

called the buehler signing good work!

Buehler!!

Great video!

Could it also be imperfections in each individual baseball? These are handmade at the pro level after all

You got Buehler!

He's going to join the Cubs. 😊

Great analysis. Thank you!

Trustworthy mechanics achieve improved command and velocity while mitigating the risk of injury SIMULTANEOUSLY. However, everyone in the pitching community thinks it’s impossible to accomplish all three in one stroke, which I've done since 1996. At one point, I had up to 47 private lessons per week. I successfully taught them to throw with command and increasing velocity while keeping them from getting injured as long as they stuck to what I taught them. My lessons had to be a half hour long to deal with the demand. Pitchers I’ve developed since 1996 is a streamlined process achieving all three topics in one stroke mentioned above, which will raise questions or statements such as, "How’s that even possible?” or, “That’s impossible!” or “That’s too good to be true.” I anticipate many will ask, “How have your pitchers fend as they go to college or are drafted with your methodology?” As soon as they set foot on a college or minor league field and pitch for the first time in front of their coaches, they immediately alter what I’ve developed in these pitchers, in many cases, from when they were 9 through high school. When I talked to them while they were in college, I told them to explain to their coaches the reasons why they pitch the way they do, which is to, first, protect from injury. 99.9% of their coaches say you pitch how I want you to, or you won't pitch much. As I continue to witness all this back and forth by those in the pitching industry, I see that they think there is no such thing as sound mechanics or that command is a mystery, which is a bunch of nonsense. Greg Maddux’s (the greatest command and defensive pitcher of all time, with 4 consecutive CY Young awards from 1992 to 1995 and 18 Gold Glove awards, the most Gold Glove awards in MLB history) pitching motion holds the secret to sound mechanics and command. Still, no one can figure it out, probably because he wasn’t a flame thrower, which is a high percentage of them in this era, so no one is interested in studying his mechanics. In addition, he never injured his UCL or shoulder in his 23 year career. Let me go on to say that if you are a flame or a puss thrower, you can throw with command and increased velocity while mitigating injury. The author says, “I heard a story recently that came to the conclusion mechanics are really not connected to command and execution on a pitch-to-pitch level at all, and that it is a relatively complex question.” First of all, this is total nonsense; mechanics are directly connected to command. Whoever told him that story must have been a data-driven guru who doesn’t have a solid physics foundation. This is not a complex question since I’ve had the answer to the TJ enigma while improving command and velocity in one stroke. I came up with the answers while applying physics principles and structural engineering methods I obtained at the University of Arizona. Data are just numbers worth the paper they are printed on, and that’s it. So, there’s much grasping at straws in trying to come up with topics, such as one in this piece, thinking that a data-driven solution is what's needed, which I know will not work because it hasn’t come up with a solution for more than 3 decades in solving the TJ injury riddle; what makes you think it will solve the command issue? I can't hit the thumb-down button on this piece since it won't record it. Also, if the author of this piece may think I’m off my rocker will probably delete my commentary. I understand he is looking for content for his channel, and you get what you can, but choose content where you can weed out falsehoods on what you have better knowledge of to do so.

I mean, the most consistently dominant pitcher, who had fantastic control, and never got hurt on the mound is Mariano Rivera. And He probably had the best mechanics ever.that

I love this sort of stuff I wonder how people get jobs like this in an orginization. Great video!

Mechanics have a ton to do with it, but if you think mechanics are some standard set of movements you won't be able to concept how to adjust for better control. Nobody is going to queue you into better control unless you came up with the queue. Timing is still part of mechanics and rhythm helps maintain consistent timing. Movement in the delivery is made up of linear and rotational directions, timing allows you to release at the point where you don't mess up where the ball goes based on where you expect it to go. You have to figure it out but to do so you need to know by feel what your body is doing and that is by knowing your mechanics. Most athletes aren't that cerebral or self aware, they want someone else to give them the answer, so they latch on to either simply "fixing" mechanics or focus/mental exercises

I think I saw that “mechanics” are more correlates with Velo then Command. The idea being that things we can measure(hip shoulder separation, extension, arm velocity) but I don’t remember where I saw the study. I think command is so dependent on environmental factors too. If you are pitching in a high stuff environment(such as Tampa bay) it is harder to have great command since the average movement of your pitchers is higher

This video first didn't state objectives clearly but can be inferred by listening to the entire video and then describes data collection problems but doesn't offer any solutions but maybe that is because he personally doesn't know of any possible solution. It's interesting to know limitations of current methodology and that can be useful. It sounds like the expectation is to develop an understanding of pitching mechanics which can be transferred from one player to another but considering the limitations of data collection is not possible. But that doesn't mean that self improvement for an individual isn't possible. Rather, an idea or practice by another player or more can be suggested but not as a surefire solution but as a possibility that can be tried. That's a great improvement to verify trying randomly without rhyme or reason. And, the idea that there might be a larger influence on positive psychological thinking rather than actual mechanical performance is just fine, the mind can subconsciously coordinate the minute actions and adjustments needed than conscious thought sometimes But the main reason of pitching mechanics everyone can agree upon is to enable repeatability To improve in anything, you first have to establish a baseline and then to incrementally alter the process.

Minor leaguer with the mets. I’ve got a couple thoughts on this. I think the large majority of command has to do with the combination of mechanics but mostly with the mind. Mechanics have changed so much over the years that now it’s all about how to increase velocity. Rarely to you see guys making a mechanical adjustment anymore to have better command. Once you are a high level athlete mechanical changes are all so slight and minimal that I don’t believe they have this massive amount of pull on your command. For me it all falls back on what I’m thinking or ultimately not thinking. We’ve all heard of the term “flow state” and different ideas on what that means but really it’s just the ability to be loose and let go of all tension without consciously telling yourself to be that way and perform the way you’re performing. I’m fully bought in on internal tension/hesitation/ not being fully committed to the current pitch being a massive reason for command issues. I’ve experienced it first hand that whenever I’m distracted or not ready to throw a pitch and I still do my command usually tanks. Loved the vid 👊🏻👊🏻

most underrated channel on RUclips

They need more fidelity, which is a similar issue you see in training AI.

RELEASE POINT PERIOD.

My personal belief is that command and control has a lot to do with eyesight, the quiet eye studies seem back up that theory

This channel is gold