The Pitching Mechanic
January 2009

Real-Time Illustrations and Analyses of
Proper and Improper Pitching Mechanics

The Pitching Mechanic - February 2009

1/14/2009

Mark Prior Re-Re-Dux (or Re-Dux-Dux)

You know Spring Training is just around the corner when the optimistic talk about Mark Prior starts up again.
    This article on SI.com quotes Padres officials, who signed Mark Prior to a (thank God for them) contingent deal for the 2009 season, as saying...

"The last surgery benefited him a great deal," Towers said. "It looks like his mechanics are back in line again and he has good carries on his throws when he's doing long tosses. "He's had quite a few surgeries, and we're hoping this one certainly fixed any issues he had," Towers said. "I hate to put any timelines on it, but we hope he's pitching competitively at the start of the season. If it's not in the big leagues, then maybe a few starts in the minor leagues."

As I said this time last year regarding Mark Prior, quotes like these go a long way toward explaining why pitchers keep getting injured and why organizations keep throwing good money after bad.
     First, there's the assumption that pitchers get injured because their mechanics change while I believe that most pitchers get injured because their pitching mechanics stay the same (and were never as good as they were said to be in the first place). To a degree, you can't blame people for holding onto the idea that Mark Prior's pitching mechanics were solid given that Tom House and others said they were perfect. However, you'd think that people might start to clue in at some point that things may not be as they seem.
     Second, there's the focus on dealing with symptoms rather than root causes. While surgery is important, it can only deal with the symptom of Mark Prior's problems and not the root cause of Mark Prior's problems.
     Until people start dealing with the root cause of Mark Prior's problems, which is his questionable pitching mechanics and his pronounced Inverted W in particular, he will never get significantly better and any money (and time) spent on him will continue to be wasted.

The Pitching Mechanic - December 2008