The concept of Timing in baseball pitchers, as I define it, refers to...

• The position of the pitching arm
• When the shoulders start to turn
• AND the pitching arm starts to come under load

This is a different definition of Timing than everyone else uses.

 Notice that I don't mention the feet, much less (Stride) Foot Contact.

That's why people have so far failed to duplicate my findings.

A Theory of Timing
in Baseball Pitchers

1. Baseball pitchers are throwing harder.

2. Baseball pitchers are having an increasingly difficult time staying healthy.

3. Item ONE and Item TWO are related.

3.A. Baseball pitchers are having trouble staying healthy BECAUSE they are throwing harder.

4. Baseball pitchers are throwing harder, but having trouble staying healthy, because they are being taught and trained using a set of tricks and shortcuts that work by creating Timing problems.

5. By "Timing" in baseball pitchers, I am referring to...

5.A. The position of the pitching arm.

5.B. At the moment the pitching arm begins to rotate and come under load.

5.C. "When the pitching arm starts to come under load" is the key thing to look for, and I've focused on measuring it directly, rather than via proxy.

5.D. I should note, that I use a different method for judging timing in baseball pitchers, having found that the standard method and milestone — (Stride) Foot Contact — for judging baseball pitchers is no longer reliable.

6. The problem with mechanical patterns like the Inverted W and the Tommy John Twist is, as I've said since 2007, regarding Mark Prior, that they CAN — and I mean CAN and not always DO — create Timing problems in pitchers. But, very often, they DO create Timing problems.

7. I first started to understand what poor Timing looks like by looking at Kerry Wood's pitching mechanics in general and the picture below, in particular...

Kerry Wood - 2006

Notice how Kerry Wood's front foot is down, or nearly so, but his pitching arm is FLAT and not UP?

That's bad.

I discuss this in greater detail in my original piece from May 2006...

• What Rushing Looks Like: Kerry Wood

In general, what I saw is what I have since come to call Flat Arm Syndrome.

Notice how Kerry Wood's pitching arm starts coming around towards the target while his pitching arm is FLAT and not UP.

Frame 36

Frame 37

8. In order to test my theory, I started making predictions about the fates of certain pitchers.

That then led to my analysis of Johan Santana's pitching mechanics and arm action...

Johan Santana - Twins

...and led to one of my most accurate predictions.

There is no question that Johan Santana has been very successful to date. However, due to his borderline mechanics I question whether Johan Santana will be able to continue that level of success. I think Johan Santana could easily give the Mets the same heartache that Pedro Martinez and El Duque have.

8.A. What I saw in Johan Santana's pitching mechanics was that his pitching arm was FLAT and not UP when his pitching arm started to...

8.A.i. Come around (to the plate).

8.A.ii. Come under load.

8.B. This is a pattern that, for obvious reasons, I call Flat Arm Syndrome.

9. I saw the same thing in Stephen Strasburg's pitching mechanics; that his Inverted W kept his pitching arm from getting UP on time.

Stephen Strasburg

Instead, it was FLAT as his pitching arm started to come around and come under load.

10. The relationship between mechanics and injuries is getting harder for people in the velocity business to deny. Their answer is to promise that their extreme conditioning methods will compensate for the mechanical flaws. However, there's no evidence that this is the case.