Joe Sheehan texted me, asking if CC Sabathia’s mechanics were odd. He’d noticed a “loading” maneuver, what Joe described as a small hesitation at the top of his move. That slight pause, more pronounced from the windup, is a very effective move by Sabathia for two reasons. First, it throws off the timing of the hitter, though he’s very consistent with it. It’s much like a Hideo Nomo pause-at-the-top or a Bob Wickman lean.* Second, it’s an extender and accelerator, lengthening his stride and putting more of his considerable mass in motion. (Remember, F=MA.) It’s not unlike the so-called “stepover” move done by Tim Lincecum and others. For Sabathia, his just comes a bit earlier in the motion.
All in all, Sabathia’s motion is not only efficient, but well-adapted, using his long arms, athletic ability, powerful legs, and yes, his weight. It’s all repeatable, smooth, and if you ask any Phillie, Angel, or Twin, pretty darned effective.
* Yes, it would be easier to see this than describe it, but that’s illegal. I know a lot of sites ignore rights issues, but this isn’t one of them. It’s not hard to click over to MLB.com for some highlights that will give you a good look.
Not sure that's the correct use of F=MA. The M applies to the mass of the object in question, or the baseball. F would be the force CC puts on it, and A would be the all important acceleration of the fastball.
Been a while since physics, but f=ma is way too simple for a pitcher's body and delivery. the rotation (torque) involved alone makes f=ma just about useless. Momentum would be a better formula to drive across the basic point. Which, without googling, I think is dependent on just mass and velocity.
I'm having some difficulty understanding your argument. Are you saying that the speed of his pitch has increased because in addition to the tangential speed he is able to achieve in the rotation motion of his forearm about his elbow, CC now has added more translational speed because he has increased either his translational acceleration or the time it takes him to release the pitch? (I'm assuming you are not telling us that he has actually accelerated his motion, i.e., the same delivery within a shorter time period. Or maybe you are.)
Remember that aside from applying force and spin, the rest of what a pitcher does is irrelevant. Much is wasted motion, though there's some value in timing and deception, of course. How a pitcher imparts force into the ball is largely irrelevant to what the ball does. "Good" and "bad" mechanics have nothing to do with the singular result.
I thought part of the point of the windup, and the pitching motion in general, was to loosen/mini-warmup the muscles before the pitch is thrown. Then there's also the matter of loading up the back leg for the pushoff, and kind of like swinging a bat, the efficiency of the weight transfer is important. Am I offbase?
You are correct in the interpretation of Newton's second law of motion.
If this "loading" maneuver is increasing it speed of his pitch, it is coming through lengthening his stride.
Lengthening the stride means a greater distance and essentially more time for him to accelerate his hand up to the desired release speed. Hence a more appropriate relationship is v = a*t where a is the average acceleration of the hand and probably is not affected by the pausing. The other appropriate relationship is that the batter reaction time decreases as release point is moved closer to the plate. (That said, neuroscience studies suggest that batters take cues about when to swing before the ball is released.)
Anyway, CC's mass is irrelevant. Big guys don't necessarily throw harder, they are simply bigger.
Finally saw the delay in CC's delivery that is being described, i.e., the loading maneuver. Mr. Carroll appears to be correct that with the delay, CC now has more time to move his body closer toward the plate before he releases the ball. This may be increasing the speed of the pitch and probably decreasing the reaction time for the batter. It is unlikely it is actually accelerating his motion, nor does it increase the actual force being applied to the ball, however the release speed may have increased since more translational velocity has been added to the velocity he produces from rotating his arm.
I do like the title - throwing his weight around because with CC's extra mass, he needs more time to get himself moving.
It isn't illegal to link to another sites content. You could link to the mlb site with no rights issues.
Embeddable content is a different issue, and is complicated, and may or may not be illegal depending on lots of things.
The web's design and html's design embraces linking and, from a technical point of view, it really shouldn't matter if it is an a/@href or img/@src or object/@data.
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"As you like it " comes to mind re: the comments. A mind is an awful thing to waste; but, so is time. I appreciate Will the Founder's original intent of getting us to look at ththe outcomes of this remarkable athlete's pitches and how he gets there. Nonethelss, I am a Phillie fan who is disappointed in not just the outcomes but the level of play of both teams. I am going to come up with another analysis if ARod tries to shift the blame of his muffy fielding to his glove (again). I think I'll call it "Transferance".Michael Fahey
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Would Robb Nen's infamous toe-tap count as an accelerator (since the friction could slow his momentum) or just an extender along with the hesitation?