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Hector Noesi: Quick Mechanics Breakdown

Hector Noesi, a 24 year old right handed relief pitcher with a plus fastball, has the potential to have a successful major league career. His overall mechanics are good and throws with most of his body instead of just using his arm. Even though he has good hip rotation, he could help himself with a better follow through. By bringing his right elbow past his left knee, Hector would be be more consistent with his control and hitting his target. This is commonly called throwing “shoulder to shoulder”… which really can provide pinpoint accuracy IF the pitcher knows how to focus on his target. As an extra benefit, this type of follow through, also known as “bending their back”, helps pitchers have greater leverage on their breaking pitches. Right now, he’s finishing a little high (upright) in his follow through and this in turn elevates his pitches or causes them to be up in the zone…not a good place to pitch.

 

Last note concerns his time to the plate with runners on. He’s been a little slow, up to 1.5, because he’s still got a bit of a desire to get his knee up to a power position during his delivery in the stretch position. Hopefully, he can learn a slide step and bring his time to 1.32 or better with runners on. He’s young enough to learn and should only get better with experience.

Del Pittman
Owner/Operator of Combat Hitting
Former MLB Scout

 

 

  1. Very cool, I'm curious if you could find a current or past pitcher that has mechanics similar to your choice that have the fixes you identified. Sort of like a reference for the terminology you use. Looking forward to more entries!

  2. Dr. Bragg Stockton has a similar breakdown. He likes to use the terms push, pop, and over the top. The push is more about about being balanced when pushing off the rubber and not rushing. He really doesn't try to have you sit to be balanced and then push off the pitcher's plate like other pitching coaches do. The term pop refers to the hip rotation that results from the ball of the front foot landing after the stride toward the plate, and over the top is about the follow through. If the follow through is done properly with the throwing elbow passing by the glove side knee as started in the article, the throwing side foot will naturally fly (rise) above the pither's hip.

  3. As a rule of thumb, the higher the foot rises above the hip-the better the follow through. As you may have gathered, scouts are taught to watch the pitchers and hitters' feet and hands closely for mechanic flaws. There are a number of good pitching coaches that coach in every level of the game. Tom House and some others come to mind. I'm purposely trying to simplify the bio-mechanics and stay away from terms like ground force, reducing rotary inertia, increasing hip rotation, etc., but there's a ton of that out there as you're most likely aware.__Shameless self promotion for more info: http://combathittingblog.blogspot.com/

  4. Great stuff, very interesting! I would also like to know how/why a guy like David Robertson, who throws about 92-93, seems as if he is blowing people away… Is it from great movement? Mechanics?

  5. David Robertson seems to have a clue about how to keep hitters off balance by mixing locations and speeds. Here's a pitcher you'd love to have cloned so you can have a staff full of David Robertsons. The Yankees are truly fortunate.

  6. Stating to resemble the Mo Rivera look. Looks like he's been learning a few things about that cutter. Del – would love to see you spotlight Phil Hughes and his mechanics, especially with the news of him changing the grip on his curve ball and coming back from injury. That would be a great read.

  7. I have looked at Phil's mechanics…he does have a few issues, and wondering if they haven't affected his rotator cuff.

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