Breaking Down WhiteSoxDave's Mechanics
WhiteSoxDave shocked the nation last night in a performance for the ages. It was remarkable and worth all the attention and celebration it's received.
At the same time, I'd be remiss to let his mechanics go by the wayside. Lost in the shuffle is that Dave struggled mightily with his command while leaving a ton of velocity on the table. That's a fact.
Here's another fact: WSD fucking LOVES breaking baseball stuff down on the blog. Really technical stuff. Things that hardcore baseball guys don't really care about. Minor league trends and exit velocities and amateur draft speculation and all the confusing shit we avoid because it's confusing.
But not WhiteSoxDave. Not the gritty baseball guy that's out for blood every time he sees a radar gun and a chance to flex. No sir:
This is a guy who lives and breathes knowing more than you about baseball biomechanics and strategy and all that shit. The first ever Barstool Sports Part Time Scout. Show some fucking respect.
That said, let's remember we're here to flip this back to WSD and break his mechanics down in the same vain. So let's see the mystery behind Barstool's 1st ever speed pitch champion.
Max Effort
Let's start with his general philosophy: give it everything you got. We call that Max Effort in baseball and when I spoke with Dave this morning, he said his back was the most sore muscle group. To me, that's all you need to know about being a Max Effort guy. The whole body doesn't feel pain unless you use the whole body.
Another tell?
The grunting. My god was there grunting. Notable, audible, aggressive grunting from a guy that describes himself as disgusting. Obviously you don't love the audio/visual but the fact remains that WSD is laying it all on the line. You can't teach that kind of mentality especially with baseball players because they're such pussies.
Drifting
Ever hear of drifting? Probably not which would explain why my dick just got hard. I love explaining nuanced baseball stuff to people who don't give a fuck.
In this case, we're talking about drifting which is a mistake you make when you're trying to throw very hard. For reference let's look at the Rocket's mechanics because they're basically the best ever.
It's important that you don't start your movement to homeplate until you shift almost 100% of your weight to your back leg. Clemens does this perfectly:
And in doing so, The Rocket's left leg becomes virtually weightless. He's moved all of his power to the "back side" which is just a baseball way of saying the leg you throw off. That's where a lot of strength and endurance can come in your delivery so it's important to transfer your weight to the back before you bring it to homeplate.
Hopefully that makes sense. You want to load up your weight back, then bring it forward to the catcher. No different than a golf swing or throwing a punch. Bring it back to bring it forward.
The problem for a lot of pitchers though is you get so amped up to throw, you aren't patient enough to let all your weight load up on your backside. We call that Drifting. You're "drifting" towards homeplate.
Here's still shots of WSD drifting:
1 - this is where WSD needs to be loading up on his right butt cheek
2 - the next movement should see the ball moving more than his left knee. But it doesn't. The ball actually starts moving well after WSD's front knee starts to open up.
3 - Dave's arm is in such a bad position right now. His front leg is almost down and the ball is below his belt. Do you think his arm is going to be in a position to throw when he lands?
Of course not. Dave's arm is going to lag behind the rest of his body. It's a small difference, but leads to one consistent mistake: throwing the ball up & away. For Dave, that would be inside on a right handed hitter aka exactly where 95% of his pitches landed yesterday.
And why did he hit that spot almost every single time?
Because he was drifting.
LOUD ARM QUIET BODY.
My pitching coach in college used to say this to me all the time. LOUD ARM QUIET BODY YOU DUMB MOTHERFUCKER. Be patient in your body so your arm can explode through the end of a delivery. Same shit as seeing a little golfer blast a 300 yard drive. They wait til the very last second in their swing to make contact, creating a lag effect. Imagine snapping your buddy with a towel. What hurts more? Winding up and swinging like a fucking animal? Or a controlled snipe with the right amount of late wrist action?
Same thing with your delivery. LOUD ARM QUIET BODY.
Dave here has it flip flopped. That's a loud body, quiet arm. And you can tell from the picture here that his arm really is lagging which gives credence to my drifting observation. Look how off center Dave's head is at release. There's almost NO WAY you could repeatably throw strikes with that kind of action. All his energy is falling off to the first base side and probably worst of all? The hitter gets an AWESOME look at the baseball when your body falls to first base.
Why?
DECEPTION
If your body is leaking, your chest is going to open immediately and the hitter is going to see the ball come out of your hand wayyyyy sooner. It's not hidden by your body and certainly isn't masked by your delivery.
Instead, the hitter gets to see the ball released here:
Instead of here:
The resulting visual for the hitter is seeing A LOT more of the baseball as it leaves the pitcher's hand. I hope that makes sense because this is the #1 surefire way to get your tits lit up by an opposing lineup. Last thing you want to do is give them a full look at the ball.
Rotational Movement
You'll notice WSD barely rotates his hips into the throw, a sign of an unstable core and someone who wants to use more arm than body. That leaves velocity on the table and makes it harder to repeat your delivery because technically you don't have one. You're just a thrower.
I want you to pretend that you're about to punch me in the face as hard as you can. Wouldn't you want to turn back to get as much strength? Same thing with pitching. You want to rotate your hips into the movement to create the most amount of resistance to throw against. That's where a lot of velocity comes, and it's hard to watch Dave work so North/South when, at his density, his most power is East/West.
Honestly though this one's probably easiest to fix. Just get WSD a 25-pound plate and start doing those Romanian ab twists. (They might just be regular twists but when you add the word Romanian in front of any exercise, you sound significantly more impressive. Now excuse me while I go do some Romanian box step ups.)
Intangibles
There's no statistics or data you can gather when it comes down to straight up wanting it. So while Dave has major mechanical flaws in several areas, it's hard to deny how bad he fucking wanted it. Smelling salts? Check. Sweaty dugout jacket? Check. Dip? Of course and let's not overlook how much dip spit he gutted last night out of sheer will.
As a baseball guy, you have to respect so many of those moves he made. Especially the celebration and the fuck yous and double middle finger. All of that stuff tells me WSD has the makeup to overcome such overwhelming shortcomings in his mechanics. Final question is which MLB team is smart enough to give him a real shot at the league. And if not here, then definitely Mexico.
