By Julian Valentin
Sound pitching mechanics aren’t automatic, and even superstars and Hall of Famers go through rough patches when they need to spend time in the film room to get things back on track. In the weeks since Opening Day and his subsequent recovery from a cracked cuticle on his throwing thumb, Rockies starter Ubaldo Jimenez and Pitching Coach Bob Apodaca have spent time in the video coaching room, breaking down his delivery to help him get back to the dominance he achieved in 2010. Apodaca, a former reliever for the New York Mets in the mid-’70s, has been the Rockies Pitching Coach since 2002. With an abundance of homegrown pitchers on the Rockies Major League roster over the JUNE 2011
years, Apodaca has been developing top pitchers, including Aaron Cook, current Kansas City Royal Jeff Francis, budding star Jhoulys Chacin and Jimenez, all from the moment they got their first taste of the Majors. “Dac” is known for his ability to teach and effectively communicate with his guys. “I go to each one of the pitchers trying to find [out] the state of the state,” explains Apodaca. “Where are they right now? How good do they feel about themselves? I want them to talk. I try not to be that book with all the answers in the back. I want them to have that open book test where they have to find the answers and ask the right questions.”
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Based on Apodaca’s coaching philosophy, video sessions with the pitchers are conversations, not presentations. But video coaching requires more than just the battery of pitcher and pitching coach; it’s a group effort, and it starts with the video itself. The Rockies, like every Major League team, have a full staff devoted to capturing every pitch of every game. Led by Video Coordinator Brian Jones, the video staff works diligently behind the scenes to ensure that Manager Jim Tracy and the coaching staff have all of the tools they need when they sit down with a player. You won’t see cameras if you’re not looking for them, but Coors Field is full of them. “We film everything, every pitch of every game,” reveals Jones. “For home games, we take three angles, which are the main TV feed, a side-angle shot and then an overhead shot (for hitters). Then we can sync different videos together to see how a guy was doing it when he was doing well compared to when he struggled. “It’s all digitized in the computer and we can pull up any situation from any game. We can tag it with any type of data: who’s pitching, who’s hitting, what pitch it is, where the ball’s pitched, where it’s hit, who catches it, who fields it, strike counts. Anything. It’s all marked with a data tag, every pitch, so you can query it and the coaches can pull up exactly what they need.”
So, equipped with hand-selected clips from Jones’ video library, what are the things Apodaca focuses on? What, exactly, are the key elements that make up the anatomy of a pitch, and what are the things Apodaca looks for mechanically on the mound?
Video Still 3 Apodaca: “Now you see the leg lift. It is close to the other leg; picture a flamingo with long legs that can stand on one leg forever. Ubaldo’s [left] leg is very close to his right leg and his head is still over his center of gravity (at the belly-button). While all that’s going on, his hands continue his motion. They’ve gone over his head and now they’re on their way down.” A pitcher generates a lot of his power and momentum from the leg lift. Generally speaking, the higher the better, but each picher’s timing dictates the height of the leg lift. The leg kick and arm lift occur at the same time and it’s critical that they’re in sync, maintaining a smooth motion. Pitchers each have unique tendencies and different ways of winding up, but every motion should end at the same place, regardless of the wind-up.
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Using photo stills pulled from video of Jimenez’s mid-April rehab assignment in Arizona, Apodaca shed some light on general pitching mechanics.
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Video Still 4 Apodaca: “His foot is still underneath his knee and he’s made a 90-degree turn from when he started. His shoulders and hips are lining up [perpendicular] to home plate. Now, he’s going to begin his stride; his leg has reached the top of his leg kick here. “Very soon, his hand should be getting out of his glove. This is the approximate time that his arm needs to get the ball out of the glove to do its throwing arc, its path, in order to get to the right place [to release the ball].”
Video Stills 1 and 2 Apodaca: “Here he’s just starting his delivery. He’s getting his arms to go over his head and at the same time, his foot is turning to get in front of the rubber, so he’s positioning himself for the leg lift.” When talking mechanics, Apodaca constantly returns to the themes of timing and rhythm. Balance is the other key ingredient and he explains that most mechanical issues stem from poor timing and lack of balance.
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Regardless of the pitch being thrown, all of these mechanical components remain the same, Apodaca explains. These mechanics are constant. “It’s like a golf swing. If you want to hit a draw, close the face of the club. If you want to hit a fade, you open it. But you still put on the same swing.” Pitchers, in these early phases, adjust their grip and hand position inside their glove to throw different pitches, but they mirror a fastball delivery with every complementary pitch.
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“It’s all digitized in the computer and we can pull up any situation from any game. We can tag it with any type of data: who’s pitching, who’s hitting, what pitch it is, where the ball’s pitched, where it’s hit, who catches it, who fields it, strike counts. Anything.” - Rockies Video Coodinator Brian Jones on the video coaching capabilities at the coaches’ and players’ fingertips
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The other thing to note here is Jimenez’s hand position; the ball is facing the ground. Young pitchers tend to bring their hand up at this point, pointing the ball directly behind them in a wasted motion. Keeping the ball facing down here will save a step later, creating a smoother transition into the release point.
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Video Stills 5 and 6 Apodaca: “Now he’s out of his glove and beginning his stride, but you can still see that his weight is on his back leg with a slight flex in his right knee. He’s striding—heel, ankle, knee—and even though he’s striding, his weight is still back.” Again, timing is key, in terms of when pitchers remove the ball from their glove, and fractions of a second make a big difference. The back foot should be right up against the rubber, using it for leverage to generate additional power. Mistakes at the end of the delivery typically happen due to a “domino effect” to compensate for faults early on. As such, when Apodaca watches video, he typically works backwards to identify where things first went wrong mechanically.
Video Still 8 Apodaca: “His foot has hit [the ground]. From this angle you can’t really tell, but is there an arch in his back? From this angle, it looks like there is a little arch in his back. It looks like his head is tilted a little bit to the left. Unlike a hitter who lands, then begins rotation to hit, a pitcher has to hold on just a little bit longer.” Maintaining good posture throughout a pitch is critical, even more so in this phase of a pitch. Pitchers should be upright, with their head straight on the target. Also at this point, the pitcher should begin to turn his glove so the pocket is facing his torso, ending in an upright position, as Jimenez begins here.
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Video Still 7 Apodaca: “Here, his head is basically over [his] center of gravity and he’s almost ready to land. With Ubaldo, you can see how long his arm action is; his is much longer than most people. His timing has to be even better because of the length of that arm path...he needs to get [the ball] down, back, up because when that foot hits [the ground], now he’s going to begin his throwing action. “For a man his size, he has a short stride. I’d love to see him go about another half of his foot length longer stride.”
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Video Still 9 Apodaca: “He lands and he’s supposed to be getting some drive off this back leg to home plate. That’s causing a little impedance to home plate. As soon as that foot hits [the ground], pitchers don’t begin rotation yet. It’s important that he lands on a full foot because the amount of g-force that is applied
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on that [foot]. He can’t land on the side of the foot, he can’t land on his toe or heel. It has to be full-foot to support all of this energy that’s being transferred from the ground up, from his feet to his arm. All of that energy from his back leg is a lot of energy.
power that the engine can give. Same thing with a throwing athlete. Everything has to be synchronized and there are a lot of moving parts.” 11
“Stay on the target longer [by continuing to look at the catcher’s mitt] so that center of gravity is moving closer and closer to home plate. Then his rotation and his head should be well out over his left knee.” In this phase, it is critical that pitchers generate strong torque in their rotational movement as they square their shoulders to face the plate again. This turn should be as smooth and explosive as possible. 10
Video Still 11 Apodaca: “Now you can see all of his action, the impedance, going to home plate. You can see his long follow-through with his arm. It’s all good [with this pitch], but could he have done it a little better? Absolutely. “In order for his head to stay still, his ‘shock absorbers’ (front leg and foot) need to be nice and soft to cushion that.”
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Video Still 10 Apodaca: “Now the ball is leaving his hand. The ball should leave your hand just about where your ear is. The longer he can hold that rotation, the farther his upper body can get out over his front leg, and the farther his head is going to get closer to home plate. With technique, you can cut the distance down between the point of release and home plate. “For a guy who rotates early, he loses power first of all, but a hitter can see [his] chest, arm and [the] ball. Plus, he’s throwing at a further distance [away from the plate]. This is also the phase where the all-important arm angle comes into play. Different pitchers have different arm angles, most coming naturally. While pitchers and coaches can work to tweak certain aspects of the arm angle, it’s generally not advised to do an overhaul of the arm angle at any level. Rather, pitchers and coaches should find a way to work with the pitcher’s natural angle. Here also, Apodaca adds that the pitcher’s back leg will begin to lift off the rubber from the momentum being transferred. The end position of the back leg also varies from pitcher to pitcher: some come around, some square up quickly and others, like Rockies left-hander Jorge De La Rosa, elevate that back leg high after delivery. This is also the time where grip becomes most important, perhaps where Jimenez has had his biggest issues this season. Apodaca explains that Jimenez’s cuticle problem greatly affected his control and velocity because he wasn’t able to grip the ball with the amount of pressure needed to properly pitch a baseball. Jimenez began to compensate, doing things different mechanically and it manifested itself into the other phases of his delivery. While a cuticle on the thumb may seem like an insignificant detail, every piece is critically important. “The delivery is like the gears in a transmission,” Apodaca explains. “If it’s not all in tune, if it’s not all aligned, if it’s not all on time, then the engine and the car is not going to run efficiently with the
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Video Stills 12 and 13 Apodaca: “And here’s his finish. His head is still on his target and that’s what I want. I want him to see the ball going into the catcher’s glove with both eyes. The heaviest part of a human being’s upper body is the head, so wherever your head goes, you have a better chance of your upper body staying on your target longer.” Through open discussions and film study, the Rockies ace is gradually returning to his top form. But it will take patience and it’s important to keep the bigger picture in mind. “When Ubaldo got hurt and came back, all you heard about was lack of velocity,” says Apodaca. “But for me, I don’t want him to think velocity. [Velocity] will be a byproduct of doing other things well. He will throw the ball hard, but if his sole intention is to throw the ball hard, he’s going to struggle out there because we need precision. I want him to think about the process of his delivery. “He’s too dominant of a pitcher. His character and will is going to win that battle [to return to his early 2010 form].” Coaches and pitchers have benefitted greatly from the video component of the modern game, giving them that edge between starts to address any mechanical issues, or to just stay on top of what’s already working. v
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