Comments on: White Sox pitching coach compares Strasburg to Mark Prior, Kerry Wood

By: Josh Fisher

Josh Fisher — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:37:16 +0000

Look…it’s bad mechanics, period, to accel and decel a shoulder this quickly. Some guys can handle it. The rest aren’t major league starters for more than a few years. Being able to tolerate these forces is nothing more than an evolutionary lottery ticket. Looking at mechanics and saying a guy *will* or *won’t* get hurt is silly, as is saying two skipped starts–in a year he is set to get shut down anyway–is a harbinger of bad things to come.
What the Nationals are doing is to *prevent* Strasburg from becoming Mark Prior. Given that their season doesn’t matter, they’re right to take every precaution. But these are fickle things, pitchers’ arms, and there’s not a whole lot we can do but be cautious where possible and acknowledge that 220+ innings pitchers are rare beasts indeed.

By: Jonny5

Jonny5 — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:28:40 +0000

Here's something else on it. http://www.proballnw.com/03-2009/strasburg-drafting-bad-mechanics/

By: geoknows

geoknows — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:27:08 +0000

I have heard several experts state that they do not care for Strasburg's mechanics. Chris O'Leary, whose website you linked, has him on his list of "Pitchers with Problematic Mechanics," but he does state that he's not as bad as Prior: http://www.chrisoleary.com/projects/baseball/pitching/ProfessionalPitcherAnalyses/StephenStrasburg.html

By: Jonny5

Jonny5 — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:20:04 +0000

He just came short of saying Upside down W didn’t he? Rut roe….