How Jonathon Niese’s Delivery Can Be Fixed
The bad news: Jonathon Niese left Sunday’s ballgame after the second inning with pain in his elbow. The good news: assuming the MRI comes out clean, the arm problems Niese has experienced this spring can be easily fixed by making minor adjustments to his pitching delivery.
Last week, Angel Borrelli and I discussed Jonathon Niese’s shoulder injury. After Niese’s first start last Tuesday, I sent slow-motion video from the game to Angel to analyze, so that we could see how his mechanics looked and what he might need to “fix,” if anything (the name of the podcast is “The Fix,” after all). There are three things to consider with a pitching injury:
The idea of this podcast was to focus on #3 — to examine the video from last Tuesday, and figure out why Niese might be experiencing shoulder discomfort and a drop in velocity. Angel was excited to see that the adjustments that needed to be made were minor — that his issue was easily fixable.
We got on the phone at 11:30 Sunday morning, so keep in mind, we didn’t know he was going to hyperextend his elbow less than two hours later.
I listened to the Mets – Cardinals game on WOR, and the moment Josh Lewin and John Franco reported that Niese had left the ballgame with elbow pain, I called Angel. The first thing that came out of her mouth: “Do you know where in the elbow he’s having the pain? Because it would make sense if it’s in the back of the elbow — that would mean it’s a deceleration issue and what we talked about this morning.”
For the record, we didn’t know for sure it was pain in the back of the elbow until a few hours later. I point this out not to prove that Angel is some kind of a psychic, but rather to help you understand that the human body works a certain way, and properly trained scientists can connect the dots and help prevent these kind of injuries.
If you are interested in learning more about why Niese has been having problems with his arm this spring, and how the shoulder, elbow, and rest of the body work together, then listen to the podcast below. Angel describes in-depth the following topics:
– Forensic analysis of a pitching motion
– Point of acceleration in a pitcher’s delivery (a.k.a., “max external rotation”)
– Leading with the elbow
– Jonathon Niese’s shoulder injury vs. Johan Santana‘s
– How the mechanics of Johan Santana and Bartolo Colon have evolved similarly (and dangerously)
Again, if we hear that the MRI comes back clean — meaning, no major injury with Niese’s elbow — then his arm woes can very easily be alleviated, because thanks to science, we understand where the pain was coming from and how it can be fixed. Once we hear the results of the MRI, I’ll circle back with Angel to learn more of what’s going on from a scientific angle.
In the meantime, listen to the podcast below (and the first one, if you haven’t heard it already), and if you have any specific questions, please post them in the comments — I’ll get them answered for you either here or in the next podcast with Angel.
I have no faith in the pitching coach to implement effective adjustments, considering the laundry list of major (mechanic-related) injuries to occur on his watch.
It’s amazing to me that this coaching staff is still in tact. Guys like Hudgens and Warthen are dinosaurs in the new world of MLB.
Don’t even get me started on Collins.
Gonna be another fun year.
Considering the billions of dollars MLB brings in, and the tens to hundreds of millions invested in top pitchers, the cost of hiring scientists to help keep pitchers healthy should be a no-brainer.
That, to me, is enough to know we’ve had a problem on our hands for awhile. Let alone digging any further into what I’ve already thought of Warthen for the past 5 seasons. It’s clear that he, like Hudgens, isn’t anywhere near effective when it comes to making mechanical adjustments —- an area I think the FO really needs to address with these arms, just as I see it being a hindrance to hitters, attempting to make every hitter into a robot that sees “X”-amount of pitches per AB.
Funny you suggest that coaches are afraid. Angel told me that whenever she walks into a baseball training center to work with one of her clients, the pitching coaches grumble — they can’t stand her, because as long as she’s making mechanical adjustments, the pitching coach doesn’t have much value — other than to sit on a bucket and be the catcher.
It is going to be a hard pill for pitching coaches to swallow — to admit they don’t really know enough about body movement. But that doesn’t mean they have to be useless. For example, a scientist is not going to know how to set up a hitter, or teach the nuances of a change-up grip. The addition of scientists to the equation of keeping pitchers healthy has to happen — the sooner, the better.
Amongst your excellent points, I think the most important is that this role split from the pitching coach needs to happen at the lowest levels in the minors. The old school, hardened pitching coach will always have some resentment and turf protection, it is human nature, but in the long run the biggest roadblock will be from the athlete. It will be hard enough getting drafted kids to change, since “their” mechanics are what made them excel and get drafted in the first place. To get a guy like Niese, or Santana, or Medlen, or Beachy, or any big leaguer to change is near impossible. These guys have ascended to the top 150 of the 7 billion humans at starting a professional baseball game as pitcher. Millions of potential earnings are at stake, and for a 1-3 year big leaguer, most of these guys haven’t earned enough money for financial comfort should they need to change careers. They are not going to change. The team that gets its kids to change, A ballers, rookie camps, and shows the results, will be emulated. And, when that happens, it will seep into high school ball and become part of the fabric of training pitchers from childhood. It won’t eliminate all injuries, but it should certainly help to reduce them, and prevention is the best medicine out there.
One thing I want to point out, though. A common misconception is that mechanical changes are drastic. In most cases, all that’s needed is a minor adjustment, and, when applied properly, the pitcher feels the difference immediately and embraces it. That said, I’d be surprised if a pitcher — regardless of age — would refuse to “change,” because he’d immediately feel better about the adjustment. I get where you’re going — we’ve seen it with Dylan Bundy and Trevor Bauer with their long-toss programs. But the difference here is that the changes are not necessarily drastic, they can feel and see the improvement immediately, and it’s based on hard scientific facts, rather than theories posed by ignorant, unqualified people.
For the record, Kris Medlen went to Angel after his Tommy John surgery, made adjustments, remained healthy, then stopped working with her about a year and a half ago. Coincidence?
Prevention and Recovery, baby!
I fully expect this to mask his pain, at least to get them through “breaking camp” – then having him take his spot in the rotation when called-upon, only to hit the D.L. shortly thereafter.
Niese gets hurt, literally every year. It’s just a matter of “what and when” it is……..rather than “if” it will happen.
The White Sox have led MLB in starting pitcher health for the past decade or so, and much of the credit has been given to head trainer Herm Schneider. I’d be interested to hear if he and Cooper talk before Cooper addresses pitchers’ mechanics. Schneider’s not a scientist, but seems like a pretty badass physical therapist.
Are more teams employing scientists? Gosh I hope so. The shame is that the ones that are, are using it as a competitive advantage and in secrecy — kind of their “moneyball” advantage. Which really, really sucks, because if the information is not shared, pitchers at every level, every age, will continue to put themselves into danger.
It is inevitable that it will “come out” sooner or later, likely later, and many will suffer unnecessary injuries as a result. This is no different than any other medical advances.
I would love to see an analysis of teams and pitcher injuries. This isn’t an “age” thing, along with Harvey, the Nats lost Zimmerman and Strasburg to TJ at an early age, Melen and Beachy are young as well, and it looks like the recent rash of guys dropping this spring is among the younger players as well.
Either applied pitching science is hit-and-miss (and thus hard to conclusively credit), or there’s some other source of resistance in place here. You think Medlen’s really going to risk his career just to help Roger McDowell feel secure?
But that’s only my theory.
As for Angel, I think she’d be shooting herself in the foot if she elaborated on why previous clients left — it wouldn’t bode well for future business (how can a prospective client trust her, if she is open about her business relationship with previous clients?). But, here is her response:
“While I would love to answer your excellent questions in a way that would help me look better, I cannot. Pitchers hire me to help them when they are in situations that require my respect and understanding. Even though those situations have passed, I cannot violate their privacy out of respect for them and the next future client/pitcher that may need the same discretion from me.
Good coaches, i.e., those of us who are behind the scenes, know that our work may go unnoticed by the masses. But if you are a committed coach, behind the scenes is where you want to be.
Here’s what I can say without conscience: my current business is made up of 95% of high school and D-1 college pitchers. 90% of them have been with me for years and 50% of them for 6 years or more. My pitchers remain uninjured; they are closely monitored in terms of their pains; they strength train under my guidance; and in any holiday or off-season, pitchers that I have worked with fill my schedule for workouts and tune-ups…and off-season
adjustments…to be sure that they are on track.
My work right now is about engineering the next generation. With that being said, I will continue to try and be heard by that one pitcher of this generation whose mind may be open to a different way of doing things.”