Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins
Watching Liberatore pitch this afternoon was concerning for me. I know it's just ST, but the ball coming out of his hand moved on a really flat plane, and he got hit very hard as a result. Because he has more of a low 3/4 delivery, if his ball doesn't have any downward motion it just tracks right into the zone.
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I'm more concerned by your reports of him being at a low 3/4. That's not common for him.
He's always been something of a typical 3/4 delivery guy and even a little bit of a short-armer so it's given him really good deception and depth on his pitches.
If he's gone to a low 3/4 he's protecting something. That's almost always a bad sign. Or, God help me, he's doing that same stupid bullshit that Reyes did at about the same time when he decided that merely being good in the mid-90s wasn't enough. He needed to be bad and erratic in the
HIGH 90s so he started coming off late and from a lower arm slot to find velocity.
Then again, it may just be early season buildup. It's hard to get your arm up there (my PT when I broke my shoulder knew I played ball as a kid because my right shoulder just doesn't go up as high as my left - she said it happens to anyone who's played baseball, just a lot of buildup in there). Early in the season he may just be needing to loosen that stuff up to find his correct arm slot.
I'll worry more if he's still at a low 3/4 by May. With the truncated spring I may have to give more latitude here than I otherwise would.