Jake

PT = Physical Therapist ATC = Certified Athletic Trainer I don't know exactly why the acronym doesn't match the description with ATC, they probably didn't want to be CATs.

"The safe route will ultimately lead to a mediocre result." - Kenny Williams

QUOTE (Pale Sox @ Jan 31, 2011 -> 08:19 PM) Crasnick twitter. He must have really wanted to play for the Yankees if he was cool with a minor league deal. That, or the Sox did not want him as much as we think we did.

I'm not a big fan of OPS and OPS+ being the ultimate measure of a hitter. But all measures show Big Frank is better.

I'd rather have more threads about less important topics than have interesting tidbits getting lost in the catch-all threads. For example, I rarely check the catch all because there are just so many pages and there's no way to know ahead of time whether I'll be interested. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way.

I thought Mitchell had the invite last year, that's all.

Why no Mitchell with a non-roster invite, his poor AFL performance?

The segment about the girl with cancer is probably going to offend many.

2007 Pontiac Grand Prix. No complaints, not a great winter car though.

I echo those sentiments...also, I thought a lot of things the Onion tries to joke about won't get picked up on by the more casual sports fan.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 14, 2011 -> 09:38 PM) It's very common to have less flexibility in internal rotation from one shoulder to the other. Some researchers have speculated as to reasons why. It depends on what motions are tight as to what some of the ramifications may be. Do you remember which motions they were discussing. Well I recall internal and external rotation both were very bad. The basic test they did on all athletes was to have you try to clasp your hands behind your back, one reaching from above one from below. I still can hardly reach my throwing hand above my waist from that below position for that test.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 14, 2011 -> 06:41 PM) Be careful with letting your stride length get too long . This is one reason some pitcher's elbow gets too high. They get off balance and attempt to compensate. I would agree with the point about the elbow height. This will cause an impingement of the rotator cuff in the shoulder. There really is no one perfect model for mechanics. Some pitcher can get away with what many people would say were awful mechanics and never have a problem. It's only when problems occur that they need to be addressed. This applies to prfessionals after they,ve been pitching awhile. yooung pitcher's just need to work on repeating a delivery which is what the article that started this post talked about. The trainers here at college have found that I have really poor flexibility in both shoulders and especially my throwing arm vs my non-throwing. They were really concerned but never acted on it (probably forgot). What kind of ramification do you think this has?

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 14, 2011 -> 12:13 PM) I'm not particularly a fan of House and his methods. Prior was one example and so is Strasburg. Larry Rothschild is also a big proponent of Houses's method from their time together here in Homewood. While all pitching mechanics are debatable, the thing I don't like about it is that he based most of it on working with Nolan Ryan and a few others. It really wasn't a scientific study as much as just seeing what made some successful. A prime example is teaching to throw the curve. House like the football toss as a way to teach it as it teaches you to ulnarly deviate or move the wrist toward the little finger. It makes for a great curve however it puts a great deal of stress on the elbow as this is where the muscles for this action originate. I also think the towel drill which he teaches creates too much extension and leaves the shoulder in a poor mechanical advantage. I prefer a biomechanical model to distribute the forces throughout the body. I have a good general article on mechanics based on this approach but it's too big to attach here as it contains a number of pictures during the pitching motion. O'Leary points out a commonality in Prior and others' motions that he believes led them to injury, you may want to check that out. Basically, when the elbow is higher than the shoulder before acceleration begins, the instance of injury seems much higher (I say seems because he hasn't done an empirical study, just looking at patterns). It has been noted that Prior has changed this in his latest comeback attempt, which is in progress. Guys like Clemens and Maddux didn't have this particular trait and of course have had long careers. Once again, it is hard to say whether that their durability is because of that or something else or pure luck. I was never a big fan of the towel drill either, I rarely do it because normally the towel becomes distracting and you tend to cheat just to succeed in the drill. I like several of his drills, but I don't do the towel drill nor do I throw a football. My arm angle is too low for the football drill to make as much sense. His focus with me was getting momentum towards home/stride length maximized and maximizing hip/shoulder separation.

Mike Marshall is a strange bird and it's hard for the layman to understand his reasoning at times because he refuses to present his reasoning in a way that is easy to understand. You'll see O'Leary started changing his mind about Marshall: Linky I've worked with Tom House instructors and briefly House himself all my life and generally agree with their principles. Prior became the poster boy and of course that hurts House's credibility, but the pitcher that truly embodies the House method is Nolan Ryan, and of course that is a much better track record. What I appreciate most about House is that he bases his mechanical philosophy off of scientific study of proven pitchers, and his "ideal motion" is thus fluid as more technology becomes available. Many pitchers that have never been associated with House have motions that would almost completely satisfy him as well, interestingly enough. The Rocket would be one instance that comes to mind, and even Maddux. Surely there is more than one way to skin this cat, and of course genetics/work ethic/other variables can cause one instructor to look better or worse than he really is.

I didn't read all the way through since much of it is way over my head. But why measure in innings? That seems so imprecise, why not have a pitch count?

Teahen and especially Viciedo better be down there working on their game. Viciedo has so very much incentive to improve his defense.

Applying for a CSN Chicago internship. Maybe I'll start to get scoops for you guys if I get it.

Any word on salary yet?

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Dec 25, 2010 -> 01:58 PM) Pierre ain't gettin moved. He's Ozzie's leadoff guy. This. At least this time Ozzie's man crush leadoff guy is likely to bat .300.

Despite an increasingly bad track record, nothing gets this board rocking like a tweet from Joe Cowley

QUOTE (sayitaintso @ Dec 15, 2010 -> 10:03 PM) Soxtalk should institute a "like" button, because I'd be all over this. Like.

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Dec 13, 2010 -> 06:03 PM) Memphis for college? Do you mind if I ask where you go? I'm from Memphis - here right now actually since I'm on break from UT. Just curious... I go to Rhodes. Love the school, love the city. Playing ball down here.

Back home in Illinois now. Had 2 finals on Friday, and polished off a final paper Saturday night and turned in my final fiction writing portfolio Saturday morning. Hello snow.

Seems like there are several Tennesseans here on soxtalk. How'd you guys end up in Tennessee/end up Sox fans in Tennessee? I'm interested as I'm a temporary transplant as well.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 04:52 PM) Yeah, it's pretty brutal. Perhaps they're saving money to go towards payroll but hiring a child to do all signage work for them, not to mention a bizarre choice for the featured players. For anyone that can't see the link here's the billboard: Maybe it's all the caffeine and lack of sleep, but I can't quit laughing at this. I want to send it to all my friends and see if they notice. This is amazing. You're amazing.