More on Hughes and His Mechanics

Saber Scouting took a detailed look at Phil Hughes' mechanics today, for the full breakdown, including pictures, click here.

Here is some of the article.

Everyone seems to have an opinion of late about what is different about Phil Hughes mechanics. Surely, everyone is not wrong; there is something different as I established above. But, what no one has nailed down for sure is what exactly has changed. From what I’ve found after some excruciatingly long looks at video clips is something different than what’s previous been talked about....

From balance point, to hands breaking, to the point where Hughes’ is about to begin his rear leg lift, there is nothing different worth noting...

The Real Change

...From the video analysis, it appears Hughes’ mechanic change begins after his rear leg lift. Before that, I don’t see anything that looks like a legitimate difference in his delivery. This, however, is....

...In ‘06, Hughes throwing right over that front leg. It was firming up beautifully and his rear leg was lifting straight up. I’ve been trying to think of the best way to describe this, but the only thing that keeps coming into my mind is that it looks like his right shoulder is pulling or leading the rest of his body here in ‘08. In ‘06 it was leg drive making his follow through work. Also take note that his head seems to get turned or snapped at the end of his arm action in ‘08. This was not the case in ‘06. His head in ‘06 was still upright and turned toward the plate. In ‘08, his head is being pulled down by his aggressive front shoulder pulling downward.

And their final theory:

I’ve yet to weigh in on this and stood by while other analysts on the web have examined in. So, what’s my point in this article? A. Too much is being made of other supposed issues in his mechanics prior to his follow through. I hope I was able to ease some Yankee fans fears that there really is no other changes up this point in his delivery. The change I did touch on however, I do think could be a direct cause of his lessened velocity since over the past year. Is it because of the hamstring injury? I can’t say for sure either way, but considering much of my focus in this article has been on that front leg in question, it is certainly possible.

But, the bottom line is right now is that from what I can see, Hughes is pushing against that front leg and not driving over and through it. Hence, the reason for the less aggressive looking follow through with his leg that I pointed out above. The problem is not arm speed, nor is it arm angle or the way his hands are breaking, at least from what I can tell. Through 75% of his delivery, essentially nothing has changed. The leg lift and follow through certainly appear different, though.

Recommendation For Repair

Whether the Yankees want this repaired I don’t know. Perhaps they feel with his delivery his command will be better. What I see, however, besides effecting velocity, it is impacting command as well. With his shoulder pulling downwards towards his left side, it is essentially creating the same situation as pulling off his pitches. And, pulling off, typically causes pitches to leak arm side (In Hughes’ case, in on righty hitters). From watching most of Hughes’ starts, pitches leaking back towards the middle has gotten him in some trouble quite frequently.

So, what to do? I’d say the first step would be taking some pressure off of that right shoulder. And, to do that, Hughes would need to once again be aggressive with his legs and get that high rear leg lift. This will certainly make his bend at the waist much more smooth, rather being pulled down by his shoulder. In my opinion, he simply needs to get his weight transfer flowing smoothly right over and through his front side rather than his weight transferring into that front leg but not over it.

So there you have it, Hughes' mechanics are a bit off, and this may be what is causing him some problems. And most importantly it can be fixed.

The people at Saber Scouting also posted a breakdown on what's wrong with Kei Igawa last week that I think you should check out.

Hat tip to Ed Valentine of Bugs & Cranks, who has been all over the Phil Hughes situation today.