Clayton Kershaw

[dgo71]

I've always thought pitchers with complicated wind-ups had a shorter shelf life in general. When there's that many moving parts, when something goes wrong or gets out of whack it's tough to pin down exactly what is wrong. This leads to constant tweaks that effect performance. Look at Tim Lincecum, Dontrelle Willis, etc. Crazy wind ups and when the bottom fell out, they were effectively done for. On the flip side, guys like Nolan Ryan and Greg Maddux had simple mechanics, and they were able to pitch for a long time, remain largely injury-free and be consistently effective throughout their careers.

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by dgo71

I've always thought pitchers with complicated wind-ups had a shorter shelf life in general. When there's that many moving parts, when something goes wrong or gets out of whack it's tough to pin down exactly what is wrong. This leads to constant tweaks that effect performance. Look at Tim Lincecum, Dontrelle Willis, etc. Crazy wind ups and when the bottom fell out, they were effectively done for. On the flip side, guys like Nolan Ryan and Greg Maddux had simple mechanics, and they were able to pitch for a long time, remain largely injury-free and be consistently effective throughout their careers.

I totally agree...Alex Wood has had health problems too.

[1952boyntoncollector]

Originally Posted by dgo71

I've always thought pitchers with complicated wind-ups had a shorter shelf life in general. When there's that many moving parts, when something goes wrong or gets out of whack it's tough to pin down exactly what is wrong. This leads to constant tweaks that effect performance. Look at Tim Lincecum, Dontrelle Willis, etc. Crazy wind ups and when the bottom fell out, they were effectively done for. On the flip side, guys like Nolan Ryan and Greg Maddux had simple mechanics, and they were able to pitch for a long time, remain largely injury-free and be consistently effective throughout their careers.

Disagree...we can all give names for our side...how was Juan Marichal..,,,didnt look up spelling

Satchel Paige played like 30 years and i believe he didnt have a conventional wind up, correct me if i am wrong .tons of guys with simple wind ups im sure got hurt a lot as well and/or ineffective

im sure there were good sidewinders and bad ones as well

[dgo71]

Marichal and Paige are definitely good examples against my theory. They played before my time so I'm just going on a guess that maybe they didn't have the steep dropoff that Lincecum and Willis had? To be more clear, it's my belief that players with wind-ups like that are harder to correct once something goes wrong, not that they can't be effective throughout their entire career. I I have to think that when something was slightly out of whack for Ryan it was easier to correct than when something went out of whack with Willis. I'm sure there's exceptions to the rule though as you just mentioned two that clearly are.