Written by Greg Fertel
|
22 September 2008
Alex Eisenberg of
Baseball Intellect, who previously analyzed the mechanics of
Gerrit Cole and
Jeremy Bleich, continued his breakdown of 2006 draftees with Yankees 6th-rounder
Brett Marshall. While Alex was blown away by Cole and underwhelmed by Bleich, his opinion of Marshall lies somewhere in between. As always, Alex did great work using video to analyze Marshall's mechanics and stuff, and he also cites Ashish's
interview with Marshall to explain more about his repertoire. I recommend you to read the
piece in full, since it explains the mechanical terminology far better than I can.
To summarize, Alex sees Marshall's mechanics as fairly raw, understandable for a guy who was not a pitcher until relatively recently. Alex is also concerned about Marshall's arm action, as he makes the dreaded "inverted W", to which pitching mechanics expert
Chris O'Leary attributes "a significantly higher risk of experiencing shoulder, and in some cases also elbow, problems." O'Leary cites the oft-injured Mark Prior, John Smoltz, AJ Burnett, and Shaun Marcum as examples of pitchers who use the "inverted W", and who have all undergone major elbow or shoulder surgeries. While Alex is less concerned about Marshall's arm action, it is something to keep an eye on, and it will be interesting to see how much the Yankees will tinker with his mechanics.
As expected, Alex finds Marshall's stuff to be very impressive, with good movement on both his 2-seam and 4-seam fastballs, a presently below-average changeup, and a sharp curveball (Alex did not have video of Marshall's slider, his best secondary pitch). The verdict on Marshall seems to be that he has great stuff and a high ceiling, but that his raw mechanics need some improvement. Additionally, because he is relatively new to pitching, and was worked hard in high school, the Yankees should handle him gently, and hot have him throw too many innings. While I'm still disappointed in missing out on Cole, this writeup of Marshall gives me hope that this 2008 draft could unearth a potential frontline starter for the Yankees.
