A freak of nature: What can we learn from Tim Lincecum?

[kyleb]

http://www.rcco.us/bb/02/Ryan_Lincecum_3B.gif

(large image)

What can we learn from this side-by-side comparison? Tim Lincecum's arm action is unmatched in the big leagues, and he throws in the mid-upper 90's despite being 5'11". If you look closely, you can see Lincecum takes a large and quick step (almost a leap) towards home plate while leading with the hip and exploding with the front leg. His posting leg straightens out at 45" and goes downwards, something Dick Mills highly touts in his program.

So, what can we learn? Lincecum keeps his arm severely delayed and gets great whipping motion from it with late trunk rotation and a very long stride. This is something I will strive to improve upon.

[theblackkeys]

wait, who's who in these two images?

Number two guy looks like tim, and the other guy looks like some random major leaguer from the 70's.

[kyleb]

Nolan Ryan.

[XXXNoahXXX]

Sorry for nothing to add, just wanted to say this is really cool.

[Green Kool Aid]

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Sorry for nothing to add, just wanted to say this is really cool.

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[MuresanForMVP]

good side-by-side comparison, Kyle. Lincecum's delivery reminds me of a guy I played against a couple times who could buzz mid 90's (Javier Guerra), granted he was much taller. Pitchers like Lincecum are fascinating, I always had a very strong arm in the field but would throw meat off a mound. Anyways, very cool

[maniacut]

This is [censored]. His delivery is like the definition of how to throw a baseball fast from a standing windup. The video is missing some of the initial movement of his lead foot up and hip rotation back tucking his lead knee behind/into his frame sort of. I think the most important thing is how his stable leg springs off and explodes to the mound, the arm follows.

[LuckOfTheDraw]

Awesome stuff. I just wanted to say that the .gif was even more impressive in slow motion as it loaded.

Wow. I just can't stop staring at Lincecum's motion. It's hard to imagine a more powerful delivery than that. The combination of timing, flexability and explosiveness is superb.

[Colt McCoy]

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So, what can we learn?

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This is a good question. How much of what he's doing can be taught?

[D.Puffy]

when can we expect him to be starting in SF?

[tdarko]

Your initial movement to the plate can be a jump or not it all depends on whether your momentum was leaking forward from your balance position (lifting of the leg--would have been the gif. shot just before this one for those that don't know).

The thing that Tim does that you can't see from this video is that when he lifts his leg and gets in his balance position he hasn't moved forward (some actually tilt back like a loading position--Clemens does this--it is a mechanism to prevent leaking) and the reason this is so important is it allows his arm time to catch up to his body, if he just jumped out at the plate and never got in a proper balance position then his arm would drag terribly and he would never be able to get on top of a baseball when he threw it, it would be impossible. But since he has a great balance position and his arm swing starts then it is able to catch up to his aggressive jump...this is standard for all pitchers.

Pitching is a lot like hitting in so many ways. One of the ways is that no matter how goofy the wind up or how different one pitcher may look to the next, each pitcher essentially has to do the same steps (correctly) to deliver a baseball with efficiency. In hitting Julio Franco waves his bat way over his head but when the pitch his about to be delivered and he is getting in his hitting position and if you were to breakdown a video of his swing with say Todd Helton it would look almost the same, the movements wouldn't be any different.

Tim gets his velocity from an incredible leg drive, perfect timing, and crazy quick arm speed. His arm speed can't be taught. Yes, anyone's arm speed can get faster, even a lot faster but we all have a ceiling and his arm speed is graded as one of the best on a big league scale. Perfect timing and leg drive can be taught.