*** VD 13 Commentary Thread ***

[The Feral Slasher]

Sorry dude. Been super busy, not finding much time for myself lately. Some kind of Franchise draft is fairly locked in for VD14, but we'll sort out the precise stuff closer to the time.

In the mean time we can try some 1v1's ... I'll let you know.

sounds good. Busy prepping for my draft tomorrow. feels like studying for finals !

[Bene Futuis]

Walter Johnson throwing a pitch in the 1924 World Series.

[The Feral Slasher]

Walter Johnson throwing a pitch in the 1924 World Series.

looks like a side-winder, never new that

[Bene Futuis]

Walter Johnson held the MLB strikeout record for 56 years until 1972, when three pitchers eclipsed his mark --- Nolan Ryan, Gaylord Perry, and Steve Carlton.

[The Feral Slasher]

I have touki, soroka, and gausman. go braves !

[Bene Futuis]

looks like a side-winder, never new that

The Big Train won the MVP in 1924 after winning 23 games with a 2.72 ERA and 1.12 WHIP. We sage VDers know that was no small accomplishment for the brutal-for-pitchers 1920s.

[Kevin Seitzer]

Walter Johnson throwing a pitch in the 1924 World Series.

If he's throwing 91 with that delivery, that's incredibly impressive. He does load his hips a good bit, but he doesn't rotate around the front leg at all. No modern pitcher (that I know of) ends with their trail leg well behind their lead leg like Big Train does there. Guys who throw hard nowadays will almost all rotate all the way around their front leg so that they finish toward first base (for a RHP). The soft-tossers like Dallas Keuchel or Mark Buehrle rotate more than Walter Johnson is in this video, but they don't rotate all the way around, which is why they end up facing home plate in a good fielding position.

Obviously the arm adds to the energy that the pelvis and torso generate, and some guys arms add more than others, but it looks to me like Johnson is generating a lot of his arm speed with just his arm. To do that and pitch for 21 years and 6000 innings is amazing.

[Kevin Seitzer]

That's Walter Johnson on the left and Jordan Hicks throwing 101 on the right. It's a different camera angle on Hicks, but you can see how much farther he is rotating around his plant leg than Johnson does.

[Kevin Seitzer]

Here's a more apples-to-apples camera angle:

[Bene Futuis]

If he's throwing 91 with that delivery, that's incredibly impressive. He does load his hips a good bit, but he doesn't rotate around the front leg at all. No modern pitcher (that I know of) ends with their trail leg well behind their lead leg like Big Train does there. Guys who throw hard nowadays will almost all rotate all the way around their front leg so that they finish toward first base (for a RHP). The soft-tossers like Dallas Keuchel or Mark Buehrle rotate more than Walter Johnson is in this video, but they don't rotate all the way around, which is why they end up facing home plate in a good fielding position.

Obviously the arm adds to the energy that the pelvis and torso generate, and some guys arms add more than others, but it looks to me like Johnson is generating a lot of his arm speed with just his arm. To do that and pitch for 21 years and 6000 innings is amazing.

Very cool stuff, thanks! I'll go check out some footage of deliveries. Love this kind of thing!

Hard for me to tell exactly what's going on there. I wonder if Big Train had a couple different deliveries or if his age and wear and tear - he was 36 y.o. with over 5500 IP at regular season's end in 1924 - prompted him to change anything.

[The Feral Slasher]

Very cool stuff, thanks! I'll go check out some footage of deliveries. Love this kind of thing!

Hard for me to tell exactly what's going on there. I wonder if Big Train had a couple different deliveries or if his age and wear and tear - he was 36 y.o. with over 5500 IP at regular season's end in 1924 - prompted him to change anything.

It's not at all what i had envisioned his delivery to look like.

[Kevin Seitzer]

Or here, if you want to feel like both are pitching on old-timey video:

[The Feral Slasher]

Or here, if you want to feel like both are pitching on old-timey video:

It's true, color adds 10 mph to the fastball

[Kevin Seitzer]

Very cool stuff, thanks! I'll go check out some footage of deliveries. Love this kind of thing!

Hard for me to tell exactly what's going on there. I wonder if Big Train had a couple different deliveries or if his age and wear and tear - he was 36 y.o. with over 5500 IP at regular season's end in 1924 - prompted him to change anything.

If you want to check out what a modern low-energy, low-rotation delivery looks like, look at Chris Volstad.

[Kevin Seitzer]

Here is Volstad pitching in Korea in 2014. You can see that even though Volstad gets nowhere near Hicks, he still gets more body rotation than Walter Johnson.