I need the help of my fellow baseball fans...

by madpoopz on Apr 12, 2010 11:47 AM EDT

I'm looking to do a piece on Dontrelle Willis comparing his delivery from the various stages of his career. Basically what I'm doing is comparing his most successful years to his worst and than comparing what he's doing now to what he was doing during his success.

Here's where you guys come in. I need video. The only good video I can find of him is from basically his early Tigers career/late Marlins career. I need video from his 22 win season and the most recent video that we can muster.

Really this can be a fun piece for us all if I can get the proper video. Any length, resolution, all video is welcome. You guys can email me links, questions, attachments at: Matt (dot) J (dot) Hofmann (at) gmail (dot) com

Thanks in advance.

(questions are also welcome in the comments as well. This has pretty much become a community project)

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Bless You Boys writing staff.

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If the videos are consistently on the same angle

i.e. head on or from a profile that would allow it, I have access to a program that I’ve been using to analyze movement (specifically gait profiles), and I could analyze his arm angles, release points, etc. Depending on time, I’d be willing to do it for all the starters. I’ll need something to do this summer while I’m at work.

Detroit4Lyfe

by Rob Rogacki on Apr 12, 2010 6:14 PM EDT reply actions

That'd be really sweet.

My Music: Some Sorta Giant
My Blog: Strike Three Mechanics

by madpoopz on Apr 12, 2010 6:42 PM EDT up reply actions

Too Funny

I’ll need something to do this summer while I’m at work.

Don't Panic!

by 42jeff on Apr 14, 2010 11:40 AM EDT up reply actions

Sent out a feeler to Steve Carter.

He writes on hitters mechanics at project prospect and he’s got a ton of .gifs of hitters and said he could get some hookup’s on pitchers. So we’ll see what he can round up.

My old blog is Tigers By The Numbers.

Now I write at Bless You Boys.

Like music? See what I'm listening to at my Last.fm account.

by Mike Rogers on Apr 12, 2010 6:21 PM EDT reply actions

Awesome.

Thanks mike.

My Music: Some Sorta Giant
My Blog: Strike Three Mechanics

by madpoopz on Apr 12, 2010 6:40 PM EDT up reply actions

I have a suspicion

that you’ll find that Dontrelle’s deceptive and wild delivery was unsustainable as his huge frame naturally filled out. For one thing, he’d throw his head way back behind his body before coming forward with his delivery. It’s very hard to do that and locate the ball with any consistency.
I think you will also find that the Tigers tried changing his mechanics last year. At one point, they had him pitching from the stretch, and abandoning his patented high leg kick, even with no runners on base. Of course, that was usually only one batter per inning, and then there were runners on. In today’s Dontrelle, I don’t see the huge wind up, but he still is very deceptive in how he delivers the ball, particularly against lefty hitters.
As for video, have you contacted the Marlins or MLB?

by Tigerdog1 on Apr 13, 2010 7:44 PM EDT reply actions

I'm expecting to find as much...

in regards to contacting MLB or the Marlins, I like the idea of keeping this as community of a project as possible. Not so much with the reviewing, but I threw this out there so that if a fan can get me video, they can help me out. Everybody likes to geek with their fandom.

As for MLB and MLB teams, I’ll wait awhile and contact them if necessary. I’m in no terrible rush to write this because there’s a lot of research I plan on doing outside of video footage. I plan on making this one of my more in depth pieces. In fact if you keep an eye on my own blog you’ll probably get an idea of my researching as I continue to familiarize myself with what terminology.

Basically what I’m saying is that this piece is gonna be lots and lots of fun.

My Music: Some Sorta Giant
My Blog: Strike Three Mechanics

by madpoopz on Apr 14, 2010 12:18 AM EDT up reply actions