Interesting article on Mike Marshall

[WindyCity]

Saw this article on yahoo about Mike Marshall's pitching technique -- I realize most people think he's a nut, but its still an interesting read. The article also contains a link to a video of former ML pitcher Jeff Sparks demonstrating the technique.

 

Link

 

Here's a little bit from the beginning that's specific to the Cubs:

 

Almost every day, Marshall talks about what he could do if given time with Prior and Wood, and Williams heard it often enough that when he put his pen to the piece of paper in front of him on Flight 1780, he did so with the passion of a true acolyte.

 

Jim,

 

You need to come to Zephyrhills, Florida. "Doc" (Mike Marshall) can show you how to injury-proof your pitchers, make them throw harder and throw higher-quality pitches.

 

P.S. – I love what you did with the Cubs this year. I hope to see you in the playoffs. And, by the way, Prior and Wood can be fixed without surgery.

 

He didn't even bother signing his name. He folded the letter, handed it to a flight attendant, asked her to give it to the man wearing the blue shirt in 18A and slinked down in his seat.

 

He didn't want to see Hendry react the way everyone else in Major League Baseball does when they hear Mike Marshall's name.

 

[B]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-marshall051007&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

 

discuss

[photoguy9883]

link

 

The believer sat in seat 27D. The non-believer sat in 18A. The American Airlines flight last week from Chicago to Tampa was probably the closest they would ever come to one another....The non-believer runs the Chicago Cubs, and he wasn't terribly interested in what Mike Marshall had to say.

 

Maybe it was dumb luck, or maybe it was fate. Either way, Joe Williams, the believer, was not about to pass up the chance to spread his shaman's gospel to Jim Hendry, the Cubs' general manager.

[B]

double IBL

[photoguy9883]

I like my thread title better.

[B]

Well, I beat you and WindyCity beat me.

[SouthSideRyan]

http://www.knowmoremedia.com/uploads/duck.gif

[Balsa]

Marshall is a quack. I don't blame Hendry for ignoring him.

[TruffleShuffle]

Marshall is a quack. I don't blame Hendry for ignoring him.

 

Why's he a quack? Because everyone in Major League Baseball says he is?

 

I don't agree with some of what he does - specifically, being as secretive as he is about his training regimen. But the guy has a PhD, pitched frequently and effectively during a very good MLB career, and claims to have a whole lot of pitchers under his wing who stay healthy. And it's accurate that the "doesn't produce big-league pitchers" label is a self-fulfilling prophesy - kids hear it so they don't go to work with him, and he ends up working with kids who have marginal talent and are very unlikely to make the majors, regardless of what they try.

 

I tell you what, though. If there's a guy who has had more than 100 students under his tutelage and not one serious injury, I'd probably at least listen to what he had to say. I'd probably pay a small fee to have someone sit in on his lessons and monitor the progress of his pitchers. After all, the "conventional" baseball thinking is that there are going to be major arm injuries to pitchers, and there's going to be a pretty high level of attrition. Why not try to change that?

[imb]

http://www.knowmoremedia.com/uploads/duck.gif

 

Haha, this one took me a while.

[Magnetic Curses]

http://z.about.com/d/animatedtv/1/0/G/B/drnick.jpg

[TruffleShuffle]

http://scrubs.mopnt.com/fun/personality/DOUG.gif

[Vinestal]

How many successful major league pitchers has he produced?

 

nuff said

[TruffleShuffle]

How many successful major league pitchers has he produced?

 

nuff said

 

as the article clearly stated, no pitchers with what anybody would consider major-league talent have been willing to train with him. But Rudy Seanez is one.

[Vinestal]

How many successful major league pitchers has he produced?

 

nuff said

 

as the article clearly stated, no pitchers with what anybody would consider major-league talent have been willing to train with him. But Rudy Seanez is one.

 

I have a feeling that his mechanics just force mediocre results. Also, to take someone with good talent and completely retool his mechanics could ruin them.

[TruffleShuffle]

How many successful major league pitchers has he produced?

 

nuff said

 

as the article clearly stated, no pitchers with what anybody would consider major-league talent have been willing to train with him. But Rudy Seanez is one.

 

I have a feeling that his mechanics just force mediocre results. Also, to take someone with good talent and completely retool his mechanics could ruin them.

 

maybe... there's always that risk. Of course, you could take someone with good talent, let him continue with his bad mechanics (Kerry Wood) and he'll be ruined anyway. But the article talks about guys who mostly went in throwing in the upper 70s to low 80s - not exactly top-shelf arms. I think it would be foolish to dismiss a guy just because he hasn't been able to polish a bunch of turds into gold.

[Vinestal]

I just think that if the guy's ideas had merit he would have gotten a job somewhere for a major league team. There are plenty of open minded smart baseball people in the majors/minors you would think that if his ideas were sound that someone would have put them to use by now. I just think there has to be good reasons why this guy has been black balled the way he has.

[CubinNY]

I just think that if the guy's ideas had merit he would have gotten a job somewhere for a major league team.

 

MLB is the most exclusive old boys club on the face of the planet. It makes the Bush Administration look like an Amyway convention. There are plenty of people working for ball clubs that have no business being there.

 

The Yankees just fired their trainer who got his job becuase the front office wanted to promote a series of health clubs. The Cubs hired a trainer who didn't have a liscence and then fired the guy who turned him in. MLB let people into clubhouses for the sole purpose of distributing steriods (allegedly). They rehire the likes of Dusty Baker, Phill Garner, and Charlie Manual on an annual basis.

 

I could go on and on.

 

The fact that Marshall is critical of MLB gives him a little more credibility in my estimation.

[Vinestal]

I just think that if the guy's ideas had merit he would have gotten a job somewhere for a major league team.

 

MLB is the most exclusive old boys club on the face of the planet. It makes the Bush Administration look like an Amyway convention. There are plenty of people working for ball clubs that have no business being there.

 

The Yankees just fired their trainer who got his job becuase the front office wanted to promote a series of health clubs. The Cubs hired a trainer who didn't have a liscence and then fired the guy who turned him in. MLB let people into clubhouses for the sole purpose of distributing steriods (allegedly). They rehire the likes of Dusty Baker, Phill Garner, and Charlie Manual on an annual basis.

 

I could go on and on.

 

The fact that Marshall is critical of MLB gives him a little more credibility in my estimation.

 

lol

point taken

[SouthSideRyan]

How many successful major league pitchers has he produced?

 

nuff said

 

as the article clearly stated, no pitchers with what anybody would consider major-league talent have been willing to train with him. But Rudy Seanez is one.

 

I have a feeling that his mechanics just force mediocre results. Also, to take someone with good talent and completely retool his mechanics could ruin them.

 

maybe... there's always that risk. Of course, you could take someone with good talent, let him continue with his bad mechanics (Kerry Wood) and he'll be ruined anyway. But the article talks about guys who mostly went in throwing in the upper 70s to low 80s - not exactly top-shelf arms. I think it would be foolish to dismiss a guy just because he hasn't been able to polish a bunch of turds into gold.

 

I'm no Dick Mills here, but wouldn't it make sense that the guys that throw harder and have a lot of movement on their breaking balls would be more succepitble to injuries than guys who aren't putting such stress on their arms?

 

And isn't Rudy Seanez always hurt?

[Magnetic Curses]

How many successful major league pitchers has he produced?

 

nuff said

 

as the article clearly stated, no pitchers with what anybody would consider major-league talent have been willing to train with him. But Rudy Seanez is one.

 

I have a feeling that his mechanics just force mediocre results. Also, to take someone with good talent and completely retool his mechanics could ruin them.

 

maybe... there's always that risk. Of course, you could take someone with good talent, let him continue with his bad mechanics (Kerry Wood) and he'll be ruined anyway. But the article talks about guys who mostly went in throwing in the upper 70s to low 80s - not exactly top-shelf arms. I think it would be foolish to dismiss a guy just because he hasn't been able to polish a bunch of turds into gold.

 

I'm no Dick Mills here, but wouldn't it make sense that the guys that throw harder and have a lot of movement on their breaking balls would be more succepitble to injuries than guys who aren't putting such stress on their arms?

 

And isn't Rudy Seanez always hurt?

 

mike marshall takes flame throwers and turns them into awkward-looking soft-tossers.

[TruffleShuffle]

mike marshall takes flame throwers and turns them into awkward-looking soft-tossers.

 

mike marshall gets flame throwers? that's news to me.

[Magnetic Curses]

mike marshall takes flame throwers and turns them into awkward-looking soft-tossers.

 

mike marshall gets flame throwers? that's news to me.

 

truffle getting defensive and weird? that's news to me.

[Balsa]

"This is Jeff Sparks," Marshall said. "He is the most highly skilled pitcher in the world. And nobody will hire him."

 

Jeff Sparks, 35, temples graying, scowling like Billy Bob Thornton, is Mike Marshall's greatest student and greatest success. Right now, he sells home-and-garden products at Lowe's. He also goes to firefighter school. In December, he'll take EMT certification training.

 

In the meantime, Sparks keeps showing up at Marshall's facility, just to throw on an undersized mound covered by gnarly turf.

 

"Just watch," Marshall said, "and you're going to see a curveball that if the baseball world ever uses hitters will have no chance. Nobody throws a better curveball than Jeff Sparks."

 

The guy is clearly suffering from a persecution complex, and no offense to Jeff Passen, but this is the story has been done a thousand times before with a thousand different "outcasts".

 

On par with the journalism cliche of the "beloved scrappy underdog"is the "downtrodden outcast with revolutionary ideas if only the mainstream would just listen".

They pack two or three into musty one-bed, one-bath duplexes Marshall provides, work at the local country club and bring home the leftovers for everyone to enjoy, lift weights in a small building they call the "jailhouse" because of the bars on the windows, trek down the road to get 44-ounce slushies for 89 cents, hang out at Applebee's to pick up girls, and why?

 

Because they believe.

Oh gag me.

[10man]

Oh gag me.

That's pretty much how everyone reacted when the TV was first introduced. They even said it was "of the devil". Of course, we all know that crazy invention is outlawed now, right?