Carter Capps Has Become Baseball’s Most Unhittable Pitcher
Carter Capps allowed a three-run single on Tuesday. That’s both pretty bad and pretty weird. Three-run singles might be a post topic of their own, but the most interesting thing didn’t have anything to do with the play result. Before Xander Bogaerts ever swung the bat, Capps threw a fastball, and I’ll excerpt conveniently from an MLB.com entry by Ian Browne:
Bogaerts hung in on a pitch that had a perceived velocity of 105.55 mph, the highest number of any pitch in the Major Leagues this season, according to Statcast™. The pitch looked that fast to Bogaerts, thanks to an extension of 9.5 feet by Capps.
This sounds complicated, but it’s simple to understand. Not a whole lot of time passed between Capps releasing the ball and the ball arriving around home plate. That’s all perceived velocity is — a kind of measure of flight time. According to Statcast, this year, no pitch has had a smaller flight time than the one Bogaerts drilled for a hit. That’s remarkable, on Bogaerts’ part, and that’s remarkable, on Capps’ part. Capps’ part, we’re becoming more familiar with.
This is a post about unhittability, and all I’ve talked about so far is a hit. That’s probably bad structure, but the pitch that Bogaerts hit for a single in the first place helps get us to where we’re going. Early on, there would’ve been little reason for Carter Capps to be on your radar. He was an intriguing young middle reliever, but I’m a professional baseball writer, and I’ve never heard of a number of intriguing young middle relievers. Then Capps was dealt for Logan Morrison, and maybe you noticed. Then April happened, and, you noticed.
April brought us the controversy about Capps’ delivery. April made Capps a borderline household name, at least among those households that pay a decent amount of attention to baseball. To refresh your memory:
Here’s a clip from the Braves’ broadcast, drawing arrows to correspond to Capps’ estimated release point:
If you recall, Capps had some issues with his delivery in the minors. A couple times in a row, an umpire declared he was throwing illegal pitches, and Capps and the Marlins sought league clarification. What Capps was told was that he was okay, so long as he dragged his back foot instead of lifting it in the air. As several have noted, there are parallels between Capps’ delivery and Jordan Walden’s. Capps hasn’t been in any trouble since, with the league basically signing off on this. And make no mistake, this is kind of new. Capps always had an exaggerated delivery, in college and with the Mariners, but it didn’t look quite like the above.
Capps jumps. If you look at the second .gif above, not only do you see him jumping off the rubber, but you see a mark on the mound right around where his back foot lands on the dirt. That mark is the result of pressure, suggesting that Capps is pushing off some, after coming back down. It doesn’t seem like a legal pitch, but MLB hasn’t spoken up yet, and it would be weird for them to suddenly start. So if this is ever going to be addressed, it won’t be until at least after this season.
And why would Capps jump forward? It’s deceptive, and it gets him closer to the plate. So it reduces the average flight time of his pitches, because said pitches have less distance to cover between hand and glove, or hand and bat. Think of it as Capps effectively lengthening his stride, or his arm. Not long ago, Ben Lindbergh dug into the Statcast information that was available to him. What Carter Capps doesn’t do is throw his fastball as hard as Aroldis Chapman. But Capps’ fastball spends less time in the air than Chapman’s, because of that delivery. So in terms of perceived fastball velocity, Capps was the king. He threw one of those king-like pitches to Xander Bogaerts. The pitch got hit, but even kings make mistakes.
Little of what’s above is actually new. We’ve known for months that Capps is an odd bird. And we’ve known for at least weeks that he gets a substantial velocity boost from the way that he throws. At least, as far as the hitters are concerned. So, already, Capps was curious. The only thing left was to monitor his results. Now those results are getting out of hand. Tuesday aside, Capps looks like he’s the most unhittable pitcher in baseball. It’s been only a short amount of time, but the case is convincing.
Set a pathetically low minimum of 20 innings pitched. 20 innings are 20 innings, but it’s better than 10 or 0 innings, and we’re just trying to learn, here. The current leaders in strikeout rate:
- Carter Capps, 50% strikeouts
- Dellin Betances, 42%
- Andrew Miller, 42%
Cool. Now, relatedly, the current leaders in lowest contact rates allowed:
- Carter Capps, 50% contact
- Andrew Miller, 57%
- Craig Kimbrel, 61%
What gets me are both the realities of the leads, and the amounts by which Capps is in front of second place. In both categories, it’s Capps by a landslide. Now let’s take it back to 2002. Only 2014 Chapman and 2012 Kimbrel have finished with higher strikeout rates than Capps has at the moment. And no one has finished with a lower contact rate. Capps has generated more swings and misses than he has swings and contacts. Making contact against him has been something worse than a coin flip. That’s a silly statistic, but Capps is a silly pitcher.
Here’s a big table of some pitch data. Baseball-Reference has such information stretching back to 1988, so let’s make use of it. Here are each season’s lowest contact rates allowed, given a minimum of 20 innings. I shouldn’t need to remind you that, of course, Capps’ 2015 season isn’t complete. This is just for some reference. There are slight differences in reported contact rates between Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs, but we can live with that.
| Season | Pitcher | Contact% |
|---|---|---|
| 1988 | DeWayne Buice | 68.1% |
| 1989 | Tom Henke | 63.4% |
| 1990 | Rob Dibble | 62.1% |
| 1991 | Rob Dibble | 64.1% |
| 1992 | Rob Dibble | 57.5% |
| 1993 | Greg McMichael | 64.9% |
| 1994 | Bruce Ruffin | 64.2% |
| 1995 | Curt Leskanic | 64.1% |
| 1996 | Trevor Hoffman | 62.1% |
| 1997 | Ricardo Rincon | 64.1% |
| 1998 | Mike Williams | 57.8% |
| 1999 | Armando Benitez | 57.3% |
| 2000 | Robb Nen | 62.0% |
| 2001 | Chad Fox | 61.9% |
| 2002 | Eric Gagne | 62.0% |
| 2003 | Ryan Wagner | 52.3% |
| 2004 | Brad Lidge | 52.1% |
| 2005 | Rudy Seanez | 59.5% |
| 2006 | Michael Wuertz | 63.4% |
| 2007 | Brad Lidge | 61.6% |
| 2008 | Brad Lidge | 62.5% |
| 2009 | Michael Wuertz | 58.1% |
| 2010 | Carlos Marmol | 59.9% |
| 2011 | Al Alburquerque | 57.2% |
| 2012 | Craig Kimbrel | 58.4% |
| 2013 | Greg Holland | 61.2% |
| 2014 | Aroldis Chapman | 54.6% |
| 2015 | Carter Capps | 47.2% |
Capps has the smallest rate in the table, followed by 2004 Lidge, who’s behind by five percentage points. You find some flukes and some dominant long-term relievers. That’s the way that it goes, because relievers are unreliable, and they can get hurt. But Capps, for now, is healthy. And Capps, unlike some of the pitchers above, throws two-thirds of his pitches for strikes. He’s not just forcing hitters to chase sliders out of the zone. Capps isn’t quite that one-dimensional.
But he does have a breaking ball, and the numbers are stupid. Batters have swung at it 59 times. Batters have missed it 47 times. It’s like a page out of the book on Aroldis Chapman’s changeup, where Capps’ breaking ball is dangerous both because it’s a good breaking ball, and because it isn’t his fastball. Against Capps, hitters have to gear up for 98, which looks like 101. Then he throws this slurvy thing at 84. It’s difficult to protect against them both, and when there are two strikes, Capps throws both pitches in roughly equal amounts.
Unsurprisingly, Capps is a difficult pitcher to pull the ball against. And he’s clearly achieving a new level, having become more comfortable with this exaggerated throwing motion. In three previous years in the majors, Capps’ strikeout rate topped out at 29%. His contact rate was never lower than 72%. He’s trimmed his out-of-zone contact rate by more than half. It doesn’t seem like someone should be able to throw a baseball quickly and accurately with Capps’ motion, but he’s got it mastered, having been helped by the Marlins, and with that motion and two pitches, Capps doesn’t need anything else. Aside, that is, from assurance that this motion won’t soon become illegal.
And that’s something baseball might well have to deal with. It would be one thing if Capps were just good, like Walden has just been good. But to this point, Capps has mostly made a mockery of his opponents, potentially motivating other, fringy relievers to try to mimic the same motion. It would be difficult to argue the delivery isn’t giving Capps an advantage, and baseball needs to think long and hard about whether it wants that advantage to be available to other guys. Not that it’s an easy thing to copy, but it could be copied, and baseball probably doesn’t want all of its pitchers looking like this. How many would it allow? Right now the game is comfortable with two, but it might not be so comfortable with, say, five, or 10, or 100. This is far from a league priority, but right now it’s kind of like a loophole, and there are careers on the line for hundreds of pitchers just looking for a chance.
Carter Capps has turned himself into something absurdly good. It’s interesting to wonder if, as a consequence, Capps is just doing himself future harm. Yet, all that is right now is speculation. Capps’ dominance, meanwhile, is reality. It’s a pretty good way to live in the moment.
Jeff made Lookout Landing a thing, but he does not still write there about the Mariners. He does write here, sometimes about the Mariners, but usually not.
if this is a legal delivery, the batter should be able to slide back out of the batters box (as long as he drags his foot).
clearly this should be banned.
Baseball’s continued inaction on this is puzzling and frustrating.
It will be addressed ( eliminated ) by the beginning of next year.
I think the league is reluctant to make rule changes midseason for some reason, and at this point it’s a little unfair to make the guy have to adjust his delivery after telling him it was ok. It’s not like he can just say “OK” and pitch effectively the next day – that will be a whole process.
They should have stopped this on day one, but since they didn’t, as long as he doesn’t hit a guy in the head, they’ll probably just allow it for the remainder of 2015 and then come up with a rule.
They said it was legal as long as he dragged his foot and didn’t push off from in front of the rubber.
What has happened, is that he’s dragging his foot on sliders and pushing off from the dirt part of the mound for fastballs- the latter of which they said would be illegal but have done nothing about.
If MLB doesn’t make this hop illegal very soon, we will start seeing dozens of pitchers hitting the majors with this motion. It provides far too much of an advantage when a tall pitcher can cut the standard 60’6″ distance and make it seem like he’s throwing 105 MPH.
I have no idea why they ever allowed it at the minor league level, frankly. It threatens the integrity of the batter-pitcher confrontation. Why don’t we just let pitchers get a running start from second base if we allow this?
“Why don’t we just let pitchers get a running start from second base if we allow this?”
Then it wouldn’t be baseball, it’d be cricket.
But even in cricket, the “bowler” is required to release the ball in front of a fixed point that’s the same for ALL bowlers.
What Capps is getting away with here is total bullshit. Some MLB official or officials apparently ‘took a view’ at some point and either were conned or self-deluded into the idea that Capps was actually “dragging” his right foot that 15-20 inches ahead of the rubber before pushing off to turn his hips to generate his throw. Maybe he was – THEN! For THAT demonstration! But now there are quite literally hundreds of multi-angled videos showing that Capps is not “dragging” his right foot, but instead is using the rubber to push his right foot ahead, AIRBORNE for 15-20 inches, to land on it’s left edge and THEN and THERE to push off to turn his hips.
No pitcher is releasing at 60 feet 5 inches, indeed little Timmy Lincecum at his peak released from inside 49′ to the front of home plate. But Capps’ bunny-hopp being permitted allows HIM EXCLUSIVELY to release at least 3 feet inside THAT! Capps is releasing at closer-to-damn 45 feet from the front of home plate. That puts major league baseball back to when teams used ONE PITCHER over an entire season for every single pitche, when the likes of Tommy Bond and Ol’ Hoss Radbourn et al were mowing down just about every batter in front of a rubber set 50 feet from the front of home plate.
clarification – should be able to slide out of the BACK of the box (pushing back the catcher and ump) to make up for Capps’ delivery point
I’ve been trying to figure out for some time what a rule change would even look like. The move clearly seems like it should be illegal, but how would you even go about banning it, especially since he’s already been told he just needs to keep his back foot from leaving the ground?
Perhaps something like banning a second push, as interpreted by the first or third base umpire, or requiring that, if the foot leaves the ground, it cannot contact it again until after the ball is released. His old deliveries would be compliant because, even though he comes way forward in them, his back foot only drives forward once. His current delivery would be illegal because there are two instances of driving forward off his back foot.
“A second push” sounds not terribly objective a measure though. I’m not sure how to fairly and consistently enforce a rule that uses that language.
Sure, but is a balk terribly objective? And really, this is the only motion they’ll have to worry about. Most guys have typical enough motions to not worry about that.
But you can see a pretty clear difference between what Capps used to do and what he does now with his back foot. The toe used to just drag forward with his momentum, but now he jumps forward without turning his back foot, then turns it after he comes back down, which is a pretty good visual indication of “pushing.”
Would there be a gray area? Sure. But we’re not talking about writing language which will necessarily have far-reaching impact on most of the pitchers in the league. We just need the language to be prohibitive enough to keep other guys from doing this.
Agreed. There’s nothing “objective” about a “second push” but there isn’t anything objective about balls/strikes, or balks, or legal pickoff moves, either.
The guy is clearly gaining an unfair advantage.
why not say his foot must maintain contact with the rubber through his delivery? I actually thought that was the rule…
The problem is that no one else does that either.
yeah I guess that’s true – maybe the back foot can’t leave the ground, which is enforced by the third base ump. That way they can let the normal delivery go and the obvious stuff hopping off the mound stuff is called. I would go as far to say the first is a warning, the second is thrown out of the game.
The rule states you must start your pitch while touching the rubber, but that’s basically it. I don’t think the anyone ever expected someone to pitch like this.
Get it together, MLB.
MLB is too busy with important things like making the All Star Game “count” and ensuring Iowans can’t watch their team of choice, to worry about little things like the rules of the game.
In regards to the perceived velocity, I always thought Chapman’s fastball was so damn effective not just because of his velocity or extension, but because his mechanics are deceptive. Even if Capps has better extension I don’t see the same deception, and, thus, I would be surprised if Capps’ actual perceived velocity was better than Chapman.
I haven’t seen a view from the batter’s pov, but from that second gif (the one with the big blue vertical arrow) it looks like he hides the ball behind his butt for a surprisingly large part of his total motion, which seems like it would make it harder for the batters to pick up the ball — which is a problem, especially since he does have two different pitches.
Let the man pitch like this for the season, get him some awards and accolades, ban the delivery, and, bam, he’s out of a job and his wife left him. Easy stuff, boys.
What would a rule banning his delivery actually say? What is he doing that you could ban without accidentally banning other pitchers’ deliveries as well?
The simple clarification that could be made, should they wish to do so, would be that the ball must be released before the pivot foot recontacts the ground after leaving the rubber.
If that bans other pitcher’s deliveries as well, then that’s probably a good thing.
They’ve already made it illegal to release *after* the pivot foot leaves the ground after leaving the rubber. Like it says in the article he’s dragging the pivot foot so this wouldn’t eliminate his delivery.
I think maybe they’d have to add a permanent line in front of the rubber and state the rule as something like “the pitcher must release the baseball prior to his rear/pivot foot reaches the line.”
And while they’re at it (drawing lines on the mound), they need one drawn at a 45 degree angle from the rubber, so that a left-handed pitcher who steps on the home plate side of that diagonal line and throws a pick-off to first base will easily be seen as committing a balk.
“He shall not raise either foot from the ground, except that in his actual delivery of the ball to the batter, he may take one step backward, and one step forward with his free foot.”
8.01 (a)
Wait ’til you see my “broad jump” pitch!
The language about not raising either foot from the ground relates to pickoff moves. Capps’ lurch toward the plate is part of his “actual delivery”.
As long as Capps does not do this as part of a pickoff move, he is perfectly within the allowable movement under rule 8.
Unless we are reading different rules, 8.01 (a) “The Windup Position” seems to relate to the allowable movements when delivering the ball from the wind up position.
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/official_rules/pitcher_8.jsp
“Thou shalt stride forward once from the rubber, no more, no less. One shalt be the number thou shalt stride, and the number of the striding shalt be One. Two shalt thou not stride. Three is right out. Once the number one, being the first number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy pitch towards thou foe, who being naughty in My sight, shall whiff upon it.”
Ni!
I’m gonna have to go check out his release point clusters…..if he can cluster his release points with that delivery it is incredibly impressive.
It’s really pretty amazing that Capps can keep his mechanics together doing that little hop. A lot of guys have trouble repeating their delivery effectively just pitching regular style.
Are we sure his actual velocity is right (it’s not impacted by the release)? Because if it is, then throwing 98 it seems like he’d be a pretty good reliever without the hop.
We discussed the Grantland article on Tango’s blog a few weeks ago:
http://tangotiger.com/index.php/site/comments/perceived-velocity#comments
The best reason to legislate this out of the game is that it’s a workplace safety issue. Capps has less reaction time on a comebacker than any pitcher in history. The batters have less reaction time on a beanball than they do against any pitcher alive, even Chapman.
So if some guy started throwing 108 mph with a standard delivery, should that also be legislated ?
It ought to be legislated out because it because he is generating velocity by pushing off of something other than the rubber. Lower reaction time is a symptom, but not the cause, and you ought to address the cause not the symptom.
If it’s a workplace safety issue I think maybe they should get rid of catchers. After all there’s a 215 lb dude with swinging a big piece of wood a few inches from their hands 80 times a game!
If it’s a workplace safety issue, then how has the league not already mandated a caged helmet for pitchers, in the wake of Brandon McCarthy, Rafael Soriano, and so many others?
obvious OSHA violation
the most amazing thing is how he is able to command the pitch
I agree that this jump/slide delivery should be illegal. The rubber is 60’6″ away, this slide essentially puts it around 56-57, which, if I recall is just a couple feet further than the rubber when we were 13 years old? Each jump in distance from rubber to plate required, for me, a little bit of an adjustment period. To go the other way would simply be amazing and it just doesn’t seem fair – and that’s backed up pretty clearly by Jeff Sullivan’s research.
That being said, I don’t want to take away from the athleticism that is required to execute this motion, however, because it is impressive to watch him do what he does. Not all pitchers COULD do this, but I’m sure more will adapt it. In an environment where run scoring SUPPOSEDLY needs to be increased, I can’t see mlb allowing this to spread.
I seen him pitch against the Cubs at Wrigley Field this past Sunday, he truly has one weird fuckin’ delivery.
This delivery and the submarine riseballare the new market inefficiency for relievers
Carter Capps is an American hero: an icon like Sting (the wrestler) and Hulk Hogan. What’chu gonna do when Capps jumps at you, brother? Get the tonic water, get the humidifier, lock your doors, put on the lifetime network, stare at a Van Gogh painting, eat some Jack Link’s jersey, dip some Jake’s Mint Chew, and let Hulkamania run rampant on you, brother.
This is obviously an illegal pitch/balk. How MLB can possibly see it any other way is a complete mystery.
I disagree with you about the obviousness of the illegality.
What language in the rule actually says a pitcher cannot do this?
“Integrity of the game”. In other words, the same nonsense they use whenever they want to get their way and have to legitimate out.
What an odd comment. There are actual rules in the rule book that the pitcher’s foot is supposed to be in contact with the rubber. How is it possible you would be unfamiliar with that extremely basic rule?
Ed, the rule only states he must be in contact until he delivers the pitch. The hop is part of his delivery.
“The hop is part of the delivery”
Okay, so I’m gonna hop twice as part of my delivery.
Its obviously a legal pitch. How you can claim to see it any other way is a complete mystery.
I find of hard to take anyone seriously, who calls this decision on (il)legality “obvious”.
I love it. His delivery is new, clever and refreshing. Why do so many people want to ban an innovative delivery that is perfectly legal, very successful and creates excitement?
This could be a memorable moment in the ongoing evolution of the game. If other pitchers start competing to capitalize on Capps’ innovation, we could see some fantastic new pitching styles.
I encourage any deliveries that are within the rules. Bring it on!
Because it’s not perfectly legal. I suppose you think using an aluminum baseball bat would be clever and refreshing.
I kind of want this to stay legal because I’m fascinated to see if other guys can pull ITU off. My bet is no, he’s a freakish athletic freak. Maybe MLB is betting that.
What’s to stop a guy from hopping three times and realeasing the ball from forty feet, is my problem, though.
I don’t think his batting average against is good enough to qualify as “most unhittable”. He’s not even in the top 10.
Someone asked Jung Ho Kang who the toughest pitcher he’s faced thus far stateside and he said Capps (and Kang has faced (and hit) Chapman)
Kang is a right-handed hitter; Capps is a right-handed pitcher; Chapman is a left-handed pitcher. This isn’t that surprising.
New rule: “you can’t hop off the ebbed even if you drag your foot.”
Grandfather the two hoppers in like they did the spitballers.
Done.
iPhone autocorrect! Ebbed = rubber.
I think the hop is fine, as long as Capps wears a bunny suit when he pitches.
Being in the AL East I don’t see him much so don’t care much, but its clearly illegal IMO, or at least it should be
If he is allowed to push off twice, why not three times to get even more close? I hope he works on a three or four hop delivery during the offseason.
MLB certainly opened the door for a pitcher (or a few pitchers) to push the limits of this “allowance” to the logical, absurd end.
Obviously, this is both legal at the moment and not something MLB wants others to emulate. It essentially makes the distance of the mound from home plate arbitrary and meaningless and creates a massive advantage for the pitcher, without allowing the batter any corresponding recourse. There is literally nothing the hitter can do to adjust, short of taking BP with a pitcher standing 50 feet away. I agree with everyone who sees a problem looming on the horizon and MLB should step in at season’s end to make it clear that this is not a bold new trend that will continue.
How is this any different than taller pitchers having a closer release point?
Because advantage gained by physical attributes are acceptable whereas advantage gained by bending the rules are not.
That’s like saying “why can’t I use a corked bat? how is this any different than if I actually had more power?”
Trust me, any extra step you can take makes a HUGE advantage.
Hahahahaha. Yes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4_PiG59bbs
That’s bananas.
Are we not even going to touch upon the fact that he’s throwing the Buttball?
Can we just say what Bogaerts did was amazing? And he somehow isn’t going to make the All-Star game….
The most unhittable pitcher…unless he’s facing me.
If Andy Pettitte could balk on every pickoff move for 18 years, why would this be a big deal?
So, you zought you could outclever us baseball folk with your silly knees-bent-running-around-advancing behavior!?
I suspect that mlb is letting it go for this season because the Marlins are not competitive. If Capps were throwing for a division leader there would be a lot more heat on this.
Most pitchers are extended several inches past the rubber by the time they release the ball. Some get far more extended than others, like the human flea, Lincecum. Only Don Sutton, who basically stood straight up, may actually have stayed in contact when he released the ball. Capps has pushed the envelope for sure, but if mlb refines the rule next year I think Capps can tweak his delivery to stay within the redefinition and change nothing of real importance. It’s all about the angle of his dragging foot, which is turning sideways now.
Capps delivery is not being cloned because it is hard to do. There was a reliever who never hit his stride, so to speak, who did the Capps maybe fifteen years ago. I saw him throw for the Rangers once or twice, and he hit 100 now and then but didn’t have enough command to stick.
BTW, this is a normal delivery in fast pitch softball. Same rule so far as I know.
Fast-pitch softball pitchers do not push off twice.
They make a very exaggerated push off the rubber, yes. But they do not make second contact with the ground and push of again as Capps does.
Totally bogus rationale. I don’t particularly care if it’s banned or not. Think it’s kinda neat actually and have the same question someone above raised about whether or not he’s actually throwing 98 or if that’s baked into the delivery. However the idea that the Marlins are not competitive and that’s why MLB hasn’t responded is stupid. He’s pitching against teams that are competitive in extremely high leverage situations that could make the difference in their season.
Rule 2.00 Illegal pitch. An illegal pitch is one where the pitcher delivers the pitch without his pivot foot in contact with the rubber.
Capps and also the pitcher with the cardinals are clearly violating the spirit of the rule. They are not dragging the pivot foot, they are altering the pivot foot. Joe Torres needs to start doing his job before somebody gets hit in the head.
The perceived velocity number for Capps is wrong, assuming it’s based on the idea that he’s throwing 98 from the typical release point. He’s never thrown that hard until he did this to over exaggerate his delivery. His velocity from years past topped out around 94-95. I would hazard a guess that this new delivery hasn’t given him more “actual” velocity but rather that the gun is just picking the ball up at a point where it has a higher velocity than other pitchers, which is sort of a component baked into perceived velocity this we’re double counting this.
Radar guns don’t “pick up” the ball at any different speed. It’s clocked the moment it is released from the pitcher’s hand, whether from 60 feet away or 6 feet away. Standing closer/farther from the radar gun (as long as you’re still in its line of sight) won’t change the reading.
If I can be allowed to draw a cross sport analogy, how does this differ from the change of the straight leg kicks that NFL place kickers had in the 50s and the more effective modern soccer style kickers of the modern day? The motion of the kick evolved to give place kickers more range and accuracy.
Is this motion from Caps more of an evolution than a breaking of a rule? Just because it is different does not automatically mean it is illegal. What about side arm pitchers or submarine pitchers? What about the ax throwing motion of Collmenter etc etc etc
How someone could think these are remotely analogous is beyond me.
Rule 8.01a:
“He shall not raise either foot from the ground, except that in his actual delivery of the ball to the batter, he may take one step backward, and one step forward with his free foot.” That makes his little hop-step drive to the basket not legal for baseball purposes.
Totally frigging illegal. He comes down, replants the right foot, and THEN fires that ball. I can’t believe he gets away with this nonsense. You can see it in every video of him doing this. Could he drag his right foot continuously while he pulls with the left until he’s half way to home plate? Why not, if this is legal?
I think one of the problems is that once MLB said this was legal, the umps took this to mean that they could not call a balk on Capps. Note:
–The original ruling was that it was okay because Capps dragged his foot and didn’t hop up into the air. There are clearly pitches where Capps does the latter, but he does not get called for a balk.
–I haven’t seen much of Capps, just the games against the Red Sox and some clips. But in what I’ve seen. Caps never, ever comes to a stopped set. This is a huge advantage for him because if he did come set, then did his hop-dance delivery, baserunners would steal like crazy on him.
Besides the issues above, I think the delivery subverts the rules. Why MLB didn’t just let the umpires come to their own conclusions like they do on EVERY OTHER PITCHER in baseball. If they did, I think they would have balked him out of the league.
As someone who has watched this kid a lot, I can tell you this is not illegal. Although it was initially illegal, that’s why umpires ruled his pitches as balls intentionally in AAA.
Afterwards, he called MLB for clarification. He was told the following, “they wanted me to make sure I dragged my foot and not get too elevated in the air, and make sure it’s more on a lateral plane.”
He’s now made the adjustment, so there’s clearly nothing illegal.
He’s been pitching this way for a long time since being in Miami, so it really doesn’t make sense for them to tell him to cease. They already indicated the problem they had with it, and told him to make a correction.
The fear that guys are suddenly going to adopt this style of pitching is irrational, and you know it. Anyone notice that Carter Capps and Jordan Walden are the only guys with such mechanics?
Notice in the GIF above he’s throwing a slider- during which he uses the questionable-but-legal “drag” of the pivot foot.
Find one of him throwing his fastball, and you’ll notice he plants and pushes off, making it illegal.