TPC Video Break: Pablo Sandoval

Here's a short interview Pablo Sandoval gave last summer. He mentions that prior to 2008 he was more of a line drive hitter, mostly for singles and doubles, and then started hitting home runs in 2008.



Sandoval went on to compete in the Venezuelan League Home Run Derby last year, and actually beat Miguel Cabrera in the final round, as seen in the following clip.

Jeff Francoeur Spring Training Clip

Here's a clip of a Jeff Francoeur at-bat this spring courtesy of 'GG' at MySpace. I heard a lot about Francoeur's new stance, so I was expecting some kind of dramatic new look, but it seems like he just widened his stance and simplified his upper and lower body movements. He maintained a 1:1 walk to strikeout rate this spring, and he says he was getting into more 2-0 counts than last year, which I think is probably due to keeping his head still and seeing the ball longer. I'm rooting for Jeff this year more than any other Braves player and would love to see him have a big season. Thanks for the clip GG, and good luck in '09 Jeff!

Jeff Francoeur

TPC Video Break: What's a 4 Shake Ball?

One of the best things about the internet is how it helps spread ideas across cultural borders. How long do you think it will take before we see the 4 shake ball in the majors?

TPC Video Break: Worst Pitch Ever

I saw this clip on Digg.com and thought you all might enjoy it. Awesome.



Mayor Mallory later appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel show to explain exactly what happened and give it one more shot.



This first pitch was pretty good, too.

Bo Jackson Tribute

In the end, Bo knew what really mattered.

TPC Video Break: Angel Villalona

I had a chance to watch Angel Villalona play in a couple of games last year at A ball, and while he's not the most impressive looking specimen, he could hit the ball pretty well for a 17 year old. Here are 2 shots of him (couldn't get one from the front - sorry) from last year at A ball (2nd clip) and this year at Spring Training (1st clip). The swing is a bit long (reminds me of Andruw Jones), but it's smooth, like everything Villalona does.

TPC Video Break: Some Kid in Japan

I don't know anything about this video, or who is in it, but it looks to be a high school age Japanese kid that tops out at about 5'10" and weighs about 150 pounds (just slightly smaller than Tim Lincecum -- 5'11", 170 lbs). From the mearsurements that pop up on the screen, it looks like his breaking stuff is coming in at around 75 mph (120 km/h) and his fastball is hitting 89 mph (143 km/h). His slider moves so much it looks like he's throwing a wiffle ball. As far as I can tell he also throws a fastball with some kind of cutter variation, as well as a decent curve, but my favorite is definitely the slider. Fun stuff. Thanks YouTube.

TPC Video Break: Chris Carter and Michael Stanton

As we get ready for the start of a new week, it's a good idea to get the juices flowing, and what better way to do that than to watch a couple of guys who can really jack the ball.  Here's a clip of Michael Stanton hitting a game winning walk-off home run last summer.  You can't see much about his swing, but when he connects, you know it's gone.

There's another shot of the hit from the opposite side of home plate, but it's part of a news broadcast so you have to watch about a minute worth of talking before it shows Stanton actually swinging the bat (I might be wrong, but to me Stanton sounds like The Rock in this clip).

The next clip is of Chris Carter of the Oakland organization. Once again, you can't see much of the swing, but pay attention to how big Carter looks when he leaves the batting cage and walks past the next hitter. That's either a kid walking by him, or Carter is just one huge dude.


If anyone has better clips of either of these guys, please let me know. I'd love to get a closer look at both of them.

TPC Video Break: Neftali Feliz

Here are a couple of looks at Rangers pitching prospect Neftali Feliz. Scouting reports have him consistently hitting the radar gun in the high 90's, with the occasional triple digit popping up. I couldn't find any actual game footage, so we'll have to settle for bullpen footage, which means we aren't really seeing Feliz's full, dedicated motion.



His motion reminds me of somebody, but I can't remember who it is right now. Overall I don't have many complaints, but his motion feels a little bit raw to me, and if I was going to be picky, I'd get Feliz to drop his front leg kick into a more forward motion with his upper body, instead of dropping it down towards the mound and then shifting his weight forward. When I see pitchers wasting their leg kick with such a vertical drop it makes me worry that they're putting too much strain on their arms and aren't utilizing their hips and torso enough. You can see what I'm talking about in this next clip as well.



Of course, we're only seeing a bullpen session, so Feliz's game time motion might be a bit different, but I would guess that he still displays a severe vertical front leg drop even in games. Like I said though, that's just something that I would work on if I was going to be picky. The arm motion isn't bad, maybe a little less fluid than I would like, but I'm not a mechanics expert, so I'll leave the details up to the professionals.

Update: Here's a short clip of Octavio Dotel from the stretch, who as Jim pointed out in his comment has some similarities in not only his motion but his haircut as well.

TPC Video Break: Yonder Alonso

A decent look at Yonder Alonso at the plate during the Hawaii Winter League, may it rest in peace. Yonder is pretty good at working the count, and this particular at-bat is no exception. The swing looks nice, and I really think he could fill out over the next 2 or 3 years and pretty soon harmless fly balls like this one will be headed for the right field bleachers in Cincinatti.

TPC Video Break: Buster Posey

This is just a short clip of Buster Posey at the plate. Not a lot to go off of, but his swing looks short and smooth, and I could see him developing a little more power in the coming years.

TPC Video Break: Brett Cecil Bullpen Session

I haven't seen much of Brett Cecil, but the following video gives us a glimpse of his mechanics, at least during a bullpen session. It's not much to go by, and without breaking the video down by frame it's hard to really critique his arm and shoulder motion. However, Cecil has a nice fluid motion, and I really like his transition from leg kick to plant, and then follow-through. I've seen a lot of young pitchers that have a lot of wasted motion in their move to the plate, but Cecil looks very efficient. 

There's also a decent forum discussion at TwoPlus Two Poker I found covering the topic of Cecil's mechanics if you're interested, although I couldn't get the animated images to work.

TPC Video Break: Matt Wieters

Here's a nice look at Matt Wieters' swing from the left side of the plate. I don't have a lot to say about his swing, but it's relatively simple without much noise or wasted motion. His bat speed will pick up as he gets older, and he'll either learn to lay off pitches that jam him inside, or learn to come around quicker and hit them down the line. Overall, a nice look at the top prospect in the game.