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.