With Clay Buchholz slowly exhausting his prospect eligibility last season, Michael Bowden emerged by solidifying his status as the next best pitcher in the Sox system. One of Michael’s bigger caveats coming out of Waubonsie Valley High School were his somewhat unconventional mechanics. While they are nothing to be overtly concerned about, there are a few areas that bother me. He’s your prototypical long-armer who relies more on arm strength than using his lower body.
Tempo
A pitcher’s tempo if often an indicator of the kind of velocity a pitcher throws with. The faster a pitcher’s tempo, the more momentum the pitcher carries into foot plant. Given this, it shouldn’t come to a surprise that Michael has decent tempo since he utilizes his upper body much more so than he does his lower body.
Arm Action
While Bowden is primarily throwing with his arm instead of his legs, I don’t think it has much effect on his long-term health. He still generates very good hip/shoulder separation, but it’s largely due to with him breaking his glove-side arm with his elbow. You can see pretty clearly that he flies open with his glove, creating some tension when his shoulders rotate upon release. Another thing that is quite noticeable in this picture is his stride. Pitchers are generally taught to stride with their hips and not their leg. Bowden’s hips fly open while he starts pushing off the mound. This is definitely a concern to me because it suggest that, despite his good hip/shoulder separation, he’s not getting as much stretch and push off the rubber as he could. This reduces the stretch in his core and reduces his ability to throw with his body and not his arm.
Perhaps nitpicking here, but notice how Bowden is facing the ball towards center-field/second-base rather than shortstop/third-base. As the arm follows through, it awkwardly rotates and puts unneeded stress on the elbow.
Follow Through
Very good. He lands with his knee bent and finishes in an athletic fielding position. There is a reason why Greg Maddux won 15 gold gloves.
Conclusion
Like I said in the beginning, there is nothing here that is worrisome. He does not possess the dreaded inverted L or W, and has pretty clean arm action. His delivery is a bit unorthodox, and in my opinion, is holding him back from a few ticks on his fastball. He repeats it all well, and has no history of serious arm issues or over-usage.
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