Does anyone else believe Luna's release is almost a side-arm release? Therefore would be considered an illegal pitch according to ASA Rule 6.3.E. I am watching the Texas-Missouri game.
ASA Rule 6.3.E states "The delivery must be an underhand motion with the hand below the hip and the wrist not farther from the body than the elbow". It certainly appeared to me that her release was above the hip and her wrist was farther than the elbow from her body on certain pitchs. Her drop was legal, there is no doubt on this one, but the curve,drop curve and the rise are the ones I would like to see in slow-mo. Maybe someone that is more high tech than me can do her release frame by frame.
The Texas-Missouri game will be re-broadcast @ 1:30 p.m. Wed. on ESPNU.
Counting Sunday's (5/8) game, she has not been charged with an IP all season in 208 innings pitched....BTW, neither have the other two pitchers on their staff.
Nothing was blaring as I watched the game. I did have a pitcher a few year back get called because the wrist was out further than the elbow. I filmed her the next day and the calls by the umpire were marginal at best. My pitcher had one of those elbows that bend beyond straight and it looked odd at release, but should not have been called illegal.
Im sitting here watching Texas at Missouri (think its a replay of same game) and I cant see anything illegal about her delivery. She does lean a little to her left and falls to her left on release, but is legal.
I watched some of the video on Texas web sight of her pitching and I did not see a problem.
I have noticed this in the past and that is some things that are not called in regular season get called in the playoffs. An example is TN VOLS during the Monica Abbott years TN's hitters were consistently out of the box on slapping and it was not called during the regular season or the games I saw. In the playoffs it was being called, I thought it had an influence on the outcome of the World Series.
If I remember correct I believe they also called Abbott for some IP for not keeping the back foot in contact with the ground during the series and during the regular season I never saw it called.