Open mechanics and the pitching regs

[halskinner]

You are in your preliminaries up to the instant you separate your hands, now the pitch is in progress and the preliminaries are over. Once you open your hand and release the ball, the delivery is in progress and the pitch is over. Although, the rulebooks seem to include the delivery as part of the pitch.

Once the hands separate the feet do not have to stay on the rubber. The discussion was bringing the throwing hand and ball down and to the rear while keeping the ball hidden in the glove. I have no problem with concealing the ball as long as you can, as long as the glove does not cross that line. The only way it can cross that line, in my opinion, is to pivot at the hips before the hands separate and that means they are turning their shoulder while still in the preliminaries. Technically, by the letter of the law of the rulebook, not permitted.

I went into alot of detail of ways to conceal the grip in my 1st and 2nd book. I even outlined a few ways you can distract the batters attention away from the ball immediately after release.

I never said I was against hiding the ball. I merely brought up a few technicalities that always seemed to be walking the fence between a legal and illegal action when it comes to open mechanics. Again, I have never seen anyone called for those and doubt I ever will.

 

[MTR]

My only point was what you stated is not stated in ASA rules. The purpose for the rule is to keep the pitcher relatively square to the plate. It used to be that the pitcher just needed to be facing the batter. Apparently, somewhere along the way, enough people believed it needed to be more specific, but you are not going to be able to draw a line across the field and expect the pitcher to be rigidly aligned with the bases. Umpires are trained that "front" is not back so as long as they are not seeing the back, the pitcher is going to be good.

The "turns" that I've seen pitchers make are minimal and not of any effect on the pitch.