Big Leaguer Breakdown: Javier Vazquez

We go off the beaten path only slightly this week for our Big Leaguer Breakdown. Although having been in the Big Leagues for 11 years, it is just recently that Javier Vazquez has begun to get the star caliber recognition he deserves. This sudden awareness may have something to do with the fact that Javy lowered his season best ERA but more than whole point. Or possibly it is that he struck out 238 batters in only 219 innings to finish fourth in the Cy Young Award voting. Either way, after going 15 - 10 for the Braves last year, Javier is now with the Yankees and poised to make even better of a devastating fastball, slider, change-up combination. It is for these reasons that Javier Vazquez is this week's Big Leaguer Breakdown


Check out this great youtube clip from laflippin of Vazquez in slow motion.

We will look at a very early part of this clip to point out something Javy does that I am a big fan of that I haven't noticed on many other pitchers. At the :07 mark of the video, Javier has stepped off to the side for his drop step, pivoted his back foot in front of the rubber and also simultaneously rotated his front shoulder in line with the target. Many young pitchers rush through this step and either over-rotate their front shoulder or never quite get the shoulder all the way closed. By setting the front shoulder on line early, we can be sure that the rest of the delivery has a chance to stay on line as well.

From there, we go to the :13 portion of the video. Vazquez has elevated his leg lift well beyond parallel and his hands are equally as high. This position can lead to some very detrimental variations if the pitcher is not careful. Of course, being a Big Leaguer, Vasquez has been able to repeat this with great effectiveness. For a young pitcher who wants to emulate this, he must make sure to remain tall and not simply fall down the mound from this position. Instead, the front leg most work back down before going forward. We see Vasquez do just that as we go to the :18 mark. His hands have just begun to separate as his body has just now begun to move forward toward the catcher. Very important to notice is that his back leg has not collapsed barely at all. Instead, he's remained very tall with great posture throughout the entire first half of his delivery.

At the :22 mark, we see one of my favorite postures in the all of pitching. We see the hips have "fired" as the front foot is preparing to touch the ground down the mound. More importantly, however, is the fact that the elbows have not yet begun to rotate around. Instead, they are "loaded" and online toward the target. This timing of the hips and elbows are the key to generating a quality delivery and velocity at the same time.

Check out the picture below to see exactly what I am talking about.

From here, Vazquez gets to finish in perfect text book fashion. At the :24 mark, we see his chest and chin squared directly to the target with the glove turned and tucked down without yanking. The front knee is bent and the chest is coming forward. Peculiarly, he seems to elevate his body from this position over the front leg instead of staying down through the release. It is possible that the front knee locked out just a bit as he released, preventing him from getting the desired release. This is a minor gripe on my end, but deserves mentioning as we look at the delivery from this step by step breakdown.

There are many pros and only a few cons from the clip of Javier Vazquez. Most importantly, we must really grasp how well he controls his lower half with such a tall leg lift. Also, his hip turn and upper half timing is impeccable. Take some time and keep studying this clip and any others you can find of Javy.

Until Next Time!!