Happy Mother's Day from Less Is More and what a day it was. Dallas Braden's grandmother got one of the most unique and rare gifts ever given on a Mother's Day, a perfect game. Only the 19th such accomplishment in MLB history! The lefty faced the minimum, walked none, and his teammates made no errors on his way to beating the Tampa Bay Rays 4-0. What made the feat even more incredible is that the Rays only swung and missed at 5 pitches that Braden threw; the fewest in a no-hitter since 2007. Dallas improved to 4-2 on the season by punching out six hitters and of course, walking none. His perfect game did as much to establish himself as a bonafide star as it did to quelsh some of the negative attention that had been simmering since his lashing out verbally at Alex Rodriquez after AROD trotted over the pitcher's mound after getting out in a game earlier in the season. Side Note...I think it shows a lot about Braden's fire and determination on the mound that he felt the need to "defend his territory" after Rodriquez essentially disrespected his mound by jogging across it. I like it and I think every pitcher can learn from it. Either way, Braden was awesome today and he is this week's Big Leaguer Breakdown.
Check out this video of Dallas Braden from my favorite youtuber, laflippin.
You can see right off the bat that Braden comes set with the glove far away from his body and his feet wide on the mound. I have always been a fan of looking imposing on the mound and applying this stance is a great way to do so. As he starts his delivery, we see him utilize a very long side step (instead of a drop step back). As a general rule, I prefer a drop step to stepping to the side because it makes finishing toward the target more difficult. However, Dallas uses the side step to create some misdirection and deception in his delivery. He repeats this very well and it does a lot to disrupt a hitter trying to track the ball.
At the :23 mark, we see Braden's foot almost disappear behind his back side. This position tells us that his leg lift well above average in height. As long as the pitcher's body (legs and core) are strong enough, a high leg lift that is controlled can help a pitcher generate more momentum in his delivery while staying taller longer. What how Dallas accomplishes this from the :23 mark to the :32 mark. We can see a lot about his delivery in this segment. From the leg lift, we see the glove and front leg work in perfect unison down and out toward the target. All the while, his back leg does not collapse much at all. While all this is happening, Braden does close off his front shoulder some, showing his back to the right handed hitter. You can't see this in the video here, but if you watch him pitching from behind, you can see what I mean. At the :32 mark, we see how Braden's elbows have elevated to a perfect power position just before the front foot hits the ground. Notice also how the back foot has begun to rotate, which indicates that the hips have turned as well. With the hips firing, but the elbows are still closed, the pitcher can really generate some power in delivery.
The :33 mark shows an absolutely picture perfect chin position, glove turn and front leg bend. This tells us a lot about how consistent Braden is with his delivery. At 36 seconds, we can see his body is almost entirely parallel to the ground at the ball comes out of his hand.
Overall, there's not much negative about Braden's delivery and this tells us quite a bit about how he was able to throw a perfect game. If I'm being picky, there isn't a ton of tempo through his delivery. He seems to be moving a touch slower than the average pitcher, but then again, that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
So, it goes without saying, Dallas Braden has a good idea about how to deliver the baseball. We here at Less Is More tip our caps to you Dallas. Congrats on your fantastic game!
Image source: yahoo sports - http://sports.yahoo.com/
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