Thread:
The evolution of Gerrit Cole...
Players always evolve & change over time. Sometimes it’s intentional, sometimes it isn’t. Some end up better, some end up worse. Tonight, let’s explore the evolution of Gerrit Cole. We won’t go back to HS and UCLA, let’s just focus on

His time in the MLB. Let’s start with a 96mph fastball from the 2015 version of Cole. His avg FB that year was 96.3 and it was his first All Star campaign so I thought we’d start there. There are some great things happening here. At landing he’s still connected to the rubber,

his stride was closed, & his pelvis is closed. This puts him in a strong position to get good joint centration between lead hip/femur. This is an important position because it enables him to decelerate well. His lower half is giving him a great base to rotate around. You’ll see

his arm is pretty in line with the plane of rotation of his trunk. Those need to match to maximize energy transfer & efficiency of chain. If you take a look at his back foot in finish, it’s working into ER in opposite direction of his trunk rotation. Sign of great decel

Now let’s move on to ‘16 when Cole had 3 IL stints with tricep issues & elbow inflammation. It’s clearly different & you don’t have to be an expert to see it. How we move is responsible for spin, force, direction, efficiency & health. If we move differently, those

Things can easily change & that’s what we have here. In 15, he was more closed at landing & his arm slot was lower. In 16, his stride was straighter & arm slot was higher. All speculation, but my guess is that someone decided it would be smarter to stride more straight rather

Than closed & potentially purposeful arm slot change. It could have even been forcing him to “finish out front” because that often destroys Decel patterns. What isn’t speculation is that often times when we see tricep issues, they are the result of bad Decel patterns.

The tricep is one of the last pieces of the chain to help stop & when the earlier pieces aren’t in good positions/not working as well, that energy leaks up the chain. Look at how different these are!! In 15 on left his back leg was ANCHORING his rotation & helping Decel. In 16

On the right, his back leg has carried really far into the same position in time. That back leg being pulled that far, at that moment in time, means his lower half wasn’t anchoring & is a sign of poor Decel. Now, let’s move on to ‘17 his worst statistical year.

In 17, he was definitely closer to the 15 version of himself, likely just trying to get back to where he was before he got screwed up. Arm slot is lower & matching plane better. Decel pattern is better but still not it.

As you can see below, the finish has a telling story to it. I once saw someone arguing with my guy @LantzWheeler saying what happens after ball release doesn’t matter. I would have a hard time listening to anything that person said after hearing that. The finish tells us an

Important story about how we got there in the first place. The pictures below are very telling. Below are 15, 16, 17. Now let’s get into the good stuff. Gerrit Cole became THE GERRIT COLE in Houston, so let’s see what’s different about that shall we...

In 2019, Cole turned in one of the greatest pitching seasons in Baseball history. He set an MLB record for K/9 striking out 326 in 212.1 IP. He either lead the entire MLB or finished in top 5 of almost every statistical category in Baseball like ERA, K’s, ERA+, FIP, WAR, etc.

This particular pitch was his 101st of the game, at 100mph, & looked pretty damn easy, efficient & stable. This is the version of Gerrit Cole that did all that damage. This is what it looked like when he was moving his best, & subsequently but unsurprising, performed his best.

Here he’s landing in a really strong position to throw his punch. You’ll notice how closed his body is (how much it’s facing 3rd). He’s striding slightly closed & landing slight closed w/front foot aligned against body 4 the good joint centration I mentioned earlier. It gives him

something to throw AGAINST. His arm here is working around the plane of his trunk. Check out his belt loops between pics 2-4. Even though his trunk is moving fast, look how small the degree of rotation is during the acceleration phase of his arm. That’s serious stability around

The spine & I know my guys @Tywhite27 & @TylerSkovron like that. You’ll see that back leg working into ER & grabbing/holding on like a beast SO his trunk can turn fast. Finally, check out the finish and difference from years past.. the least rotation of his life was the best

Rotation of his life. The rotation was coming through stronger positions, with a more efficient sequence, directed to home. Remember, pitching by nature is a geodesic movement. Geodesic means shortest possible line on a sphere or curved surface. We are transferring

rotational energy, but directing it in a straight line. It seems to me that if PHYSICS is about applying mathematics to understand how things move through space & time, understanding how things get from A-B in shortest most efficient path, on a curved surface might be important!

Now lets get to the 2020 version of Cole. I first tweeted about this after seeing him in ST, followed that up with another tweet after his first outing, & thought after watching his first pitch tonight that a more well rounded explanation might be in order. Let’s start with data

Last season he had 10.9” of VB on fastball, compared to this year’s 12.6”. This year he also has 5.3 less inches of VB on curveball & .4 more HB on slider. Let’s also look at his first start last year, vs his first two of this year. Small sample, but interesting data to support

The differences we have seen in his movement patterns. Remember, we noticed this watching him move, the data is just confirming differences we already saw. How we move is responsible for EVERYTHING & movement changes show up in data. You saw some data, now let’s watch movement.

He’s been “flying open” “yanking sliders” & lots of high arm side misses on FB. At landing his stride is open rather than closed. Even a small change like that, can throw everything that happens after it into chaos. Without getting into further details, he currently isn’t

throwing AGAINST his front side as early as he should be. That’s problem numero uno. This leads to the over rotation I mentioned earlier. Problem 2, is that his arm isn’t on plane with rotation of his trunk like it should be. You can even see his head pull glove side a bit to

clear space his arm to come through. But 1 is a slider & 1 is a fastball you say...here’s just one of his high arm side miss FB. It’s even worse & I don’t recall him throwing even 1 pitch last year that looked like that. Am I being picky? Of course I am. I recognize he’s

Gerrit Cole & he’s coming off one of the greatest season in history. That’s why I’m being picky. He doesn’t have to be his best to be better than most, but, the best, do it more often than everyone else. The difference between good and great in this game is so ridiculously small.

Difference between hitting .250 & .300 in an MLB season is 25 hits in 500 at bats. The season is 26 weeks long, it’s less than 1 hit a week. All of the work we do, how fine tuned it needs to be, is because 25
Better swings, or 25 better pitches, can be the difference between a

career year and yesterday’s news. We train, study, & work for that 1% better. The difference is in the details. Understanding how your players move, what’s good, what isn’t, is what I believe to be a tremendous separator between the good & great in player development.