Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft

Thesis: The Fundamentals of baseball can result in a successful pitcher is proper mechanics, good arm motion to hit your target and lots of flexibility/mobility that can result in high velocity meaning speed.

It is extremely difficult to maintain arm health for a full season. Because of the increased average velocity and innings thrown throughout pitchers in the major leagues, a higher percentage of pitchers have encountered injuries in the elbow and UCL reconstruction is necessary to continue their baseball career. Tearing of the Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) is a very severe injury and requires surgery or reconstruction of the ligament in order to throw again.The recovery process is long and grueling and can have an effect on the mental aspect of throwing a baseball with intent or maximum effort. In “ Biomechanical Performance of Baseball Pitchers with a History of Ulnar Collateral Ligament Reconstruction” Fleisig, Laughlin, Aune, and colleagues claim that this tentative attribute inhibits biomechanics of throwing the baseball such as stride length, tilt of pitch, velocity, and noticeably different shoulder and elbow mechanics (Fleisig, Laughlin, Aune, et. al., 2015, page 1045). However, these Orthopedic Surgeons and Baseball Medical Officials performed a study that demonstrated that there was no significant difference in the biomechanics of pitchers with reconstructive surgery and those without it. Being able to return to an equal or higher level of play after surgery and rehabilitation is possible and players are not at a

In Drew Marcos presentation, were first introduced to one athlete, in particular, Tommy John, an American professional baseball (left-handed) pitcher, who permanently damaged his ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching arm, leading to a revolutionary surgical operation. known as Tommy John surgery. It replaced the ligament in the elbow of his pitching arm with a tendon from his right forearm. The surgery was performed by Dr. Frank Jobe in 1974. After the surgery, the odds were against John, since there was a 1 in 100 success rate for that operation. But, he took a season off to recover and worked with a kinesiologist, who taught him a completely different way to pitching, eliminating the chance of him hurting his knee and arm. Before his surgery he won 124 games after his surgery 164 games won, John continued to play for 14 more years, retiring in 1989. Marcos, went on to discuss scapular strength and positional impairments such as scapular dyskinesia, insufficient posterior tilt, excessive abduction and prominent inferior medial border, which are all factors that play a part in the inverted “W” pitching position; that Marcos believes, is one of the driving forces behind the some pitcher’s injuries and the Tommy

Tyler was a seemingly healthy baseball player in the final moments of one of his games. He was under a higher than normal amount of pressure, where he was down to his final strike and needed a big hit to decisively win the game for his team. Tyler proceeded to successfully read the oncoming pitch, knowing exactly where it was going to come, and swung the bat with all his strength to deliver a homerun. The positive feedback of the hit from his bat was enough to confirm to Tyler that he had done it, however during the perceived midst of his achievement he was not thinking clearly where his bat was swinging after the contact with the ball. By the time he realized that he had not followed through in proper form, the momentum generated in his swing

We are baseball scouts and we just got to the high school to look at a player. He is on the home team and is a shortstop that we want to draft. His number is 71. He is batting cleanup (4th). He just came out to take batting practice.

Actin and Myosin proteins serve the primary role of producing muscle contraction. Myosin molecules will create pressure in the skeletal muscle, where ATP hydrolysis causes Myosin to bind to Actin. A conformational change of the molecule then result in Myosin being

Hip injury and ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) injuries among baseball players has become a high area in study (Cheatham, S. W., Kumagai Shimamura, K., & Kolber, M. J., 2016). Athletes in the field of baseball may be at high risk for injury due to the high volume of repetitive motion in throwing and pitching because of comprehensive training schedules and games in the season. It is commonly believed that the presence of limited hip mobility, throwing biomechanics are changed and may lead to both hip and shoulder alteration. With both hip and shoulder mobility affected can result compromising throwing form in biomechanics and may force the core muscles (abdominals, shoulders, and upper extremities) to compromising and work even harder. More importantly, the range of motion (ROM) maybe conceding excessively which results increasing potential risk of future injuries. The individual’s biomechanics in pitching or throwing must be monitor for muscular-endurance, strength, or power for speed and numbers of repetition when contributing towards velocity. Studying a player’s mechanics especially their genetics of length and size plays a major role on the changes in their body and correlates the throwing velocity in fine coordination. Every pitch thrown is one of the most important factors in a baseball or softball game because the velocity can change the outcome of the game.

Second you accelerate your arm forward, you turn your body and bring your shoulder and elbow forward. To bring your arm forward your pectoralis major and anterior deltoid work together to both internally rotate and horizontally abduct bringing your shoulder forward and accelerating the ball. At the same time your elbow is being extended by the triceps brachii which provides more acceleration for the throw. Also, your abdominals and obliques turn your body toward the throw, which also increases the acceleration of the ball.

is physical). What caused the arm to throw the baseball? The muscles in the arm

Different muscle groups “learn” to work together to perform and stabilize a movement. For example, while the Biceps Brachii produces the main force for the bicep curl, the Brachialis’ role in stabilization is increased, and the Triceps Brachii relax to allow for the Biceps to exert greater force.

In figure one it shows how a recruitment of a motor unit tends to work. The human body is required to have the recruitment of motor units in order for a muscle to contract because without it we wouldn’t be able to produce certain functions within the body. So when the recruitment is boosted then the contraction of a muscle will produce higher. Which is also vice versa if the recruitment was lower, then the contraction of the muscle will be produce less.

Muscle contraction starts with an impulse from the nervous system to release acetylcholine in the neuromuscular junction. This excites the muscle fibers. Each muscle fiber is made of myofibrils. Energy and Calcium is needed. This energy comes from ATP. Muscle contraction requires that cross bridges be formed between the myosin head and the actin. These pull the sarcomere together. Each sarcomere has two types thick and thin myofilaments. Muscle contractions starts with a signal of acetylcholine is released from the axon terminal and binds to the receptors on the sarcolemma. Then travels down the T-tubule where calcium is then released from the SR. calcium then binds to troponin. AChE removes Ach When calcium is leaving the muscle and returns

Agonist muscles are the main muscles responsible for isotonic contractions; as they are predominantly responsible for producing a specific movement they are also referred to as “prime movers”. Antagonist muscles control a movement and also return limbs back to the original position. If a movement is performed in reverse the antagonist and agonist muscle switch roles, therefore one muscle can be both an agonist and an antagonist depending on

The body consists of three different kinds of muscles: skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscle. Skeletal muscle, which is the primary focus of this lab, is made up of much smaller muscle fibers. These muscle fibers have smaller units called myofibrils followed by the smallest contractile unit of a muscle fiber called the sarcomere. Furthermore, the sarcomere is composed of two filament types- thick filaments, called myosin and thin filaments called actin. In order for muscle contraction to occur, these two filaments must bind to form cross bridges. These cross bridges are formed through the interaction of the actin and myosin head along with calcium ions and ATP molecules. The formation and reformation of these cross bridges is what is known as cross bridge cycling and is what is responsible for repeated muscle contraction in the same sarcomere.

Utilization of bending, a pin, torsion springs and follower assembly is to control pitching motion. A picture can be seen in Figure 2.10.