One of the breakout prospects of the 2012 season was Curtis Partch. He has always had quality stuff, but has struggled with putting it all together at times. The Reds moved him to the bullpen after a rough start to the year and he turned his season and career around, finishing the year by being added to the 40-man roster.
I was looking through my old videos, trying to delete some of players who are no longer in baseball, I came across some video of Curtis Partch from 2009 when he was pitching with the Dayton Dragons. I decided to see how things have come along with him mechanically since then. For me, there were several things that have been changed, which can be seen within each of the three images below.
While the angles aren’t exactly the same, they are pretty similar. While this isn’t actually in the pitching motion, there are two things going on here that stand out. First is that this is at the highest point that Partch brings his hands in both motions. Second is that now, his front leg is in more of a straight position, where as in 2009 it has some bend to it.
In this image, I stopped both videos at the high point of his front leg lift. There is obviously a much higher leg lift in 2012 than there was in 2009. Along with the higher leg lift, Partch also brings his hands higher by about 6-8 inches (my guess based on his glove).
These two frames were stopped in the video right before the throwing arm goes behind him as he follows through. The leg points are different, but I wouldn’t pay much attention to that as I didn’t really time much of this part of the video. The part that really jumped out to me is how far away his arm is from his plant leg in 2009 compared to 2012. In 2012 his arm is much closer to his plant leg.
I honestly can’t say that any of these changes are the reason why Partch was able to turn his career around in 2012. He was starting at the time of the video in 2009 and he was coming out of the bullpen in 2012, which alone could be a big part of the improvements. But, I can say that there are some changes that have been made over the years for Partch.
Video
2009
2012