I briefly touched upon Brandon Gomes’ arm action last night, here is what I was talking about:
In the top frame, you see Gomes in one of the middle stages of his delivery. The throwing arm is fully extended and his palm is too, meaning left-handed batters are going to get a good look at the ball. The bottom frame, on the other hand, shows why righties might have even more problems with Gomes. I’m not sure if I would call that sidearm, but Gomes definitely has a lower slot than most right-handed pitchers.
Gomes’ delivery reminds me of someone, but I haven’t placed my finger on who quite yet.
Could it be that he gets more speed with more rotation?Should he change his arm angle to a more vertical angle against LH?
Masterson has been good with a similar delivery.So I think alot depends on how LH hitters are pitched to in Gomes case. His approach in pitching to Adam Lind a few days ago looked good to me.He was not going to let Lind beat him and tried the corners but missed and walked him.Gomes hasn’t had a problem with BB/9 so I think he decided Lind wasn’t going to beat the Rays and missed trying to hit spots where Lind couldn’t hit it out.Lind continues to be hot so I think good judgment prevailed.