Its been quite some time since I last posted here is what I have been up to.

- The first three weeks of spring training have gone pretty well. It was amazing how much of an adjustment it was to throw outside after throwing inside for 3 months. The first day every other throw was either way to high or was bouncing because my depth perception was all out of whack. Fortunately after about 20 throws I was able to adjust.

- As mentioned in previous blogs I made a few mechanical adjustments this off season to help me command my pitches more effectively and to protect myself from injury. My focus has been to really control my front side and not rush out towards the plate as well as not throw across my body quite so much. Right now I am probably executing 90 percent of the pitches how I want to and 10 percent I fall into my old bad habit of diving towards the plate. I just need to focus on my dry work to make my new mechanics muscle memory.

- Legendary A's pitcher Dave Stewart came to talk to all the pitchers in minor league camp. He offered a very unique approach to pitching. For Dave Stewart every single person he faced was trying to take something from him. Every hitter was trying to take a win from him, take money out of his pocket. He said he would do anything to fight, kick, scratch, whatever it takes to to make sure that no one ever took anything from him. The best part of the meeting was that towards the end of the meeting he was holding a small water bottle and he challenged anyone to come up and try to take it from him, no one was crazy enough to try to make a move for that water bottle because you just knew that he would die before ever letting someone have that water bottle. It was amazing to see how single minded you need to be to compete at the major league level.

Now that I am in the routine of Spring Training I should have more time to post so until next time.

ps. thanks to my dad for the spring training photo

I know that I have been M.I.A. the past 2 weeks but I hope today's post makes up for my vacation from blogging. Today we are going to look at video of my last bullpen session.

When watching video from the side you really want focus on 2 things. First, is the pitchers weight over the rubber before his hands break? In this video I do a pretty good job of getting a solid post and not leaking forward before I break my hands. When I am struggling this is the first thing that I look to correct because if my timing at my balance point is off then my arm is going to drag and I am going to have trouble locating. Second, is the pitcher "sticking his landing" and getting over his front side or he is spinning off causing his momentum to go side to side. As someone who throws across their body I really need to focus on getting my momentum going towards home plate. On the first two pitches I spin off, falling to the first base side. On the third pitch I do a much better job as evidenced by the fact that I finish with my hips pointed at home plate. When I am "spinning off" I am not going to be able to get full extension causing my pitches to be flat.

Most people use the rear view to examine the pitcher's line, by this I mean does the pitcher land open, closed or straight. As you can see I am a pitcher who lands closed. A lot of pitching coaches will tell you that this is something that you can't be successful doing. As a general rule this may be the case but I would argue that it is the pitcher's ability to get his hips through that is more important than where your foot lands. In the video above you can see that my hips to get square to the plate at my release point. This is not to say that I don't try to straighten out my line, (in fact the video above is significantly better than I was this past season) getting your hips squared when you land across your body can be more difficult than when you land on a straight line.

While it is important for a pitcher to analyze his mechanics on a day to day basis a lot of times a pitcher is blinded by seeing themselves every day and can miss glaring weaknesses. This is where you come in. What do you think about my mechanics? What drills would you recommend I do to improve my mechanics?

Direct your comments to the comments box below or to the "Ask Shawn" section on the top toolbar.

The past few weeks ESPN has been running articles that with the aim at educating baseball fans on the statistical revolution in baseball. "Hot Stove U" as it is called, tackles issues such as, why the games best hitters hate to see Ryan Braun in the batters box, why stat oriented teams are beginning to focus on defense and my personal favorite, why Derek Jeter is on track to be the 2nd best shortstop to ever play the game.

As with most kids who grew up a Yankee fan in the in the past 15 years, Jeter was my favorite player. However, my admiration was mostly based on qualities that could not really be quantified. I loved that he played the game the right way and how he always seemed to be in the right place on the field. I was amazed at his ability to consistently be at the heart of a Yankee rally and how he performed so well when the games really mattered.

However, it was always hard to argue that Jeter was better than Nomar, or A-Rod or even Miguel Tejada because he never really put up eye popping offense numbers; Jeter was just consistently good. This is the argument of the author David Schoenfield, he argues that Jeter is going to blow by 3000 hits in 2011 and has won 4 gold gloves (even if you argue that he only deserves 1 of them). Since Jeter arrived in 2006 you could basically pencil him in for a .300 batting average, an OBP of .385 and 100 runs scored. Just one season like that would be considered a career year for a shortstop but Jeter has averaged that over his 15 year career and is not showing signs of slowing down any time soon.