OIP

OIP: Overall Injury Probability

Overall Injury Probability is a scouting evaluation tool in the use of grading pitching mechanics in an objectively, subjective manner. The main movements involved in a pitcher's delivery (leg extension, hip rotation, and follow through) are numerically rated to establish a baseline. Other problems in the delivery (i.e., short arming, poor balance, throwing against the body, etc.) are then factored in if present.
An injury probability percentage is easier to read and understand when presented quantitatively for evaluating amateur, free agents, and potential trades.

Overall Injury Probability

OIP is a scouting evaluation tool to use in grading pitching mechanics in an objectively, subjective manner. The main movements involved in a pitcher's delivery (leg extension, hip rotation, and follow through) are numerically rated to establish a baseline. Other problems in the delivery (i.e., short arming, poor balance, throwing against the body, etc.) are then factored in if present.
An injury probability percentage is easier to read and understand when presented quantitatively for evaluating amateur, free agent pitchers, and potential trades.

Texas Rangers' Newly Acquired RHP Matt Garza

Well, as the old saying goes, there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is that he still has a fairly live arm and the Rangers have a shot at resigning him, but the bad news is that he he has some mechanical issues that causes him to fatigue and lose arm strength before he reaches a 100 pitches in his starts.
In the evaluation of his big three of pitching mechanics...leg extension, hip rotation, and follow through. Matt shows a minus 25 hip rotation which means he's using his arm almost exclusively in his delivery when he steps open after his leg extension and throws before there's any hip rotation at all. Pitchers with this flaw usually develop scar tissue in the rotator group of their throwing shoulder which in turn reduces their velocity. You can add an inconsistent follow through to his mechanical woes, as well...though not as severe as his lack of hip rotation. He only loses 5 points in this category. To sum it up, Matt will have a 30% probability of injury this season with a year or two left in his arm before scar tissue catches up with him.

OIP (Overall Injury Probability): 30%

Cuban RHP Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez

The Cuban defector is currently pitching in the Mexican League, but has dreams of signing a contract with a MLB team next week. He has desires of a big offer and is said to be seeking a six year deal in the range of $60 million.

It'll be interesting to see which MLB organization signs him, if any, for the amount he wants since he's a project pitcher with the mechanic problems (OIP grades in parenthesis) and habits that he has with leg extension (-10), hip rotation (-25), and follow through (-10). Gonzalez graded out with an OIP (Overall Injury Probability) of 45%.

His fastball is in the mid 90s which may make some organization willing to take a chance on him anyway. 

UPDATE: The Phillies have fallen for the hype and just beat out the Red Sox and their offer for Gonzalez. 

That's a quite a contract for a project pitcher with the mechanic problems he has with leg extension (-10), hip rotation (-25), and follow through (-10)
Gonzalez graded out with an OIP of 45%. May the Phillies' player development have success in transforming him before this pitcher develops velocity killing scar tissue in his rotator group.

SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS

Del Pittman

PO Box 2347

300 S. San Marcus

Whitney, TX 76692

Cell: (254) 498-0299
dtp66@yahoo.com

SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS 

EXPERIENCE

1989-1990  Associate Scout Kansas City Royals

1991-1996  Associate Scout Milwaukee Brewers

Primary task for Royals and Brewers was to evaluate amateur position players and pitchers to determine their OFP and provide scouting reports.

EDUCATION

1971-72    TVCC   Ontario, OR

1973-1974  CJC  Cisco, TX    AA Degree

1978 Angelo State  San Angelo, TX  BA Degree  Secondary Teaching Certificate

1987 Pro Baseball Scout School   Anaheim, CA                      Certificate

2009 SMWW       Baseball GM and Scout Course  Portland, OR           Certificate

OTHER

Spent 27 years working as a teacher in Texas public schools. Currently an Independent Baseball Scout and Baseball Consultant to Sports Agents. Successfully projected Chris Davis to be the next Adam Dunn. Also predicted injuries to the Yankees’ farm hand pitcher Jose Campos. Also seeing a short career for Rockies’ 1st round draft pick, Jonathan Gray and current Astros’ starter Jordan Lyles due to pitching mechanic flaws...among others in pro baseball.  

Owner/Operator of DPBI CHAMPIONSHIP HITTING. Inventor of Timing Activation, OIP (Overall Injury Probability), the ATTAXE Training Bat, and the Soap Bubble Batting T. I have 30 years of continuous membership in the ABCA(American Baseball Coaches Association). 13 Year Past Member Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association. EX HS and COLLEGE BASEBALL COACH. From 1989-1996, I was involved in pro scouting before deciding to focus on private hitting instruction. I have had the opportunity to work with all levels of hitters over the years.

Summer 2013 Practice And Game At Bats Hitting Routine

On Deck Circle

Begin mental prepping with your pre-pitch Timing Activation (see Timing Activation blog post) while reinforcing your muscle memory with the MP30 Training Bat (see Jaime's Swing Mechanic MP30 blog post)

NEXT

Repeat before the 1^st pitch and after each sequential pitch...EVERY GAME and EVERY AT BAT

Outside box if league rules allow:

Situational Awareness:

Know outs and base runners' locations

Depth Perception Tune Up For Hitters' Soft Centering/Fine Centering Visual Technique:

Focus on 2B’s cap logo, then shift focus to Pitcher’s cap logo

Begin Pre-Pitch Recycling Timing Activation (See Recycling and Timing Activation Blog Posts)

Night Game… Close eyes for 5 seconds for improved vision (See

Retina/Vision Trick)

In box or “half and half” if league rules allow:

One Deep Breath…In through the nose; out through pursed lips

Look to third base coach, receive signs, square up to the pitcher, and re-focus

mentally

See Dr. Bill Harrison's Slow The Game Down blog post for fine centering-soft centering pitch tracking....

Begin Fine Centering-Soft Centering (Focus on Pitcher’s Logo & then re-focus

visually to the Release Point (Avoid being hypnotized by watching the Pitcher’s

Windup

Gently shift your weight from back to front repeatedly over your center

point (40-60) as you are fine centering and soft centering visually. Continue the

rhythm rocking breathing in through the nose going back and breathing out

through a slightly open mouth going forward. This keeps the jaw relaxed to

prevent teeth clinching which can lead to blurred vision. Plus, on contact

keeping the internal organs compressed through breath control helps to optimize

power. (Key emphasis is to do this simultaneously with a controlled, calculated

rhythmic weight shift.)

From Release Point:

Identify pitch and velocity

Begin Tracking Mentally…Yes, Yes, Yes, YES* or Yes, Yes, Yes, NO.

*(At contact, squeezing the handle in the palms helps add more power

as a result of a neuromuscular response)

Post Hit:

In the dugout, enjoy the congratulations and the pats on the back. Reward

yourself with a cup of water. Funny as it sounds, you should do this.
(behavioral conditioning)

How Ego And Arrogance Can Be The Demise Of A Baseball Career

or kill you...literally.

Player development personnel as well as scouts dread the uncoachable prospects. On a personal level I've encountered uncoachables on every level...from Little Leaguers to pro ballers. It was just as frustrating for me to deal with each one of them...no matter the level they were playing on. In the end there's nothing to you can do for the uncoachable player to help prevent an injury or develop the skills that will keep from stifling their development if they refuse to change... except by divine intervention.

An example of how serious a pro player with a resolute stubborness that was unable to see or feel the obvious damage that he was doing to himself from a mechanically bad habit, had me pleading with him to change his ways after I evaluated his performance for a scouting report. In the fall of '87 in a Southern California Fall League scouting assignment while I was attending the Pro Baseball Scouting School with some Astros scouts, I had the opportunity to see a hard throwing righty in a game. The Astros had drafted this right handed pitcher in June '87 and would later sign him in May of '88 before they would lose the draft rights to him. They had him pitching in the Fall League where AAA players all the way down to HS players could be in this league where they could compete against one another. After seeing him pitch, I told the Astros scouts there at the game I spotted a dangerous flaw in the deceleration phase of his follow through that could cause rotator cuff problems or even worse damage... blood clots. As for the problem, this pitcher was following through and then adding a whiplash recoil at the end of his follow through. The shoulder is already dealing with up to 300lbs of torque during the follow through...there's no need to add more stress with a violent recoil. The Astros' scouts encouraged me to go down to the field and talk to him about it. Well, I tried.

I'm not sure why he liked the recoil. Maybe he thought it looked super cool or some other reason, but he told me in no certain terms that he would he never want to change what he was doing since he "was having success with it and it got him where he was today."

Long story short, some years later, he died in a hotel room from a heart attack due to a blood clot from his pitching shoulder after a pitching performance earlier that day.