Alex Meyer changing his delivery

[gunnarthor]

"“They’re being a little more hands-on with me on things that are injury preventive,” Meyer told me when I asked what’s different this year. “We’re changing some things, trying to free up stress in my shoulder. We’re trying to get my delivery timed up the right way. Ultimately, it’s just a sped up delivery from what I had before.”

According to Scott Radinsky, there’s more to it than tempo.

“He had a slight pause in his delivery,” explained the Angels bullpen coach. “Now he’s working on a more fluid, continuous, motion, with better separation and balance. That is ultimately going to give him more behind the pitch, and it will take some of the stress off his arm.”"

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/sunday-notes-harkey-jenkins-intangibles-meyer-more/

 

Meyer injured his shoulder but didn't get surgery at the end of the 2014 season and hasn't really been the same since.  It'll be interesting to see if the Angels can modify his delivery to get him back on track.  

[HitInAPinch]

He's 27 now.  I hope this works out for him.

[Brandon Warne]

I hope it works for him but I'm not about to wring my hands about anything yet.

[Willihammer]

"trying to find that natural arm path."

Kinda sounds like de-programming. Twins coaches probably had wet dreams thinking about all the downward plane the 6'9" right could have by forcing an over the top delivery. Hopefully his shoulder isn't completely ruined.

[Mike Sixel]

Good luck to him. Health is something we should wish for everyone.

[gunnarthor]

I do hope he figures it out.  I was really excited about him and I wonder how much that shoulder injury affected him.  He always walked a fine line on control but his stuff was pretty awesome.  Wish Molly had given him more of a shot last year. 

[TheLeviathan]

This will be something to watch.  I hope Meyer's career wasn't derailed by more than just the injury but poor development/coaching on top of it.

[Jham]

 

"trying to find that natural arm path."

Kinda sounds like de-programming. Twins coaches probably had wet dreams thinking about all the downward plane the 6'9" right could have by forcing an over the top delivery. Hopefully his shoulder isn't completely ruined.

I feel like the Twins did work with him on lowering his arm angle, but it caused inconsistency in his release and his pitches to flatten out. In short, he got hammered when lowered his arm angle, and he himself started working on getting more over the top.

[Jham]

 

I feel like the Twins did work with him on lowering his arm angle, but it caused inconsistency in his release and his pitches to flatten out. In short, he got hammered when lowered his arm angle, and he himself started working on getting more over the top.

Easy there, Jham.  A little loose with the history.

http://twinsdaily.com/articles.html/_/minnesota-twins-news/minnesota-twins-minor-leagues/td-top-prospects-8-alex-meyer-r4448

He was lowering his release on his own following shoulder issues, then worked with the Twins on getting it higher after he got rocked.  Check your facts.  Still doesn't appear the Twins mismanaged Meyer.  

Good luck to Mr. Meyer this year.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

Meyer injured his shoulder but didn't get surgery at the end of the 2014 season and hasn't really been the same since.

Meyer did get shut down at the very very end of 2014, but I thought that was more of a precaution after his 2013 midseason shoulder injury, which indeed sidelined him for a couple months but where he avoided surgery.

 

And honestly, other than the missed time, I don't know if he's looked all that different since then.  He got knocked around in the first 2 months of 2015, but he settled down reasonably as a reliever, and then came back in 2016 and looked competent in his brief healthy moments.

 

No guarantee that he's going to complete a successful transition to MLB of course, but I'd rather have him competing for a job on the Twins right now, with a minor league option left and a new front office evaluating him, than have Hector Santiago locked into a spot.