Driveline Mechanics is a pretty awesome blog. My buddy Kyle runs it and he does these excellent pieces on pitching deliveries. Today, with my suggestion, he broke down Trevor Cahill's delivery and arm action.
Kyle has this to say:
It's really tough to say, so I have to give him an Incomplete grade. I'd love to see high speed video of Cahill from multiple angles, and with my trip to Spring Training 2009 being planned as we speak, I might get the opportunity to do just that. If you forced me to give him a grade, I'd say that it's Average trending towards Below Average. Certainly I like the arm action of a Tommy Hanson or a Justin Duchscherer better, but I don't hate Trevor Cahill's either.
I won't spoil how Kyle comes to this conclusion. It will be interesting to see how Cahill pitches come spring training and whether that earns him a shot coming at the rotation coming out of the spring. If the A's don't sign someone like Randy Johnson, you can bet that the A's will give Cahill and Anderson both really good, long looks during the spring. I'm excited to see just how good the A's vaunting young pitching is, just as long as they aren't rushed too much.
