Cedar Rapids Kernels Pitching Reports: Matt Canterino

That's a horrible pitching motion. Looks like it's guaranteed to wreck every moving part in his upper body, as well as produce pitches scattered all over the place. Why has Canterino's motion not been majorly re-trained? Where are the professional coaches?

Not sure the "professional coaches" are plentiful at the higher levels.

He raises and lowers in a quick fashion but after that his delivery mechanics are fine. He probably opened his hips early on the downward plane early in his development and used his herky-jerky to keep weight back before going towards the plate. The Japanese pitchers use a pause in their delivery to keep their weight over the rubber. The key for every pitcher is to be repetitive and their mechanics smooth towards the plate and on time. He's fine. In addition, hitters hate something different. 

10 hours ago, Lucas Seehafer PT said:

Considering doing more articles like this if people find them worthwhile. Drop a name in the comments that you'd like to read about next!

Any prospect not major league ready with an upside

Great article, thanks Lucas.

Try to watch a few games on MiLB when Canterino is on the mound.  Hopefully, he will continue getting good results and move up to Wichita by early summer.  That could put him on track to join the Twins mid-season, 2022.

One player I would love to hear more about is the young outfielder at Fort Myers, Urbina.  Continue to be amazed when other teams have some young 20 year old break-in and become a star.  Always ask, why can't the Twins be so fortunate.  Right now the one young kid that appears to have a chance of becoming that young star is Urbina.  But that optimism is based solely on his initial good results at low-A, being signed as a top prospect when he was 16, and the fact he just turned 19.  

13 hours ago, jimbo92107 said:

That's a horrible pitching motion. Looks like it's guaranteed to wreck every moving part in his upper body, as well as produce pitches scattered all over the place. Why has Canterino's motion not been majorly re-trained? Where are the professional coaches?

I understand your thinking and point of view, but I'm with SarasotaBill on this one.  His motion is fine (until it isn't). 

When my son first started pitching and showed a bit of an aptitude for it, his delivery/arm slot was viewed as odd.  People kept trying to get him to change it to a more traditional, higher arm slot (he has a low 3/4 slot and looks like he's throwing the ball from 2B to 1st). However, he kept going back to it and kept having success so they finally let him be and go with it ?. 

Basically my point is that while Canterino's delivery looks odd at first, upon closer inspection... it just works.  Whether or not he will have long term succes... we shall see, but so far the early results are promising.

Looks like Canterino at least ready for AA. Will be interesting to watch how prospects are moved up, with late start to MiLB not many games played yet. There are a few others off to good starts at the level they are at but with such a small sample size difficult determine if ready to move up.

4 hours ago, MN_ExPat said:

I understand your thinking and point of view, but I'm with SarasotaBill on this one.  His motion is fine (until it isn't). 

When my son first started pitching and showed a bit of an aptitude for it, his delivery/arm slot was viewed as odd.  People kept trying to get him to change it to a more traditional, higher arm slot (he has a low 3/4 slot and looks like he's throwing the ball from 2B to 1st). However, he kept going back to it and kept having success so they finally let him be and go with it ?. 

Basically my point is that while Canterino's delivery looks odd at first, upon closer inspection... it just works.  Whether or not he will have long term succes... we shall see, but so far the early results are promising.

I'm not saying that a non-standard pitching motion can't work. Check out Walter Johnson's arm action - just a tall, lanky kid skipping stones on a lake. Pitched a couple decades with no arm problems, and an ERA of about 2. But Johnson's motion was liquid smooth, where Cantarino's is jerky and abrupt.

A closer comp might be somebody like Bartolo Colon, whose motion looked a lot like a catcher's throw, behind the ear to a snap. But it was a simple motion, where Cantarino's is much more complicated. 

That said, I could be wrong, I'm no pro coach. He does do an abbreviated drop and drive with his legs. My concern is with the timing, what that energy does to his command and his upper body if it's off by just a bit. As you said, we shall see.