Cole On The Cover

By now, everybody has seen the cover and article of Sports Illustrated featuring Phillies star, Cole Hamels. He's not afraid of the SI jinx, just as long as he stays off of the cover of Maddon.

I was just going to throw out the link to the article and photo in a short little paragraph, but the picture of Hamels' pose made me wonder. I thought to myself, "Cole Hamels leg doesn't really get that high, does it? The photographer has a crush on him, wanting to show off his glutes. But, what if he does get his leg up that high when he pitches?" Thank goodness for Google.

Notice on the SI cover how his right elbow is on his right knee. Also, keep in mind the angle of his left leg. It's not completely straight, but it is definitely an obtuse angle.

I'm not a pitching mechanics expert, but let's look and compare his mechanics in the following photos:

This photo was taken while Cole was in the minor leagues. Notice how his elbow is not anywhere close to his knee. The angle of his left leg is acute.

In this photo, his elbow is closer to the knee area, and the angle of his leg is closer to the angle of the SI photo.

This picture isn't really close to any of the others. I'm assuming he is bringing his leg down and is closer to delivering the pitch than being in the middle of his windup.

This picture was obviously taken last season, Cole's best year. This picture could be similar to the last picture in that he is closer to throwing the ball. The biggest difference from the SI article is his leg angle. It's acute, not almost straight out. Therefore, he elbow isn't near his knee, but that could also be because he is set to deliver a pitch.

In all the photos, Hamels leg goes up pretty high. The pictures of him actually pitching instead of posing show his leg angle is not the one shown on the SI cover.

It's only February, so maybe his mechanics aren't how they normally are, but as long as he is striking out batters and winning games, he deserves to be on the SI cover.