Garrett Crochet gets elite extension in his delivery. It varies on pitch type, but on average he releases the ball well over seven feet (7.2) out from the pitching rubber, which puts him in the top 10 percent of all big league hurlers. The benefits can be both simple (releasing the ball closer to the plate means it gets there sooner) and more high-concept (deliveries at either end of the extreme provide atypical looks to the hitter).
But whereas someone built like human barrel Liam Hendriks having great extension is clearly a product of design and effort ...
"He would short stride and somehow still get good extension," Crochet noted with disbelief.
... Crochet is 6-foot-6 with long arms. Releasing the ball close to the plate is sort of a built-in strength to his profile, to where he's not afraid to subtract from it if he has cause.
"This offseason I didn't really do work on it, but I was actually trying to shorten my stride a little bit so that at foot strike I'm a little more balanced," Crochet said. "Sometimes now I even find myself getting too far out there. Just because I'm a four-seam guy, I like to live at the top of the zone and sometimes I find myself trying to get extension. Maybe if I'm behind in the count I'll try to get extension. But typically when I look for that, I'm low in the zone and that's not where I want to be."
Especially moving into the rotation, Crochet wants to be balanced in his finish for the sake of repeatability and consistency, which tend to contribute to command. Extension is good, but striding out to the absolute maximum of his range of motion is less likely to be a controlled movement.
Ironically, while pitchers tend to post their best extension measurements on fastballs, Crochet finds himself thinking about extension most often with his slider and changeup, where he wants to be finishing his manipulation of the ball out in front of his body. In terms of trying to just create the most overpowering heater, however, there's a balance to strike.
"If I'm searching too much out here [holds the ball all the way in front of his body], it eliminates the whip, so metrics of it may not be as good or maybe just visually it doesn't have that giddyup on it," Crochet said. "I already know that I'm a lot of limbs and I'm 6'6" so my extension is going to be fine. Is it going to be elite for my size? Maybe not. Is it going to be above-average because I already have a lot of stuff working in my favor? Sure.
"Sometimes when I get too long, I'm just releasing the ball like this [leans forward exaggeratedly], then my body weight and my center mass is still in the middle of my foot positioning and I'm out and bracing too early, instead of getting into my front side and utilizing my mechanics properly. I've never been a guy that looks at biomechanics or anything like that -- fuck, maybe I should, I don't know -- but for me I just chase powerful positions and good feelings and that's what led me to that point."
Crochet may not parse the biomechanical data himself, which is why teams hire people to do that for their players, but he finds himself coveting smooth mechanics. It leads him to admiring pitchers that you would probably not pick as easy comps for the towering left-hander.
"[Marcus] Stroman, you watch him throwing, it looks athletic. He doesn't look like a pitcher. He looks like a position player, like he's just playing catch. That's kind of something like, I'm not the fucking best athlete, but want it to feel smooth. I don't want to feel like I'm like pitching, I just want to be like I'm playing catch."
To follow up on a question Crochet and I had at the time, Stroman does not have good extension in terms of the league. He's listed at 5-foot-7, after all. But since Stroman delivers the ball six feet from the rubber on average, he's efficient without sacrificing command, striking the balance to which Crochet aspires.
"I just like watching him throw. He's never off balance. Everything looks the exact same and he's just picking it up and putting it down. That's it for me when I watch. There's some guys here, they break down mechanics and I'm like, 'I don't know how the fuck you're seeing that.' I'm just seeing, 'Does it look good or does it look ugly?' He has a clean throw."
Crochet gave a quick "that's a clean throw right there" to a passing Jordan Leasure, when I noted that the rookie reliever also clips seven feet on average with his delivery. But largely, part of what makes the hard-throwing Crochet interesting as a starter is that his goals extend beyond trying to blow hitters away.
"I feel like I've always chased what I wasn't," Crochet said. "I was joking with [Ethan] Katz in spring like, yeah, sure, I want to throw 100 mph again, but I also want to be kind of crafty. That's just not my game, but then here I am comping myself to a guy who is 5'10". That's always the goal. I want to be a power pitcher, but late in the game turning the lineup over, I want to be able to mix up looks."
