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Miami Marlins: The hazy legality of Carter Capps’ pitching motion

By Kyle Franzoni

Sep 2, 2014; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins relief pitcher Carter Capps (22) throws during the sixth inning against the Miami Marlins at Marlins Ballpark. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 2, 2014; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins relief pitcher Carter Capps (22) throws during the sixth inning against the Miami Marlins at Marlins Ballpark. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports /
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Miami Marlins reliever Carter Capps has an interesting delivery to the plate, but is it necessarily a legal MLB delivery?

Since the advent of the game, pitchers have forever been looking for an advantage in their immortal struggle against grown men with big wooden sticks. From spitting on the ball, using a nail file, lathering pine tar on their neck, or even finding the right mixture of suntan lotion and rosin, pitchers have looked for any edge they could find.

Very few of them ever thought about jumping at the hitter.

24-year-old Carter Capps recently made his return to the Major Leagues, this time with the Miami Marlins, and came with a new delivery that has taken getting an advantage to a whole new level.

As you can see from the video below, Capps’ motion seems normal to begin with. He comes to a complete stop when bringing the ball to the set position. He features a high leg kick and he drives to the plate. However, it is during the drive to the plate where things get, well, a little funky.

As you can see, just before Capps releases the ball, he takes a big hop forward with his back foot, losing contact with the pitching rubber while still in his motion to the plate. Deception is a big key in a pitcher’s delivery, and Capps featured a ton of that by getting the hitter to focus on his motion rather than the ball coming out of his hand. But there’s another benefit to the motion that is better seen through the following tweet.

That hop, skip, or jump that Capps takes lands the right-hander a good two to three feet closer to the plate, almost to the point where he’s completely off of the pitching mound by the time he delivers to the hitter. That means Capps is cutting down the 60 feet, 6 inches down to nearly 58 feet. While that may not sound like much, it becomes a significant advantage when the pitcher in question is shortening the distance to pick up a 98 MPH fastball. Since hitters only have about a quarter of a second to hit a 90 MPH fastball from the normal distance, shortening that distance doesn’t leave much time for the hitter to react accordingly.

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In terms of legality, the umpire’s union has ruled that it doesn’t violate any rules. As a matter of fact, the official MLB rule book, under section 8.00, says nothing about the pitcher maintaining contact with the rubber during the delivery of the plate. The only mention of the rubber itself has to do with “disengaging the rubber” during a pick-off play or in order to restart the process of receiving signs from the catcher.

"Rule 8.01 Comment: Pitchers may disengage the rubber after taking their signs but may not step quickly onto the rubber and pitch. This may be judged a quick pitch by the umpire. When the pitcher disengages the rubber, he must drop his hands to his sides.Pitchers will not be allowed to disengage the rubber after taking each sign."

Of course, Capps isn’t the first pitcher to try such a delivery. In fact, it’s awfully similar to the one used by Jordan Walden of the St. Louis Cardinals. As you can see in the following GIF (courtesy of Jeff Sullivan, SB Nation), Walden has the same hop forward, albeit to a much shorter distance.

WaldenMotion.gif.opt_medium
WaldenMotion.gif.opt_medium /

Capps can only hope that he has similar success to Walden with his new found delivery. Walden owns a solid 3.10 ERA, a 2.79 FIP, and a 10.9 K/9 ratio over 215 innings of relief. Meanwhile, the 24-year-old Capps has been up and down, posting a 4.78 ERA, a 3.63 FIP, and a 10.3 K/9 ratio in just 105.1 innings.

Of course, the question with any advantage a pitcher gains against a league that makes its money from offense, is whether it will incur a rules change down the road. Major League Baseball has been notorious when it comes to catering to hitters and Rob Manfred has been open about his desire to as much as he can to increase the offensive output of the league moving forward. If there is a way to fix a rule inefficiency, MLB always finds a way to get it done.

Better to nip it quickly before it becomes a standard operation.

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