…but wow, they look nasty. I can’t pretend to understand what’s wrong with his mechanics, it all looks fine to me. Now Tim Alderson’s contortionist foot tap, that looks wrong.

of all the players who have a chance in hell of falling to the Giants (so, basically, eliminating Strasburg and Ackley) Crow is by far my favorite. I think he has tremendous upside and is a pretty good bet to at least get close to that upside . Unfortunately, I think it’s becoming less likely by the day that he is available at #6.

I don’t really think there’s any argument that Crow should be lower than the third option for the Giants (after Strasburg and Ackly… maybe). I guess if someone really fell in love with one of the high school arms, I could see that guy being in contention, but I think an objective analysis would pretty much lead to Crow being the pick.

I doubt he’s around when the Giants choose. But I think he’s the best guy that we have any shot whatsoever of acquiring, so I’ll be praying he falls every night before bed.

And ya… that video, wow. I’ve watched it plenty of times before, but it’s not like it gets any less impressive with repeated viewings. Hard to believe that a player who was the ninth pick last year could maybe be in the discussion at #2 this year, but I guess that just goes to show you how much the talent can vary from year to year.

Would be an excellent choice if he fell to #6 for the Giants. One thing to remember is that the Washington Nationals offered him MORE money than the Baltimore Orioles offered Brian Matusz the first pitcher off the board in the 2008 draft and Crow turned it down.

There’s a couple of irrational reasons why it’s hard to get excited about Crow such as the fact that we passed on him last year & the fact that he’s been playing in the independent league & is a year older because of it.

That said i like Crow (and did last year) & he’d be a good selection, aside from the questions about his mechanics (which i can’t really comment on) He’s definately my pick of the college (or former college) pitchers although it seems like it’s likely that he’ll be gone before we get chance to pick.

Worrying about mechanics is like worrying about Sasquach. Lots of people believe in it, but nobody has really seen it. Sure people die in the wilderness every year, but was it the Sasquach? Who knows?

I’ll take two of Crow, please.

Gotta agree with Hobbes: Crow should be gone by #6, and I’m expecting the Giants to grab Matzek there. But the advantages of getting Crow are pretty nice to ponder: we could plug him into the rotation sometime this year, moving Sanchez to the bullpen; the loss of RJ next would be softened; rushing Tim2 and MadBum up to SF would suddenly be less likely. And if Sanchez + somebody nets us a hitter in a trade, so much the better.

The biggest problem with his mechanics is just in the way his arm loads right before he slings the ball. If you compare him to, say, Lincecum, the way Lincecum brings the ball up into the ready-to-be-thrown position is more of an arcing motion, with his elbow never going above the plane of his shoulders. Crow, however, inverts his arm and brings his elbow way above that plane, so when he does get the ball loaded and when he slings it, it puts a lot of pressure and torque on his elbow.

That being said, he hasn’t had any elbow or shoulder problems that I’ve heard of, and I’m not any kind of expert on this. And I was going to point out Matt Cain’s mechanics along with Lincecum’s on this, but from the few videos I could find on youtube, Cain seems to at least bring his elbow above the plane, though he is not as jerky or funky as Crow is.

Hold the Onions

I am not sure if it’s bad mechanics (actually, I have no idea) but i really love how he seems to work quick. His feet go into turbo speed from the windup. But as long as the rest of his body is in sync then I guess it doesn’t really matter much.