Check it out if you have a few.
Wonderful article - great break down and very, very comprehensive.
It'd be interesting to see strain/injury risk discussed as part of this the point-by-point analysis.
I believe the reason you haven't, and why his former pitching coach told anyone who thought he was prone to injury to bug off, is because it's a vastly overstated issue. There's a few areas you could point to to say he could get hurt. In order from the wind-up:
1. How quickly he raises his front leg: Doesn't matter - unless he's opts out of quads stretches or something. No different than a quick-pitch or a Japanese style delivery - it's just a way to wind up, as alluded to in the article.
2. Dipping his back leg: Like Farvin this is not encouraged when someone learns to pitch, but plenty of pitchers do it (Kershaw anyone?). Sale's frame, unless he truly shuns the weight room, should be able to support that long, lean leg.
3. Elbow height: He's not Randy Johnson, no, but his hand is above his elbow, which is consistently above his shoulder. The torque, as highlighted in the article, also has the effect of alleviating the singular stress on arm muscles - his body is working all in the same rotational direction, and his elbow is not bearing an unnecessary burden to get to the release point in time to be in sync with the rest of his mechanics.
4.The locked knee: Farvin nails it:
FarvinMoosey said:
Sale’s locked knee is an active part of his throwing motion as soon as it happens. Every part of me wants him to stop doing this, but there is a purpose. This locked leg is now the fulcrum of his entire, massive, mostly horizontal rotation. If you have ever played tetherball, you can envision how fast that ball comes around the rigid center point with a good hit.
As long as his upper body is not trying to rotate around that knee, he's fine. Sale moves towards first base during his wind-up, and stays to that side - it means he's not twisting over any knee muscle/ligament, merely stiffening. Strengthening can make that work.
5. Plant foot: I have to disagree with Farvin here. One reason to point your foot towards the first base side of the plate is to keep your upper body from rotating towards third - you use it as a kind of directional brake - your body wants to finish a little more squared to the on-deck circle than home plate, but the degree of difference is actually pretty negligible.
I worry about two things with Sale:
1. How low his lead foot goes after he drops his knee. Any bit further down (poor mound quality or just sheer bad luck) and he could be falling over himself with some pretty mean momentum. He's so consistent and has been doing it long enough you assume this will never happen, but it exposes him for longer than most other pitchers.
2. That he continues to rotate his body after after he's naturally done with his mechanics. His momentum is gone, so he rotates slower, which puts him in a worse fielding position. Now, he can commit a bunch of errors before I'll be calling for his knee cap, but it means he's not in the best of positions for any come-backers. The first GIF in the article exemplifies what I've noticed over and over with Sale: he has a tendency to flinch.
That was quick but hopefully I address most of it.