Tom Brennan - Outlawed Delivery

 

Major Leaguers Who Have Normal Deliveries Are Fine

…EVEN Submariners Like Tyler Rogers and Dan Quisenberry Are Fine

…But Some Delivery Styles Are OUTLAWED

 

OUTLAWED DELIVERY

I watched an old video of Eddie Feigner the Softball King fanning major league all stars. So, I asked AI the rules:

Rules & Mechanics

Underhand Restrictions: MLB rules do not completely ban underhand or sidearm throwing motions in general (submarine pitchers like Brad Ziegler or Darren O'Day throw with a low arm angle), but the full underhand softball windmill motion with a release point below the waist violates official pitching and delivery constraints.
Foot Contact Rules: The forward skip, leap, or hop common in a fastpitch softball delivery breaks MLB rules requiring the pivot foot to maintain continuous contact with the pitching rubber until the ball is released (similar to violations called on leaping/hopping MLB pitchers like Carter Capps).

Biomechanical Differences: Softball pitching relies on a continuous full-circle arm swing driven by hip and leg coordination specific to fastpitch mechanics, whereas baseball pitching is structured around overhand or low-arm-slot shoulder and elbow rotation from a 60-foot 6-inch elevated mound.

So, if you didn’t know, now you do, Magoo.

Baseball Reference had this dandy list - of some very effective, and legal, but quite funky, pitchers:

A chronological List of Submarine/Underhand/Low-Sidearm Pitchers

• Cy Young – occasionally
• Joe McGinnity – alternated between overhand and underhand
• Rube Foster – occasionally
• Three Finger Brown – occasionally
• Ed Willett – limited use of underhand floater, many thought he should do it all the time
• Chief Bender – occasionally
• Jack Warhop
• By Speece
• Erskine Mayer – underhand and sidearm
• Guy Morton – occasionally
• Carl Mays – only true submariner between Warhop and Auker
• Art Nehf – occasionally
• Slim Harriss – low sidearm fastball
• Sheriff Blake – occasionally after 1928
• Satchel Paige – occasional
• Hod Lisenbee – occasionally
• Clint Brown – submarine screwball
• Ad Liska
• Chief Hogsett
• Bobo Newsom – may have been converted away from it early in career
• Pat Caraway – submarine knuckleball
• Tex Carleton – sidearm
• Elden Auker
• Sam Nahem
• Ken Raffensberger – experimented with arm angles
• Dizzy Trout – occasionally
• Murry Dickson – occasionally
• Russ Christopher
• Ted Wilks – occasionally late in career
• Bill Werle – occasionally underhand
• Dick Hyde
• Ted Abernathy – after 1957
• Ken Johnson – occasionally
• Andy Hassler – occasionally
• Kent Tekulve – 1980’s revival starter
• Dan Quisenberry
• Bob Long
• Terry Leach
• Mark Eichhorn – after 1983 injury
• Steve Olin
• Steve Reed – low sidearm
• Brad Clontz
• Mike Myers
• Chad Bradford
• Byung-Hyun Kim
• Mike Venafro
• Kelly Wunsch
• Eddie Oropesa
• Bret Prinz
• Brad Ziegler
• Adam Cimber
• Tyler Rogers
• Ben Rowen