Last week, Gil Meche was struggling at times throwing the ball while rehabbing his way back to the line-up. Here's what he said at the time:
"I'm throwing really good on flat ground, but when I'm on the mound, I'm doing something different mechanically with my arm slot," Meche said. "It's almost as if I'm going a little bit higher.
"When I throw on the mound, they make me think about it right before I am about to throw, being as low as I can be [with the arm slot] and I feel like I am side-arming it. They say I'm not. They want to videotape it so I can see it and I get comfortable."
Now we've got some more details. Meche is throwing from a lower arm angle between games, the Kansas City Star reports.
“We’re just trying to keep his arm in shape,” said pitching coach Bob McClure, who added that Meche’s arm slot has continued to rise during his rehab. “If (the shoulder) bothers him and we want him to keep throwing, then he just lowers his angle a little bit and he comes from a different slot.”
I can see how changing your motion one week, then getting healthy, and trying to go back to another motion the next week would be a problem. Meche says this could be a permanent solution, even though his McClure doesn't suspect it will be.
“When you try to make a small adjustment after you’re used to throwing a certain way for a long time, it’s hard to do it right away,” said Meche, who added that his velocity remains the same but he needs to improve his control. “But if I can get it down, it will be better in the long run.”