Aaron Crow, a Mizzou pitcher, seems to be getting quite a bit of press lately. Both Chris O’Leary and Saber-Scouting have written about him, the former disliking his arm action (showing signs of what Chris calls the Inverted W and Inverted L) while the latter likes his ability to scap load and his elbow picking up the ball.

I don't like his mechanics. Read more after the jump...

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Over at Driveline Mechanics, I did an analysis of James Shields' mechanics...

James (Jamie) Shields, a 16th round draft pick (466th overall) in 2000, hails from Hart HS in Newhall, CA. He lost his 2002 season due to a shoulder injury, but has otherwise been effective at every level of baseball, progressing from low-A ball in 2001 to an MLB debut in 2006, throwing 124 innings for Tampa Bay and posting a 4.38 FIP, 7.4 k/g, 2.7 bb/g, and 1.28 hr/g stat line. He also contributed 6.8 win shares, quite good for a rookie who had limited action in the majors at age 24.

In 2007, Shields broke out – he threw 215 innings with a 4.00 FIP (3.91 xFIP), 8.1 k/g, 1.6 bb/g, 1.24 hr/g – improvement in all his peripheral statistics, and though he still gives up more than his fair share of home runs, his walk rate depresses the value of those home runs. He posted 20 quality starts out of 31 possible, and had a few appearances that fell just short. He only allowed 5+ earned runs in 6 of his 31 starts, only getting blown out vs. the Yankees on July 22nd (3.1 IP, 10 ER).

Shields gives the Rays an excellent #2 starter behind Scott Kazmir, and he is a major key to the long-term success for the franchise. Like many of the Rays players, he is young, cost-controlled, and homegrown. Marcel projects him to throw 180 innings with a 4.08 ERA, sporting peripherals somewhere between his 2006 and 2007 seasons. Shields will have a much-improved defense behind him in 2008 with ROY frontrunner Evan Longoria at the hot corner and Jason Bartlett replacing the stone hands of Brendan Harris at shortstop.

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Over at Driveline Mechanics, I did an analysis of Rich Harden's pitching mechanics....

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