Posted by: Chris O'Leary (chris@chrisoleary.com) on Mon Feb 5 14:43:03 2007

> Barry Bonds in below link looks like the picture before he was bloated from steroids:
> http://imageevent.com/siggy/hitting/pro?p=17&n=1&m=12&c=4&l=0&w=4&s=0&z=9
> He's using rotational mechanics (straight leading arm, rotating body) Rotational mechanics, as you know, generate greater power than linear
>
> And then I saw this gif picture which is definetly Barry Bonds on steroids
> http://imageevent.com/siggy/hitting/pro?p=16&n=1&m=12&c=4&l=0&w=4&s=0&z=9
> Judging by his bat angle and bent lead arm, he's using linear mechanics.
>
> My thought is that, before he was on steroids he used rotational mechanic to generate power. After he saw some power effects from steroids, he turned to linear mechanics to facilitate contact w/out a lot of strikeouts. Linear mechanic sacrifices power, but Bonds is juiced with power.
>
> Just my wild guess on Bonds's mechanical change. Any comments?


I don't buy it. He still looks quite rotational in the second clip.

Look at the action of the back foot (on his back toe), the position of his back elbow (relatively close to the body), and the way his hands turn the corner (in a circular manner) as his shoulders turn.

If he was hitting in a linear manner, you would expect the back elbow to fly away from the body (and toward the pitcher) and for his hands to fly out toward the pitcher (and not around the corner).