LUIS SEVERINO: BULK OR FLEXIBILITY?

Photo: Getty Images

There's been a lot of talk about the Yankees starting rotation.  Masahiro Tanaka is undoubtedly the staff ace. Sabathia is getting old and appears to have lost something. That being said, he's reinventing himself and learning to pitch differently.

(Sept. 29, 2016 - Source: Al Bello/Getty Images North America)

Michael Pineda?  This guy's got "the stuff", but is way too inconsistent and frustrates fans. Behind those 3 though, is a mish-mosh of inexperienced youth and question marks.

(Sept. 25, 2016 - Source: Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images North America)

One of those question marks is Luis Severino. Now, we like Sevy as a starter, but who knows what will happen in 2017. 

According to an article on the Yankees website, there are questions about if this kid, who's clearly trying to make the rotation again is putting on too much muscle... and will that muscle hurt him?  They'd like him to focus more on flexibility. The thinking is, that may be for effective for him in the long run.  

(May 7, 2016 - Source: Mike Stobe/Getty Images North America)

"There's a lot of theories," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. "He came in physically built stronger. He hit the weights pretty strongly. Did that affect him one way or the other? I know that through [pitching coach] Larry [Rothschild] and our strength coach, we told him this winter that he needed to stay more flexible and stay off the bulk."

After reading that, I did alittle research of my own. During that research, I found this article on pitching.com. and it's interesting.  It states:

"We now have another valid reason why so many pitchers do not reach their velocity potential. They spend too much time on flexibility training. Specifically, pitchers spend wasted time on static stretching prior to throwing that studies have now proven actually reduces velocity."

Now pitching.com is just another theory, but the reality is, it goes against what Cashman said, and you have to wonder if the Yankees are doing the right thing with Sevy, or if Sevy has his own plan.  We at BYB found that nugget fascinating.

Look... hopefully Luis can bounce back this year.  The kid turns only 23 year old next month. If you ask me, it's way too early to give up on him and toss him into the pen.   

But do you think?  Comment.

--Michael Carnesi
BYB Writer