My own toe land was very similar to Ian’s when I pitched, but my early control issues didn’t seem to stem from that. In fact, when my coach and I tried to correct the toe, my control only got worse.

We ultimately changed two things: we dropped where my hands were through most of my windup, and dropped my arm slot a bit (from a Pineiro-like high slot to more of a middle-low slot). When we did that, my control synched in real quick, and my breaking pitches (a slider and a forkball) picked up a bit more bite, too. My toe land stayed pretty much the same as it had been before.

My coach made a similar adjustment with another one of our pitchers, and he went on to ultimately get drafted by (ironically) the Pirates before he went to college and converted into a center fielder.

Haven’t seen enough of Ian to know if that kind of mechanical adjustment could help him at all, but it is at least an indicator that the toe may not be the root of the problem at all.

Snell, the announcing team said, was told to throw fastballs and get as deep into the game as possible because he was out there for 100 pitches no matter what. And the Yankees, predictably, teed off on him.

Everybody is a little different, and the relationship of their natural foot position to their hips will say a LOT about where their most natural landing position will be. Too many pitching coaches want everybody to do the same thing, and to “look right,” when all they are doing is asking a pitcher to fight his natural body structures and position.

I haven’t watched Snell closely enough to know, but I’d guess he’s pretty pidgeon-toed. I’d agree that for most people you want your foot/toe to be mostly pointed toward home (actually just a tad short to the 3B side of right toward home), but I am skeptical of ANY coach who stresses that as a hard and fast rule. If a pitcher is failing to do that and his momentum is not heading mostly toward home, that’s a problem, especially if he’s landing on his heel as well. However, not having your foot where it is “supposed to be” doesn’t always mean that you are too open or too closed or that your momentum is not being optimized. That is mostly a function of body structure, which is going to be slightly different for everybody.

I will wait until April-May of next year before giving my judgment about a guy who is still learning how to pitch to A.L. lineups and isn’t getting paid $13.5 million.

And the conclusion is…I don’t think we can tell. Most of where your toe lands is a function of your body structure. Some pitchers are just so pidgeon-toed that if they tried to land “straight” the way we think he “should,” his hips would be far too open. That’s the issue here – is he too closed at release? Despite the toe, it doesn’t look like it to me.

I was thinking along the same lines, as I’ve noticed this when trying to get the kids to land their toe straight.

I’ve only been coaching a few years, though, so I’m far from an expert.