In a MLB.com story on Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez, it was mentioned that the hard-throwing right-hander would try and achieve a smoother landing, something that's considered difficult, because he has such a violent delivery.

Acknowledging that too much movement is never a good thing for a pitcher, K-Rod has taken steps to alleviate stress on his body by adopting a more compact delivery. The primary focus is on keeping his left leg tighter and softening his landing on his left ankle, which has recently given him problems at times.

"Before, I used to be more open, swinging my leg around," K-Rod said before Thursday's series finale against the Twins at the Metrodome. "I'm trying to take a little pressure off my left ankle. It's been really painful after every outing. That's because my delivery was so violent.

"The [Angels' certified athletic] trainers [Ned Bergert and Rick Smith] have been doing a great job with exercises, putting tape on it. As long as I do my treadmill -- exercises to make it stronger -- I'll be fine. It's not a big deal.

"I just have to make sure not to land so hard. It's the only change I've made. Now [the delivery] is more on a line, not toward first base. Now it's quick, short, let it go."

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Let's get back to the matter at hand.  I asked Chris to comment on the article and what he proposes for Rodriguez:

Aiming for increased smoothness is pretty much always a good goal for a pitcher because it can increase their control and decrease their injury risk. That's because the bones don't slam together so sharply and the body doesn't undergo any jarring motions.

Having said that, I'm not thrilled with the changes that are being made to K-Rod's mechanics because I'm not convinced his coaches are focused on the actual root cause of his ankle problems.

If you study the great pitchers of both the past and the present -- for example Sandy Koufax, Greg Maddux, Dice-K, and many others -- you will see that many sweep their legs out toward Third Base (for the righties) and around into foot plant. This helps them to throw the ball with their entire bodies and not just their arms. As a result, reducing K-Rod's leg sweep, and making his lower body less rotational and more linear, could easily make things worse and not better. They could fix his ankle problem but hurt his shoulder by making him less efficient and more arm-y.

If I were K-Rod's pitching coach, and was looking to decrease the strain on his ankle while not hurting his efficiency, I would do two things.

First, I would consider having him shortening his stride up a bit (e.g. 6 inches). K-Rod is one of the few pitchers who actually seems to get airborne during his stride. That causes him to land especially hard on his ankle. While I think momentum is important to a pitcher's velocity, I don't think this small tweak would affect him much.

Second, I would have K-Rod try to maintain a degree of flex in his Glove Side knee through the release point (while still maintaining a firm front side). Right now, he locks his Glove Side knee through the release point, which increases the load on his ankle, knee, and hip joints. It turns out that K-Rod's ankle is the weak link is the chain. As he follows through and his Pitching Arm Side leg comes around, you can see him torque his ankle while his leg is still locked. His hips are rotating around while his foot is still locked in place by his cleats. This twisting motion will strain the ligaments and tendons of his ankle (and knee).

Another way to address this issue would be for him to not wear cleats on his Glove Side foot. Instead, he could wear a nubby turf shoe rather than cleats on his Glove Side foot or even take the front cleats off his Glove Side shoe. This would allow him to pivot on the ball of his Glove Side foot as his hips came around.

The bottom line is that I think K-Rod's coaches are focused on the wrong thing and could easily make things worse, in the form of lower velocities and ultimately shoulder problems, rather than better.