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Mike Marshall, the former Cy Young reliever with a doctorate in exercise physiology, will address the Society of American Baseball Research convention. He has spent the past 30 years researching pitching injuries and designing a motion he claims will eliminate them. It's a straight-up, straight-ahead drive toward home plate, with no sideways movement of arm, leg or torso. The ball is released with the hand aimed at home plate and the thumb "pronated" — pointed down — instead of up, as in the traditional motion. Marshall has never examined or worked with Carpenter, but he says his system removes arm stress for every kind of pitch, including the curveball, and maximizes the speed of each pitch. Major League Baseball, including the Cardinals, is skeptical. The Cardinals did inquire. In January 2006, assistant scouting director Dan Kantrovitz, who was researching theories on pitching mechanics, visited Marshall at his home outside Tampa, Fla. Marshall detailed his system and the science behind it. The band of believers at his modest, live-in training course pitched and fielded questions. Marshall said that at Kantrovitz's request, he sent the Cardinals a video, which was returned in a beat-up package. -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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