Hey, I like this question. I read the same article. For me it brings to mind the movie "Major League II" where the catcher was unable to throw the ball back to the pitcher, so he would throw it to the 3rd baseman and he would relay it to the pitcher. In the movie the manager Tom Berenger gave him some magazines to read, and he was supposed to think of those when returning the ball back to the pitcher, instead of thinking of the throw, so in essence taking his mind off the throw. If there is no injury to Jarrod Saltalamacchi, then absolutely it is psychological. At one of the companies I worked for they had salaried positions enroll in a class entitled "Investment in Excellence". In this class you were taught to focus in such a manner as to train your body to respond to your thoughts. I am going to use Jarrod Saltalamacchi's situation as an example. The idea was to close your eyes for a second and imagine the best throw you ever made. In this instance it would be to see the ball leaving your hand and being received by the pitcher about chest high. You do this over and over and eventually there will be muscle memory, and no longer a need to think about it. Believe it or not I tried this in bowling and raised my average from the 170 to the 200s. All the little inconsistencies I had, disappeared. It is simply being able to imagine seeing yourself do the right thing over and over that accomplishes the goal of fixing the problem.

I actually had a similar situation when I played shortstop back in my younger days. I had a pretty strong arm and it was fairly accurate when I was throwing to first, but I went through a couple of weeks stretch where I could not get makes a good relay to second base. My coach actually had me work on different throws from different angles and lengths trying to find some kind of throw I could make all the time. That only made it worse. I remember specifically one time where I scooped a ball about five feet from the bag, and went to underhand it to the second baseman, and ended up under handing it like 10 feet in the air. Needless to say it was embarrassing.

I’ve always thought the best way to deal with it was just to not think about it. I actually did something where I would sing a song to myself in my head whenever I was on the field, I would keep singing it until whatever play was going on was over, and I had to pay attention to the situation. Then I would start up again once the pitcher started his motion. Eventually I was able to make the throw simply by blanking out my head and not thinking about the throw.