I think the oddness of her pitching motion offends the eyes and simply LOOKS wrong. It's the type of pitching motion where you can see the *something* is wrong ... so you look closer. Then you see it!
That is the point, David -
it looks wrong! But unless you slow down the video you cannot find the illegal action. I think that it might be very difficult for the umpire on the field to call IP because something "looks wrong!"
Do you remember what you said to the umpire two years ago? Was it "her hand is outside her elbow?" Or simply "she's pitching sidearm?"
I would reject the "sidearm" description, even as you use it today. Her elbow is tucked in to the body and her hand is below the hip (satisfying the other part of that pitching delivery rule). With a baseball type sidearm delivery the elbow would extend out from the body and the hand may or may not be above the hip.
Actually, most FP pitcher's hands are going to be outside the elbow on many pitches. With this girl it is just a little more pronounced.
The original FP rule (hand below the hip and not more than 6 from body) was written to prevent the baseball style sidearm delivery. Eventually the 6 part was eliminated in favor of the not further than elbow requirement. (Probably to help umpires that do not carry tape measures!
)
I think this girl probably satisfies the intent of the rule.
Besides, as a coach I would never challenge this pitcher. With that delivery she cannot throw any changeups, risers, etc. And most pitches are going to slide away to the outside. I would simply teach my batters to sit on the fastball near the middle of the plate and tee off.
WMB