Agreed. He showed enough glimmers last year to suggest he may possibly still have "it". Then again, this injury (regardless of when it actually happened) is an overuse type of injury... and given the heavy workloads he's endured, it's possible this could also be the beginning of the end.
As long as it's fixed, I think it's great news. The uncertainty surrounding his drop-off is far and away the biggest question mark facing this team. If they can narrow last year down to an unreported injury... that makes me feel much more confident that he can bounce back.
Yea...it's always great when a player stinks all year long and then it comes out months after-the-fact that he was injured. I'm not necessarily buying that's why he sucked all season long. I'll admit it may have been a factor but how much of a factor is anyone's guess. Players who hide injuries like this only hurt the team. I hate when players do this.
I'm going to buy it. He lost 2 mph off his fastball while in his prime. His motion is flawless, so it was unlikely to be a mechanical issue. He was hurt. Hopefully he's healthy now and regains his form because there were days he felt good. Being a former college pitcher, I dealt with chronic rotator cuff issues. Pre rotator cuff I sat 93-95mph in high school. While going through inflammation issues I sat 88-90 and eventually tore it. Inflammation typically will slow your arm down considerably. It's just hard to believe that a guy like Keuchel would drop so significantly without an arm injury I would deem significant.
Pitchers are notorious for doing this, because pitchers are headcases. I hate it too. It was obvious he was hurt last year.
Baseball players are often irrational, so I would not be surprised if he hid his injury. The type of injury he is claiming can certainly explain his initial drop in velocity and command issues. The velocity returned somewhat but the command didn't. I know a number of scouts out of the block last year said something was wrong and he should have been shutdown.
It's not exclusively a workload injury. Could have had an acute reason. In any case, it's also an injury that can be solved by rest, which he's gotten. I think he'll be fine and much closer to 2015 than 2016 next season., I also think and hope he'll be smarter about it should he feel something again. Had he dealt with it early on, it wouldn't have been much more than a few weeks off and he could've been there to help the late season push.
There was a thread on May 23 of last year where several of us non-scouts said as much. I said it was maybe his back because I thought his delivery looked stiffer than usual.
What I will note on Keuchels( his mechanics are really good but he has one flaw)delivery is that his arm is a little late during the throwing motion. It's a gift and a curse to have as a pitcher. It throws off hitters and exaggerates two seam motion. The issue with that is the rotator cuff will inflame. I can almost guarantee that's what he hurt this year. From personal experience the pain is actually felt in the bicep(it's nerve correlation) and is extremely painful. He's going to have to work the shoulder bands intensely moving forward or fix his motion. That may risk his movement going forward and make him less effective in the future. Just something to note gentleman. I've been apart of the same song and dance.
I had a feeling this was the case. Even without the injury, his advanced stats weren't that bad, and painted a clear picture of bounce-back next year. I doubt Keuchel gets back to a sub-3 ERA, but there's no reason he can't be a low 3 ERA pitcher. I think our starting rotation is still better than a lot of people realize.
