Last night, I saw that and thought, if he does that on a consistent basis he will be a much better hitter. Two opposite field hits versus 39 strikeouts..."easy" for one hit does not make it easy for consistency. I really hope he can follow up last night's hit with many more.
That's exactly who he is... and he's "succeeded" at every level with that approach thus far. Again, not saying its "going to work", just providing a theory of why he does it or is not being deterred from doing it with nobody on base (and in his brief stint over the last month, I have noticed "bigger" swings when he's batting without RISP or without anybody on base period).
We shall see. Not going to get overly critical on a month's worth of AB's in a guys first stint in the big leagues... but so far, he's fit the scouting report to a T.
Leo Mazzonne (former pitching coach of the Braves/O's) was on Sportscenter this morning addressing the increasing prevalence of TJ surgery. He basically said the rise is directly attributable to the velocity/effort increase. He doesn't believe in the idea that pitchers have a set number of pitches and states that a decade ago they threw a lot more in between games than people do now. He also thinks innings/pitch limits are stupid. Mazzonne believes that pitching coaches aren't teaching pitchers to regulate their effort. They aren't teaching them the non-velo dependent aspect of pitching such as deception, changing speeds, etc well enough. Pitchers are pitching at a higher overall effort level and those stresses are ruining arms.
With 2 outs and nobody on and less than 2 strikes, it makes some sense. In any other situation, with him being the SB threat to turn singles into doubles, doubles into the occasional triple, it's a bad plan and I can't imagine he is being encouraged to take that approach.
And in the past, they knew they couldn't do that because their arms would be ruined forever. Now, they're doing it with impunity in part with the crutch of increasingly successful medical options to keep them throwing gas before and after the procedure. Pitcher comes up throwing 95+ gets drafted higher, more guaranteed money, perhaps he pitches long enough to get his "big" contract... or maybe he has the surgery early enough (like Strasburgh) to make a full recovery in time to get his "big" contract. Either way, that pitcher will take the risk of throwing hard if there's a potential solution that keeps him throwing hard if/when he gets injured. Either way, this approach to developing pitchers is not going away as long as they're getting "repaired" to at least the level they were before the procedure (and in some cases, with strengthening/reinforcement of the ligament... they're "enhanced").
According to Glenn Fleisig, a biomedical engineer at the American Sports Medicine Institute, when a pitcher cocks back to fire 100 mph, he subjects his elbow to 100 newton meters of torque. That's the equivalent of holding "five 12-pound bowling balls." A 2010 study by orthopedic surgeon Brandon D. Bushnell followed 23 pitchers over three seasons. Nine of them hurt their elbows. Bushnell concluded that "pitchers capable of throwing at a higher maximum velocity had higher risk of elbow injury" and "players throwing at the highest velocity had injuries requiring surgical reconstruction." Quite literally, the elbow can't handle the heat. As Fleisig says, "The highest-velocity guys have the highest chances of getting hurt." Lot's of interesting data points in the article: http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/1...h-does-pitching-velocity-matter-espn-magazine
Exactly. We all know that the human body can't withstand pitching long-term with even average velocity/torque. Makes sense that more velocity = more injury. Nowadays, throwing 100mph is less of a "wow" than it was in years past because of how many guys grow up simply throwing hard... and something has to give.
Try not to get overly enthusiastic about one AB that is completely the opposite of his scouting report.
Definitely agree that velocity is the primary cause of injury. I am not sure how much of an affect cumulative total of pitches has on injury, but at a minimum each pitch has the same risk. Therefore, more pitches has more risk and trying to limit the number of pitches a pitcher throws in non-critical moments would seem to be a way to mitigate at least some risk.
ESPN had an article up earlier today that showed high velocity pitchers had about an equal chance to require TJS as pitchers at lower velocity. The truth is, that they really have no freaking clue.
How do you distinguish this? If a player does X consistently, how do you know if it's just who he is or something the team emphasizes? I agree that it's now a first solution instead of last resort. However, the earlier data about latin vs US pitchers suggests there is something else going on, especially when there is a logical correlation (US pitchers now being abused when younger). That's because it's relatively new for such young guys to be having TJS. We'll see in 5-6 years how these young guys are doing. Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy are on their 2nd TJS now. The point is that it need not be - if you change the system earlier in the process, then maybe you can change this.
Dr. James Andrews was on Sirius/XM radio’s “Power Alley” with Mike Ferrin and Jim Duquette yesterday, talking about Tommy John surgery. He was asked why there seem to be so many guys needing TJ surgery these days. His answer: it’s not an anomaly, it’s a trend. And an alarming one, he says, in that so many more of the surgeries he’s performing are for high school pitchers as opposed to professionals with a few years under their belt. Kids are bigger and stronger these days, and their ability to throw harder is outpacing the development of their ulnar collateral ligaments. But the biggest risk factor he and his researchers are seeing: year-round baseball. The fact that not only do pitchers throw year-round, but that they are pitching in competition year-round, and don’t have time to recover. Also: young players are playing in more than one league, where pitch count and innings rules aren’t coordinated. Another factor: the radar gun. Young pitchers who throw over 85 or so are at risk, and all of them who are on a major league track are throwing that fast or faster, and are going up in effort when scouts with guns are around. http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2...plains-why-tommy-john-surgery-is-on-the-rise/
By "reinforced" I don't necessarily mean just by the team. It could be simply his own nature... he's had success at every level via this approach, and perhaps isn't going to change till he fully fails at one level. He could very well have the same sort of success at the MLB level as well (high K's, but good power, OBP, and speed). Agreed. Just pointing out why it may not be changing. Again, don't think it will deter the development approach. By all accounts, the surgery helps strengthen the ligament to not only allow full recovery but prevent future injury. They're always going to be isolated cases or surgical failures, old or young. If anything, the body has better healing capabilities earlier rather than later. Kids who undergo surgery have far less complications, along with healing at a much faster rate, than older adults with other health issues. Sure... but the system as is quite rewarding on all levels as is.... with built-in methods to protect/rebuild the players as needed that are highly successful. As long as those exist, and as long as the money is as good as ever for flamethrowers, things are unlikely to change barring more long-term failures.
Service time and pitcher use blurbs from Buster Olney... http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/buster-olney/post/_/id/6219 Exhibit A: Service time manipulation The Pirates are front and center in this conversation at the moment, because their right fielder of the future, the highly talented Gregory Polanco, is sitting in the minor leagues with a .378 batting average and an OPS of almost 1.100. In all likelihood, the Pirates will call up Polanco after the Super Two deadline has passed so that he will become eligible for arbitration after 2017, rather than 2016. Meanwhile, the Pirates' right fielders rank 20th in OPS and the team is slogging along. The Pirates are hardly alone in this practice. The Rays have done it as well, and that discipline may have helped them get more young players to agree to team-friendly deals, because the players know those contracts will help get them to the big leagues more quickly. But the question should be: Why are we doing this? The Pirates should weigh the money that might possibly be saved from tethering Polanco in the minors to the potential financial gain that might be realized if the team makes the playoffs for the second consecutive season. Here's another way to look at it: If the Pirates miss the playoffs by one game and it's possible that Polanco's presence could have made a difference, how much money does the team stand to lose in fan support? It's also worth weighing these factors: What are the odds that Polanco will be with the Pirates in four or five years? What are the chances that he gets hurt, which would render the service-time machinations worthless. What's the value of winning now? In short: Is it worth it for the Pirates to focus on the 2017 payroll in 2014? Exhibit B: Pitch and innings counts This has been going on for the better part of a decade now, and the number of pitching injuries are going up. Are the restrictions actually helping? "I think by now we should all realize that we don't have a clue," one highly ranked executive said. As the official noted, teams have been applying one-size-fits-all rules on pitch and innings limits to pitchers without really having any scientific foundation. "We're treating these guys as if they come to us as blank slates, and they're all starting from the same point," he said. "They're not. They all have different individual histories, different backgrounds in coaching, in what type of pitches of they've been throwing, how often they're throwing. They're all completely different." I spoke with about a half-dozen scouts and executives in the aftermath of the news that Jose Fernandez has been advised to have Tommy John surgery, and it was as if they all worked from the same script: Don't abuse pitchers, but use them. Because nobody has any idea when or how a pitcher will break down, only that almost inevitably, they will. How much extra money have the Giants made over the past seven years because they simply called up Tim Lincecum when he was ready for the big leagues and pitched him, without regard to service time and innings pruning? Why? Why? Why? It's the best question being asked in baseball.
What a thread... gone from dissecting the Astros failures, to looking at other young team's success, to over-analyzing Springer, to now talking about the state of young pitchers/injuries and service time qualms. Amazing!
Springer is no Cesar Cedeno. (at least he hasn't shot anyone yet) (just seeing if we can branch off in a different direction).
He hasn't gotten shot yet either [/Hidalgo] Take Cedeno's '70's decade stats from age 20-29, add in gold glove CF = he was a freak, a non-switch-hitting Carlos Beltran.
