Non-Pirates Baseball Thread

[MWB]

Honestly I think this is an indictment on babying Pitchers.

$15 Million down the drain Nationals.

I don't think they really had him around long enough to baby him. He was on an innings limit this year, but he didn't reach it. There's plenty of studies that show large innings increases over a short period of time is a bad idea. Once they've reached the 200+ innings a year, I agree, they shouldn't be babied, but they should move up at a steady pace.

Also, assuming he does have to have TJ surgery... a likely case is he'll be out one year, then take about another season to regain form. In three years they'll have a healthy Strasburg and a somewhat seasoned Harper. Not ideal, but not doomsday either.

[Rocco]

Honestly I think this is an indictment on babying Pitchers.

$15 Million down the drain Nationals.

I don't think they really had him around long enough to baby him. He was on an innings limit this year, but he didn't reach it. There's plenty of studies that show large innings increases over a short period of time is a bad idea. Once they've reached the 200+ innings a year, I agree, they shouldn't be babied, but they should move up at a steady pace.

Also, assuming he does have to have TJ surgery... a likely case is he'll be out one year, then take about another season to regain form. In three years they'll have a healthy Strasburg and a somewhat seasoned Harper. Not ideal, but not doomsday either.

It's likely they'll have to change his throwing motion after surgery, so who knows what will happen- pitchers don't always find their form again with new deliveries. (See Maine, John as an example, as my bitter Mets fan boss pointed out.)

What's funny is that the Nats and Tony Gwynn in college were fairly careful with Strasburg. If a guy's elbow is going to explode, it's going to explode. Pitching is an unnatural motion and stresses the elbow and shoulder and putting arbitrary limits on how many pitches to throw won't prevent elbow and shoulder injuries.

[cheesesteakwithegg]

I think its great that all the Nats fans (who are also Caps fans) were thumping their chests in June about SS, and now they are like zOmG. Screw them.

[MWB]

I don't think pitchers have to change their motion.... when the surgery and recovery are complete, the range of motion is generally back to normal. Wiki has a list of all the MLB surgeries they've performed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_John_surgery" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Among the names on the list: Chris Carpenter, Jaime Garcia, Tim Hudson, Josh Johnson, Jimmy Key, Francisco Liriano, Shaun Marcum, John Smoltz, Joakim Soria, Billy Wagner, David Wells, CJ Wilson, Brian Wilson.

There are very few names on the list of pitchers who were established, had the surgery, and never regained their form.

[beerman]

Yeah, I don't think he'll have to change his delivery at all. It's his patience that will be tested, they say you get your velocity back fairly quickly but that it takes a while for the command you once had to come back. I think that's where some guys rush into changing their deliveries to try and correct that and subsequently have other issues. If he's patient follows the plan that's layed out for him I think he'll come back and be more than ok.

[Rocco]

Guess I'm not the only one that thinks Strasburg may have to change his mechanics.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd ... p&c_id=mlb" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[MWB]

The Nats are supposedly trying to determine if it happened because of his mechanics or if it was a freak incident. If he does change his mechanics it will be because they think his motion resulted in the injury, not as a result of the surgery. Obviously time will tell. Chris Carpenter said he didn't have to change anything with his mechanics afterwards.

[Troy Loney]

I think its great that all the Nats fans (who are also Caps fans) were thumping their chests in June about SS, and now they are like zOmG. Screw them.

good point, it's nice to see caps' fans suffer.

[Idoit40fans]

Remember how flawless his mechanics were when he came up, and how he was unlikely to face arm troubles due to those excellent mechanics?

[Idoit40fans]

Brian McCann just successfully bunted for a single. I hope you all appreciate how amazing that is.

[MWB]

Quite a catch by Lorenzo Cain.... not sure how he held onto that ball after slamming into the fence.

[MWB]

Another Manny being Manny moment:

Speaking to the media in a formal interview session for the first time since the first day of spring training with the Dodgers, Ramirez pulled a fast one. Moments before he was to sit in front of an assembled mass, the fluent English speaker informed the White Sox that he would need a translator.

A shocked Joey Cora was summoned and other than one short answer in English, Ramirez conducted his first interview in a White Sox uniform speaking his native Spanish and having Cora do what ended up being a select translation.

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/white-s ... rk-in-road" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[columbia]

The Nats are supposedly trying to determine if it happened because of his mechanics or if it was a freak incident. If he does change his mechanics it will be because they think his motion resulted in the injury, not as a result of the surgery. Obviously time will tell. Chris Carpenter said he didn't have to change anything with his mechanics afterwards.

My boss is a Nationals fan (as he is from DC). He claims that some pitching analysts were predicting an injury like this because of his mechanics.
(Well before his MLB debut this year.)

[MWB]

Yeah, Rocco posted a link about that earlier.... the White Sox pitching coach questioned his mechanics about a month ago. Seems to be a lot of debate about it right now.

[shafnutz05]

Talk about all of the naysayers being right....anyone that saw how violent his throwing motion was could see that his arm was going to give out quickly.

[MWB]

Talk about all of the naysayers being right....anyone that saw how violent his throwing motion was could see that his arm was going to give out quickly.

Really? If it was so obvious that this was going to happen then he wouldn't have been drafted. Pitching, as posted earlier, is completely unnatural and the mechanics of it are a very inexact science still.

[Troy Loney]

i dont give a **** about strasburg.

[Idoit40fans]

Nyjer Morgan is a psycho.

[MWB]

I just saw that... wow. Nyjer Morgan is on fire. Got clotheslined by Sanchez.

[Idoit40fans]

Haha, I didn't realize he stole two bases after he got hit the first time. Amazing.

[JoseCuervo]

Just saw morgan get clotheslined out of the blue. Hilarious.

[Idoit40fans]

Lulz Chapman is throwing 103-104. Horrifying. I love MLB Tonight.

[DudeMan2766]

Talk about all of the naysayers being right....anyone that saw how violent his throwing motion was could see that his arm was going to give out quickly.

I see that happening to Lincecum in 3-4 years. The guys a twig and throws like a cannon everytime.

[Idoit40fans]

I really don't like Lincecum...or Jimenez for that matter. I also hate Wainwright. Halladay is probably the only of the huge name pitchers left that I don't dislike. I guess Jimenez isn't really a huge name, and will fade back into relative obscurity next season.

[Kraftster]

I love the Freak, but I'm worried about the way his numbers are trending this year.

It will almost defy belief if he never has injury problems, but, if you ever read about his mechanics, you could see how he might make it because its designed to use as many different muscles as possible and should reduce arm strain.