Tommy John making an early appearance
- Thread starter Leeshouldveflanked
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Maybe we should recruit more 80 mph junkballers.
2025 first pitch is about 15.5 months away. He’ll be fine by then. Honestly if you’re going to have a college player need TJ, fall camp of the true freshmen season is about the best possible time for it to happen.
At some point, do we (all of youth/college/pro baseball) have to ask ourselves what we're doing wrong in protecting pitchers? A sport where seemingly the majority of pitchers wind up needing surgery just seems like there should be a better way.
I wonder if we are requiring recruits have physical before giving them NIL money. Not that this has anything to do with that.
Are you assuming the point of youth sports, especially travel ball, is something other than making money? The current model works very well. An injury is actually another revenue stream. Surgeons don’t by ads on outfield fences for fun.
It ain't hard. Much of the only 'activity' these kids do is organized sports. Outside of that, it's maybe recess at school? And the ones who want to play baseball are playing from early winter to early summer, then again from late summer well into the fall. 2 practices per week and then 3-5 games on the weekend. In addition to pitching, that's a TON of throwing. And now, many are getting pitching lessons as young as 9. And of course, all the 'training' nowadays is geared toward throwing harder. And then they start lifting weights in like 6th grade. Throwing harder with bad fundamentals and getting stronger breaks ligaments.
At this point, it's not changing. A TJ surgery is almost a given in this current environment. Some are getting it done at 11-12. It's insane to think about, and many have to get it done again. You'd be surprised how many of these college guys are on their second one.
ETA: Somebody needs to be studying guys like Pedro Martinez who actually did throw hard, for a long time, and that's the training we need to be doing. But unfortunately I'm sure that research will yield that you shouldn't throw harder than your body allows, which isn't acceptable in this day and age.
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Talk about the good ole days of baseball. Doesn't get much better than the late 80s/early 90s. We had all different types of effective pitchers, batters, etc. We had good stats.
Of course, since this is America, there's always some guys hanging around who figures out how to game the system and in this case, ends up exposing the game of baseball and its strategies. Now we have velo, Ks and bombs. And of course the last wave of self-absorbed baby boomers who decided to introduce roids to continue their careers well past their primes (sound familiar?). Now stats are out the window.
Good job, guys. America's PASSED time.
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I think treating the surgery as a bug instead of as a feature would be a good start.
It's amazing how many dubmass parents are out there that do not understand this. First, they don't understand the surgery in general, and second, once they hear about it, they start thinking that it helps you throw harder, so go ahead and get it done. I am guessing they are hearing this from the idiot coaches?
No ligament is better than your natural ligament. And the reason that the rumor is out there about the new one, is that folks are taking care of themselves better after surgery, and using the same arm care they should have been using beforehand.
A lot of the rednecks around here think arm care is "for p*ssies" and think the best way to strengthen your arm is just to throw all the time.
I still think a Jon Harden type of pitcher would work in the SEC. A change of pace pitcher that can throw strikes and pitch one time through the order 2 games every weekend in middle relief.
One reason is because throwing hard is an easier skill to acquire than mastering location, changing speed, and multiple pitches.
Right. The wear and tear process is so gradual that they don't notice the worn-out natural ligament that they have lived with for years before it finally failed so the repaired one still gives them a dramatic jump.
Pollo sort of did something similar. And Ross Mitchell got a lot out of his stuff.
Pollo could run it up there about 90 at times. Rubber Arm Mitchell kinda lost his effectiveness after the balls changed. But yeah Cohen was great about finding guys like this.
We havent had anyone on staff lately that can throw a sinker or cutter. The way that The Dude is a launching pad you would think we would have a couple of those type on the roster.
Southern travel ball is one of the reasons Tim Corbin likes to recruit his pitchers from the North. Kids up there don’t throw year round. Some of these kids we recruit arrive with their tendons frayed like an old rubber band. It is what it is, and we should know that everyone of them will need a year to sit out.
It's funny, I used to listen to a bunch of youth baseball podcasts, they all acknowledged and accepted the problems kids are having with their arms. The ones that were in the business of either coaching or development always were big on proper throwing programs, more exercises, criticizing coaches, etc. but never would recommend much time off. Because of course not, that would hurt their business. And if they did take time off, fine, but still come up here and do 'development' which generally also has something that stresses the arm.
Only one actually said to take serious time off from throwing every year. And he was an assistant travel coach who was recording the pod through the lens of a dad. Funny thing, even he didn't practice what he preached, his team still played spring and fall and the 'time off' was November and December. Not enough.
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