Mack:
We've all
heard by now what happened to Lucas Giolito. Last year it was Matt Purke. The
year before, Anthony Renaudo. From a player's perspective, how much control
does a top prospect, be it in college or high school, have in that critical
year you're trying to get drafted as high as you? Do you give it 120% every
game or do you hold back?
I don't
know each of these guys personally but I think every player should first go
100% in their conditioning then 100% in their season. I think if a prospect
wants to rest, I think it should be done in the summer. Too often I hear about
players finishing their season, going full throttle in the summer then taking
the fall off right before spring. I think this is a big mistake. I think it’s
highly important to be in the best physical shape 85% of the year resting only
your mind and arm in the summer.
Radar
Guns and 18 year old's do not mix Mack.
When you are as highly sought after as Giolito is, it is not farfetched
to have at least 1 scout from 20+ big league clubs in attendance at every
single start and the row of radar guns behind home plate can be
intoxicating.
I hate to
speak in generalities, because every baseball injury is different and every
player is a unique case. But I will say
that having that many guns on you will inevitably cause a young ballplayer to
"hump up" on a couple fastballs and try and light up the triple
digits. And ballplayers are one max
effort throw away from blowing out on any given day.
You can't
help it. Even catchers and shortstops
will crow-hop and launch balls across the diamond as hard as they can if they
even sniff a radar gun somewhere in the distance. Throwing 90+ makes you cool, it's that
simple. I hit 90 on a dirt mound
somewhere in Hyannis, MA 8 years ago and I still find ways to shamelessly
interject that fact into conversation. I
can't say that that has anything to do with why this kid got hurt, but it bares
mentioning that radar readings make even the most level-headed ballplayers go
crazy chasing that Nine-Zero.
Like
everything else in this game, Giolito's arm injury could be a freak occurrence
or the result of years of overuse. Maybe
it was one bad breaking ball that tweaked a muscle or frayed a ligament. Maybe it was the 120 games AAU schedules
those kids out west play every year once they turn 10 (Scouts actually like
college pitchers from the northeast because they have "less mileage"
on their arms - Pelfrey benefited from this notion)
The only
thing player's have control over in their draft year's is how hard they train
in the offseason and how hard they play between the lines. Injuries can and will happen, and
unfortunately for some, it can happen when your value to a big league
organization is being calculated on a per pitch basis.
The
Giolito story me of a current Virginia Tech prospect (former Babson College
ace), Andrew Aizenstadt. Both pitchers
had UCL discomfort and opted not to have surgery (at least that's the case for
the time being) and Andrew ended up losing his entire junior season only to
rehab intensively and come back (without going under the knife) to put up solid
numbers in the Cape and DIII and transfer to a top DI program. Giolito still has plenty of time to leave his
mark on the game
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