5/15/14

Morning Report – May 15th – Jose Fernandez,

Coming Later Today –

                Noon -

                2 30 pm - Top 11 SS in 2014 MLB Draft - Updated 5-15-14


                6 pm – Michael Kopech, Michael Chavis, Michael Gettys, Alex Blandino, Jake Kolterman, Ben Wetzler



Chris @tpgMets  -  Mets OPS ranks 6th in MLB over the past 2 weeks. As a team, they're hitting .263/.330/.430 over that period.

Comment From Paul - How long ’til Jeurys Familia takes over in Queens?
Jeff Sullivan: Few weeks? There’s nothing actually blocking him for real


The announcement that Miami Marlins superstar SP, Jose Fernandez, will have to undergo Tommy John Surgery strengthen the contention that the industry needs to address how the managers and coaches of high school, travel, and youth teams address the (non) development of their players.

Frankly, in my opinion, this starts back in grade school when kids are influenced by ESPN and MLB-TV that the secret to pitching in this game is ‘velo’, which is a fancy word for ‘throw it as hard as you can’.

Coaches tell kids every day that they can learn secondary pitches down the road and their speed is going to get them where they want to go.
And please don’t get me going about ‘pitch count’. I’ve covered high and junior school ball where most teams have only one great pitcher on their squad. I’ve watched 14-year olds throw 130+ pitches and go home with tears in their eyes from the arm pain they were feeling.


Here’s a chart on how many TJS there has been in the past 40 years:


View image on Twitter


Rich Coutinho had a good suggestion when he tweeted ‘all these TJ issues with pitchers might seriously make me re-think allowing top prospects 2 pitch winter ball-Arms need rest in off-season. And Harold Reynolds of MLB-TV said that there is an epidemic of travel ball. All this may be true, but these injuries… these tendons… began to be stretched far too much years before this... and it always involves the use of the speed of the ball being thrown.

No one is being taught to pitch anymore. Throw, yes, but pitching seems to be an aftereffect of pure velo’.

Jeff Sullivan on pitchers and TJS:  "One of the things that first turned me off about football, before all the concussion stuff, was how it seemed like players got hurt all the time and lineups would constantly have to adjust to injury absences. Baseball is developing a problem where you want to love the pitchers but you just can’t rely on them and really put your faith in them. It’s tough on them and it’s tough on the fan psychology because pitchers are so easy to embrace, yet they so frequently come apart. It’s not a *crisis* — there are still a lot more healthy pitchers than injured pitchers — but it’s going to be a problem, down the road, if pitchers do end up getting hurt more. People want to fall in love with players, and you don’t fall in love with a player on the training table."


16 comments:

Ernest Dove said...

Maybe someone should consult dice k........dude throws about a thousand pitches per day, and thats just during warmup.

Tom Brennan said...

Maybe especially with hotter prospects they need to 1) tell them they need to learn to pitch 3-4 miles per hour below their max, a la Colon, and throw more offspeed and slower breaking pitches.

The minor leagues for the best guys are not for winning as much as learning how to pitch. So if a Syndergaard threw a lot more of the types of pitches he is weaker at, to try to get them major league ready quicker, it presumably would be less stress on their arms pre-majors. Most fans could give a hoot how a guy pitches in the minors, they just care when (like Harvey) they perform on the big stage when called up.

I will say, Mack, that your posts on pitching prospects exhibit a logical focus of scouts that heavily zeroes in on prospects' velocity. These kids know that, and hope they will be the lucky one whose arm does not blow up in a few years. So they are pedal to the metal. And sometimes a rod blows.

That Adam Smith said...

ust wanted to mention, since I haven't seen it anywhere, that Rafael Montero rung up Derek Jeter as his first major league strikeout. I'm taking that as a good omen.

Reese Kaplan said...

Who else here is surprised the Mets canned Kyle Farnsworth but kept Jose Valverde?

Reese Kaplan said...

Nevermind -- I just saw the justification:

"The 38-year-old added he was “angry” and “disappointed” after the Mets cut him loose with a 45-day consent waiver in his contract about to expire that would have guaranteed the remainder of his $1-million deal. The move saved the team around $750,000, according to the Wall Street Journal."

Unknown said...

I think it could be overuse, but I also think that pitchers now lift heavier and heavier weights and work out more. Could be that the tendons and ligaments are not strong enough to work with the strength of these guys' muscles. It also works in football, where these players legs are so strong and the ACL is not strong enough to deal with all the cuts and such a high rate of speed and strength.

MLB needs to seriously look into this though. You cannot have franchise players missing a season. This is a fan-base killer.

Mack Ade said...

Afternoon folks...

my server was down so I'm off to a slow start...

Mack Ade said...

Thomas -

So, now it's MY fault ? :)

Someone is going to have to come up with a plan on how to deal with this... some combination of pitch amount, types of pitches thrown early on, exercise, whatever... or, we're going to have a bunch of 'rent a player' arms in everybody's system

We're never going to get kids to throw slower. That barrier has been climbed over.

Mack Ade said...

Gregg -

They do and everything coming out of the gyms is based on more velo, rather than durability.

I don't have the answer, but baseball needs to deal with this post haste.

I just thought you guys would like a post on this subject.

Bill Metsiac said...

Valverde has given up seven ER as a Met, five of them in two games inmid-April. Since April 16 he's had 9 IP in 8 games, allowing only 2 runs. Meanwhile, Farnsworth has been getting worse and worse.

In any case, Edgin is being recalled and Gee and Germen should be back soon, so THREE more cuts will have to be made.

Who???

Mack Ade said...

Bill -

Regardless of ERA's, the youth movement has begun and Valverde and Dice-K will be the next two to go...

Bill Metsiac said...

Barring injuries, you're probably right, though I don't know if a pen without a veteran (except Torres, whose veteran status was in the minors) is desirable. I guess Edgin gets Farnsworth's spot. Then we'll see.

Getting back to the TJ issue, I don't recall any Japanese pitchers (who throw incredibly high pitch counts despite starting only once a week) going under the knife for TJ. Unless it's just better genes (doubtful), there must be something that American teams need to learn from/copy.

bgreg98180 said...

Mack
just a thought.
I am not sure if you are familiar with soccer, but perhaps professional soccer teams have part of an answer when it comes to protecting and monitoring young players.
Many professional soccer teams begin their contact with young travel players by running their own academies, camps, travel teams, and tournaments. This model might allow young players to be monitored better.
For example; a young pitcher could be limited to pitching every other season (spring, summer, fall, winter).
During off seasons they can develop their skills at other positions

Mack Ade said...

Thomas -

Gorski is throwing his fastball in the high 80s

Mack Ade said...

Bob -

your point is a good one...

the 'something' that has to be done may be a combination of things... but I was paid to cover high school baseball for 7 years and I never met a coach that cared about pitch count. All he ever wanted to know in between innings was what my radar gun was saying

John Looby said...

Nothing is going to change. Good teams will be those that have 3-4 pitchers in the pen or AAA ready to step in.