Tom Brennan - PLAYERS' WORKOUTS: SIMPLE QUESTIONS

Tom Brennan 
PLAYERS' WORKOUTS: SIMPLE QUESTIONS

William Shakespeare once asked himself something PRETTY IMPORTANT:

"To work out...or not to work out...THAT is the question."

The unhappy injury recap: Yo Cespedes misses months with leg injuries.  Michael Conforto misses months with a shoulder rip.  Thor with a lat rip – more months lost. 

TJ Rivera is not even a pitcher and misses months due to Tommy John surgery.  Lagares misses months with diving injuries.  Neil Walker missed several weeks with a hamstring injury.  Jose Reyes used to miss lots of time with assorted leg injuries. 

David Wright, an avid workout guy, misses tons of time due to stenosis, perhaps aggravated by the workouts?  Steve Matz bulked up last off season, then got hurt twice.

And on and on.

One has to ask oneself a simple, short question….WHY?

And, was this injury stuff the norm back in the good old days, when guys played, but didn’t work out?

I decided to look at an unscientific sample of guys, and decided that no, apparently it was NOT the norm.

Of course, we have the standard bearers of durability of yore: Lou Gehrig and Cal Ripken. 

To my knowledge, both got most of their conditioning playing in games, not in the weight room.

Willie Mays?  The Say Hey Kid missed just 40 games in one 13 year stretch – he played the game hard, but did the workouts that did not happen keep him healthier?

Hank Aaron?  77 games missed – a lot? No – it was over a 16 year stretch.  I don’t think he worked out much either.

Stan THE MAN Musial?  From 1943 thru 1955, he missed a total of 15 games.  I don’t think he was doing 500 pound deadlifts in his spare time.

Mel Ott?  In a 14 year stretch, the great Otter missed just 82 games, and in only 2 of those seasons did he miss more than 6 games.  Can't picture him working out to strengthen his core.

Jimmie Fox?  In a 12 year stretch, he missed 86 games – meaning he played in 24 of every 25 games over those 14 years.  Smart like a fox - stayed out of the gym, most likely.

Babe Ruth? He was more injury-prone, but from 1920 through 1931, he had 6 seasons where he either played them all or missed 2 or 3 games.  At age 25, he missed 12 games, 44 games missed at age 27, 56 missed at age 30, and 19 missed at age 34 – but not likely due to an extreme workout regimen. (Amazing lesser-known Babe stats unrelated to this article: in 1916 and 1917, he threw more than 320 innings both years, won 47 games, and had an ERA of 1.88. Wow.)

So, is it right to ask players if their workout regimens are hugely counter-productive? 

I remember the days of skinny guys who sure seemed less prone to injuries.  And Jay Bruce has been pretty durable, even if not like the old timers (excluding the Babe) above - Bruce has averaged a fine 151 games over the past 8 seasons – I wonder if he works out less than the other guys and is just naturally strong? 

What say you, reader?  Is less working out much more beneficial to durability?  Are intense workouts simply an invitation to extended periods of injury?

BTW:

THOR ROUNDING INTO SHAPE:  only 11 pitches of 100 MPH or more in his 2 innings yesterday.  Wazzup wit' dat??  

Clearly, he needs to get his velocity up...it will take a few weeks of getting stretched out for him to hit 110.  Let's remain patient.