Tom Brennan - DO THEY TRAIN TOO MUCH OR TOO HARD?

Our favorite Cookie just got hurt (I never knew cookies could get hurt, until now).

They sure get hurt a lot these days, don't they?  Mets' players, I mean.

Last year, Marcus Stroman had his early leg injury, Noah Syndergaard needed TJS, Steve Matz was in and out, Wacha Wacha was out for a bit, Robert Gsellman had his boo-boos, and on and on.

This year, it's Seth Lugo and Cookie Carrasco.  

Cookie with the hamstring tear while running after pitching in a simulated game.  They say he'll miss 6-8 weeks.  I guess the good news is that his arm should be fresher in the playoffs this year as a result.

On the other hand, Bartolo Colon, who I am only guessing from his girth did not run much, still managed to pitch a full slate of games while with the Mets recently, with 95 starts and 3 relief outings over 3 seasons at ages 41-43.

It makes me wonder, and maybe you wonder too: do players these days OVERTRAIN, and that is why so many seem to get hurt?

We all remember injuries like those oblique pulls that a player like Syndergaard had that laid a little Cancel Culture on his season a few years back, only we didn't know to call it that yet.  I could go on and on with many other current and former Mets' players, like a Travis d'Arnaud or a Jose Reyes or a Juan Lagares, but I won't.

I looked back at the 1962 Mets, when I am sure they had less elite training methods, to see if they got hurt.  Nope.

Their "top 5" pitchers did not look like they missed any time at all.

Roger Craig, age 32, threw in 42 games, starting 33, and went 10-24 with 3 saves.

Jay Hook? 213 IP, 37 games, 34 of which were starts.  8-19.

Al Jackson?  At age 26, Al started 33 and relieved in 3 more, and went 8-20.

Bob Miller, at age 23, went 1-12, and threw 144 innings in 21 starts and 13 relief appearances.  He went 1-12, but bear in mind his last 2 starts (1 win, 1 ND), he threw 17 innings, allowed 9 hits and just 2 runs), after which the dummies naturally traded him.  

He might have gone 1-12 partly because 20 of his 98 runs allowed were unearned.  Also because the offensive part of the team was brutal.

After all, Miller started for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1963 and went a decidedly different 10-8, 2.89, and pitched in the majors through 1974.  That year, he came back to the Mets and went 2-2, 3.58 in 58 games for them.

Craig Anderson, 23, got in 50 games, including 14 starts, and went 3-17 in 131 IP.  Before you castigate him for his 3-17, realize that THIRTY of his 108 runs allowed were unearned.  That team couldn't even field questions in post-game interviews.

By comparison, the 2019 Oakland As allowed just 34 runs for their entire pitching staff.  The 1962 Mets allowed 147.

John from Albany just asked, and I assured him that JD Davis and Brandon Nimmo did not play for that fumble-fingered 1962 Mets team.  Nope, those 1962 fellers made 210 errors without those two, did it all by themselves.  

Hot Rod Kanehl, though, was not so hot in the field, as he made 32 errors for the 1962 team in 81 games started and 32 partial games, 12 of which he pinch hit in and many more he pinch ran in.  17 year old Ed Kranepool played in 3 games without a single error, in case you were wondering.

Anyway, this article is about injuries.  

Was Cookie running too hard?  Dunno.  Perhaps.  I think Bartolo would say yes.

But those 1962 Mets pitchers, and more recently that same Bartolo Colon, were Iron Men by comparison.

So I ask y'all:  

Do players train too hard and increase injury risk these days?  

If so, how?