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
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:
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:
Maybe someone should consult dice k........dude throws about a thousand pitches per day, and thats just during warmup.
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.
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.
Who else here is surprised the Mets canned Kyle Farnsworth but kept Jose Valverde?
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."
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.
Afternoon folks...
my server was down so I'm off to a slow start...
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.
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.
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???
Bill -
Regardless of ERA's, the youth movement has begun and Valverde and Dice-K will be the next two to go...
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.
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
Thomas -
Gorski is throwing his fastball in the high 80s
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
Nothing is going to change. Good teams will be those that have 3-4 pitchers in the pen or AAA ready to step in.
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