We’ve seen plenty of fans and readers comment early in the 2021 season that it feels as though injuries are up from previous years, and that is indeed the case, as Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic breaks down in an excellent look at the increased IL stints of the non-Covid variety. IL placements are up 15 percent overall compared to the first month of the 2019 season, Rosenthal reports, with a 22 percent uptick among pitchers. Specifically, soft-tissue injuries such as hamstring, quadriceps and oblique injuries have nearly doubled in frequency, while arm and elbow injuries are up by a much slighter margin of 19 percent.
Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns, Pirates GM Ben Cherington and Marlins pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. all discuss the issue with Rosenthal, offering opinions on everything ranging from the root of some injuries to the level of club-to-club variance in treating injuries, managing player workload and other health-related matters. For anyone who’s been alarmed at the number of injuries that seem to be spanning throughout the league, it’s a must-read piece with insight straight from key team decision-makers who are faced with these challenges everyday.
It’s not surprising to see more concrete data backing up what many have suspected to be the case: injuries are spiking around the league. While some clubs are surely just being cautious with minor injuries for key players — Tim Anderson, Josh Donaldson, Max Fried and Trent Grisham all had very brief IL stints for hamstring issues — it’s hard to ignore both the volume of IL transactions and the extent of some of the early injuries.
We’ve already seen Kole Calhoun, Ketel Marte, Carlos Carrasco, David Price, Jazz Chisholm, Jorge Alfaro, Brendan Rodgers, Shogo Akiyama and Jake Fraley sustain hamstring injuries that will keep (or already have kept) them out three-plus weeks. Calhoun’s, which required surgery, could cost him two months. MLB.com’s transactions log shows 13 IL placements due to oblique strains in April alone — three of which have resulted in the player being moved to the 60-day injured list (Julian Merryweather, Rowan Wick, Bobby Wahl). George Springer has already hit the IL with an oblique injury to open the year and now a quadriceps strain, so he checks the box for a pair of those soft-tissue injuries.
Elbow troubles are nothing new for pitchers, of course, but we’ve seen a bevy of Tommy John surgeries already in 2021. Dustin May, Kirby Yates, James Paxton, Adrian Morejon, Luis Avilan, Jose Leclerc, Jonathan Hernandez, Jimmy Cordero, Blake Cederlind, Roenis Elias, Forrest Whitley, Jose Castillo, Michel Baez and Bryan Mata are just some of the big leaguers and notable prospects to undergo UCL replacement surgery since Spring Training opened a couple months back.
We’ve also already seen several of the game’s exciting young stars impacted. The White Sox may not get another plate appearance from Luis Robert (hip flexor strain) or Eloy Jimenez (ruptured pectoral tendon) in 2021. Ke’Bryan Hayes has missed much of the season with a wrist issue, and the Marlins are still building Sixto Sanchez back up after shoulder troubles stalled him. Adalberto Mondesi hasn’t played a game for the Royals yet thanks to an oblique injury. Fernando Tatis Jr. is playing through a shoulder subluxation. Obviously, not all of these are unique to 2021. The volume of injuries is nevertheless alarming.
Clubs will continue exercise caution and utilize a number of minimal, 10-day stints on the IL to manage workload and to creatively keep fresh arms available on their pitching staff. Such tactics are commonplace every year, and that’ll probably be all the more true in 2021 given concerns about the dramatic workload increase over 2020 (particularly among players who spent most of last year working at alternate sites). However, the early trend is concerning with regard to soft-tissue injuries and arm troubles for pitchers. Trepidation regarding those arm injuries, in particular, only figures to escalate as pitcher workloads increase over the next five months.
No batter took 300 plate appearances and only 5 pitchers tossed more than 75 innings in 2020. When guys essentially play just over a third of the season after missing nearly 4 months because of COVID, then it’s likely going to lead to a handful more non-sickness related injuries.
Sure…good one…playing LESS last season has them so worn down that they can’t survive this year. In the name Rickey Henderson what in the he(double hockey sticks) are you talking about?
That’s not what I mean whatsoever. Quite the opposite. Playing in such a weird schedule is throwing off a lot of guy’s workout routinens, not being able to keep their bodies fully stretched out or in their best shape. Essentially, with no regular conditioning over the past year, it’s bound to lead to injuries.
Eh. Not very persuasive. Only 8 guys on a team play most days, which is to say that there have always been loads of guys whose “schedules are off” and never know when they’re gonna play. They’ve never had unusually frequent injuries.
I’m a CrossFit trainer and a very large portion of the injuries that we see are with athletes who have taken some time away.
We really try to slow people down when they come back to the gym. People think they can perform at the same level after 1, 3, 6 months away from the gym and they just can’t.
It’s not exactly the same… and most MLB players weren’t just sitting around eating Cheetos last year… but also can see why a return to normal activities has caused so many injury problems.
Yeah, that’s the point I was trying to make. I assumed that professional athletes weren’t just sitting around, doing nothing to keep active. But every player had their workout routines, conditioning programs, training in general all thrown off by the 2020 season.
It’s because you can’t pull fat.
I agree. Unless they had their own home gym, these guys could not do their normal weight training routines along with running etc. Guys could not go to their normal gyms that they would use in the off season. Guys do not live year round in their team’s city to use the team facilities if they were allowed to be even open at time during the last year. Definitely could see why there are more injuries this year. On top of that, many of the guys with TJ surgeries this year had issues last year but hoped by just shutting down, things could heal. Many did not as witnessed by the number of surgeries among them.
So we should feel sorry that all these millionaires couldn’t stay in shape, run, stationery bike or yoga/stretching?
I’m sorry, but they all had a “normal” off season, can all afford home gyms and personal trainers and had a full spring training to get up to speed, like they have every year. In fact, they had even LESS wear and tear on the bodies from only playing for 2 months.
Why can’t they just admit that the workout routines, with all the weight training, is not what these athletes should be doing?
Why is it that today’s amazingly fit athletes continually pull muscles that players 30-40 years ago NEVER aggravated? Hydration? Too much bulk muscle? Not loosening up properly before games?
Like John Kruk said when asked if he had ever pulled an oblique, “I don’t even think I had an oblique. Ya can’t pull fat.”
Look at the number of games kruk played each year. Maybe he pulled more fat than he thought he did.
Joe Says, you should know. You haven’t been able to pull your woman away from the fridge for some time now.
Stopped reading at CrossFit trainer
Yeah, let’s attack people’s jobs! He may work with different “athletes” but the way the human body reacts to time off is what he is referencing.
But it’s easier to be a jerk than read.
You must be a blast to hang out with
I don’t know about a blast, but I hold my own. I’ll report back when people mail the comment cards back.
Well I’m actually a Chartered International Wealth Manager and Investment Specialist. That’s my job.
But nothing I do at my desk job is really relevant to the topic at hand… so I drew from experience that is.
I’m 100% sure the training MLB players do during the off-season is less intense than competitive CrossFit… but the point is the same. Doing something tough physically after not doing it for so long is hard on the body… no matter what that something is.
Sorry. Meant during the season. No idea what players would do for training during the off-season.
@Steve
He had some good points. I don’t care if he works at 800-FLOWERS.
You are more than welcome to tip a few ale’s with me anytime, @Wohlers.
I feel I should warn you though: I am really not a “blast”. If you like hunting & fishing, &/or construction I probably am. Falling short of that I’d reckon not so much, uh?
Haha thanks Ducky, how’s life treating you?
Talking fishing, construction(hobby woodworking counts right?), and baseball is good in my book.
When Im allowed to hunt a human with a spear I’ll join in the hunting conversations. Until then I have nothing to add. Just like I am on MLBTR (badumtiss)
I have a feeling the “few ale’s” was the tipping point.
Pretty well, man. I’m a really fortune dude. Just got back from Montana this afternoon. There are speed limits & once more the bear won’t eat me.
Yourself?
Yanks looking better. Haven’t seen much NL though it looks like the entire East is off to a slow start. My grandfather always said to not judge a team until the 50 game mark. (Fangraphs concurs.) So I’m still waiting to pronounce any judgements.
I post enough dumb stuff.
Of course woodworking counts. I had a homeowner a couple summers ago who despite only having one arm makes incredibly beautiful tables. I actually bought one.
See? Off to a good start.
I’m not sure they’ll announce that season. I think it’ll happen organically. If you will.
You know me and the Montana Speed limit. I’m doing well. Actually pleasantly surprised the Braves a hovering around .500 for how bad they’ve looked.
Do you think the yanks will move on from Sanchez if they are middle of the pack come trade deadline? Higashioka has slowed down a bit as of late, but he’s still playing beyond what I thought he was ever possible from him.
Sure do.
& good to hear that.
I have not caught the Braves at all. I’m just not very good at this “rooting for an NL team” thing. I still think that division is going to be an absolute dog fight.
Too many good players. Too many good teams. Not at 50 games. Bad teams don’t realize how bad they are & some good teams don’t realize how good they are.
Man.
Phat Sancho = </3
Had a good spring, a hot start & then…ooof; Real Hard to Watch. I think Cashman certainly would. But Cash is also mind numbingly value conscious. I don't think spending time with him would be a blast.
Even a little.
If he can get a return he likes & (bigger if here) Higgy is still playing well, yeah, I can see it. Which is a real bummer for me to type, man.
First rule of cross fit is to make sure everyone knows you do cross fit.
Oh for goodness sakes. Guys used to come into Spring Training having sat on the sofa drinking beer for four months and been just fine. The level of consistent training professional athletes do on their own now (usually with the help of a personal trainer) is miles ahead of what they used to do while with their club. This is not the reason for increased injuries. I’d suggest the bigger one is body shape and size, and vast increases in loads (pitcher velocity, bat speed, and the like).
How many guys in the past 3 decades come into Spring Training after doing nothing but gaining fat weight over the off season and are good players and don’t get injured? The game is 10x different than when Babe Ruth played.
mlb1225 – first, a few examples does not negate your point so I’m not going there at all. Second, since you graciously included the 90’s in there, and did ask for examples, I couldn’t help to think of David Wells. Admit, not a lot of them, but hey the PEDS covered up for all of the donuts and beer back then!
Didn’t David Wells throw Frank Thomas under the bus for not playing through a torn triceps, then quit on the team because of his back?
Fortunately he would have been large enough for the word HYPOCRITE to have fit nicely on the back of his jersey.
I am also concerned about the overall lowest batting average (MLB-wide) since 1968, three no-hitters in the first 30 days and elevated strikeout levels.
Is there more to the deadened ball?
Do the umpires really know the strike zone?
Hopefully it’s a sign the deadened ball is working. Now the batters will have to adjust.
I think the overall drop in offense is because of the deadened ball, but a lack of adaptation to it. MLB used essentially a juiced ball from late 2015 to potentially 2020. Team’s adapted to this and now we’re seeing what happens when you don’t adapt imediatley.
I also think it has to do with teams overvaluing home runs. I’m not saying that home runs don’t have value and three-true-outcome kind of guys are the death of baseball. But I think we need another Moneyball-like revolution. We used to not value walks very much and looked at BA too often. However, I think at this point, we are overvaluing big home run guys and aren’t valuing guys who get on base and drive the gap enough.
The “launch angle” craze has contributed to this.
Counterpoint: batting average is a dumb stat that doesnt prove anything about a players offense and low BAs with high launch angles = more offense = wins. We should be encouraging low BA’s as long as the homers come. Bunting for hits is useless now, station to station will never work in todays game, its time to scrap these narratives altogether, because they are NEVER coming back.
Low batting averages dont mean a thing about losing games, the A’s literally never have high batting averages, its all homers, defense and pitching aka the Earl Weaver special.
Why do all the old folks hate a fellow old like Earl Weaver is beyond me, but you never hear them lecturing us about how good he was? Weird….
I think BA has it’s place in baseball. It’s a stat I consider useless without context. You can bat .280 and be a fantastic hitter, but also bat .280 and be a pretty meh hitter. Like in 2019, both Bryce Harper and Freddy Galvis batted .260. On it’s own, BA doesn’t tell us anything other than each got a hit 26% of the time. But, ovbisously, Harper was the way more valuable batter when you look at the fact when Harper got a hit 26% of the time, he had a .510 slugging percentage and nearly half of his hits went for extra bases. Comapred that to Freddy Galvis who saw only about 35-36% of all of his hits go for extra bases and having a .438 slugging.
One thing I’ve learned is that many people seem to believe that advanced statistics, sabermetrics, etc started with Moneyball in 2002. In reality, we’re looking at a concept that started way back in the days of Branch Rickey. Rickey hired a statistician, Allan Roth, the first of his kind in the sport. He and Rickey are the creators of on base percentage.
Well, I’ll take a team with high BA and low launch angles and beat your low BA, high launch angle team all day long.
A team full of Ramiel Tapia’s isn’t going to do much. A team full of Joey Gallo’s will score a lot more runs.
Earl Weaver liked three run home runs. That means two guys on base. Batting average counts.
Oh, so unless someone has a big (?high?) launch angle, they are just a slap hitter. Got it.
Overall, I’ve learned that line drive hitters are probably the most under-valued players in all of baseball. Since batted ball numbers have started to be tracked, soft hit line drives, at the very worst, have had a single season chance of falling for a hit of .629 in 2012. So even the very worst contacted line drive still has over a 60% chance of becoming a hit.
Guys like Bryan Reynolds, Luis Arraez, David Fletcher and Michael Brantley aren’t among the leaders in exit velocity or hard hit rate. However, they have well above average line drive rates and are usually well above average hitters.
I accuse the launch anglers for ruining Keston Hiura. In college and when he first signed, he was a line drive hitter. Gap-to-gap line drives. If he hit a home run, it was a screaming missile that never got above the Loge section in a ballpark. In the quest to improve his launch angle, he’s lost that.
@mlb1225. Greetings.
I will counter with a team full of Tapia’s will outproduce a team full of Gallo’s against quality pitching, aka playoff teams.
Yes, the Gallo’s will be more productive against lesser quality pitching.
Homeruns and launch angles might GET a team to the post season, but small ball wins championships and 2-1 games.
I don’t have the answer to the following question, but I guarantee that more extra inning games have been decided by singles and productive outs than homeruns.
I don’t think a team full of Gallo’s or Tapia’s will do good in general. But a team of Gallo’s will score more runs than a team or Tapia’s.
A’s fan I watched a pitcher walk 6 guys in under 3 innings and had 10 runners on-base through about 4 innings giving up zero runs. Baseball might be a sport where you kick the ball in the UK, but not in the western world. Hitting still wins. Power does matter. Hitting still wins. A walk is the path to least resistance.
Baseball isn’t concerned with winning games. Every game has one winner and one loser, and that never changes. Baseball is concerned about surviving and making money, and that means appealing to more people. Even I (who have been a baseball fan for 30 years) can’t watch a whole game anymore. It’s excruciating, and the more games a team wins the less watchable it becomes. Baseball like all professional sports is 100% an entertainment product, no different than a reality TV show or rom-com movie, and baseball is the only sport whose fans for some reason can’t understand that.
No, actually, you won’t. You’ll lose way more than you’ll win.
That’s the thing though, @1225.
At this point, if my job was to build a productive lineup I would stuff it with TTO guys, myself.
We can argue about the (oftentimes) brutal aesthetics of it. But not really the efficiency. Ya know?
For example: of all the playoff games last season the winning team was out-homered merely a handful of times (I think 4 – in *all* the games). In today’s MLB you win by hitting the ball over the fence.
I’m not always the fastest boat in the fleet. But for the life of me, I don’t see a better way to put runs on the board. String together three singles off Gerrit Cole, Verlander, Buehler et al? That’s even harder to do.
At no time in baseball history has every team had two or three guys who can throw 97 mph coming out of their bullpen. There is better pitching up and down as velocity is now king. This also leads to injury for the pitchers as well as suppressed offence.
I think the amount you play the year before is an overblown statistic. In the past, players have missed an entire season with injury and came back the next year at basically full steam. Dave Winfield missed the entire 1989 season at age 37. In 1990 he had 537 plate appearances with a 122 OPS+. Gary Sheffield missed almost his entire age 37 season as well and had 593 PAs the next year. If those guys could do it at age 38, there is no reason these modern players can’t do it in their 20s. If they cannot, then maybe they aren’t meant to be professional athletes at all. Or maybe they just need to hone their workouts and listen to the guys that did it in the past.
I think it’s just something that every team has to deal with and prepare for, I keep hearing oh this team isn’t performing well because of injuries well guess what every team has injuries.
Thanks for the info. To follow what mlb1225 brings up, I’ve been thinking of how teams are going to deal with pitchers that will need to go from 70 to 150 + post season inning. Typically, a pitcher increases a certain percentage year over year. Some can handle more for sure, but this is a phenoma that every team for every starter this year. How many guys that only pitched 70 in 2020 can be expected to throw 150-175 + innings in 2021 – and avoid injury? Even deep staffs can’t manage 8-12 solid starters to get them thru WS. I’ve approached the Padres / Lamet situation as if, hey, I’ll take a good Lamet for May-July if that is all we get to avoid overuse, for example – then where do teams find more quality arms for August and September? Thoughts anyone?
They’re essentially trying to throw like it’s 2019 after playing a whole, normal 2018 season, when it’s clearly not the case. The body isn’t made to throw 95+ MPH regularly. Throw in the fact that these players essentially had their whole workout, conditioning and training routines completley thrown off kilter and likely with no regularity and it’s a mixture for injuries.
I think teams like the Royals and Marlins could be the biggest beneficiaries of this season’s pitching dilemma. They have relatively solid rotations at this point and have more in the upper minors. If either or perhaps both teams offense takes a solid step up they could make a major run towards (in) the playoffs.
I’d love to see these matched to Post WW 2 numbers – that’s a good comparison
not really
Maybe the 94 strike would be better. They may have played a little less than double the games, but at least the it’s closer to modern day baseball.
I don’t have scientific proof of it, but i’m sure part of the problem is what we eat. all those chemicals and non-natural processes are causing a loss in the quality of our foods. They probably taste as good as organic, but i feel like the nutriments are not.
I’ve been watching sports through all my life and i observe that every time the players are more and more suceptible to injuries.
I’m probably wrong but this is what i came to a conclusion.
Completely agree, you are not wrong. Our soils are getting depleted of micronutrients and we feed our animals crap. It takes time to build up soil properly with organic nutrient dense compost, so most don’t do it. Animals should eat grass and live in pastures, not in concrete cages eating corn and processed junk.
This is obviously not the main reason for injuries but everything adds up.
sounds like a Daft Punk song
6 man rotation can benefit, probaly increasing the number of players in the roster.
Many athletes are eating much better than the rest of us. They all have access to nutritionists, and training staffs that most of us do not have. If you are as old as I am, you remember back when guys that regularly top 90 mph really were bringing the heat. You could literally count the number of pitchers who could hit triple digits.
Now just about ever pitcher tops 90 and most regularly sit in the upper 90s. Even breaking balls sit in the low 90s Arms are still not made to do that for extended periods. That extra speed and extra movement that they can put on the pitches not only hurts arms but makes it harder for human umpires to see the pitches as well For that reason alone i can see an automated pitch calling system coming soon to MLB
I think a bigger reason is that, not only are players throwing harder, but doing so at a much younger age and more often than ever before. Today, you’ll see kids pitching when they’re 10 (at least, that was the youngest age before kids started to pitch in my local little league). Some of those kids are still pitching today (they’re my age and I’m 20) and have went to every local baseball camp, clinic, training facility, have played in the fall ball and winter ball leagues. Not to mention they’ve probably been throwing hard breaking balls since they learned the grip.
You are correct that eating organic can have benefits… but it likely has absolutely nothing to do with sports related injuries.
Organic is a scam.
A large part of it is, yes. An excuse for upper middle class folks to spend extra money.
Isn’t organic more full of s*** than a scam, really?
The claims of better nutrition is full of crap. Selling a product for more without it doing anything differently is the scam.
Hate seeing all the injuries but it’s great that the Yankees aren’t leading the league in this for once. Hopefully all the changes they made have had an impact.
@ Joe: Isn’t it a bit ironic, especially with all the naysaying regarding Tallion and Kluber, that they remain healthy, while so many other pitchers are hitting the IL? Makes Cash look pretty good….so far. Hope they stay healthy.
There’s plenty of season left. I’m sure Judge and Stanton will both find new creative ways to get hurt.
its an issue for sure.
My brewers are a minor league roster currently….ugh
1. Way too much weight room.
2. Too many protein builders and muscle enhancers that fall just below the PED level.
There is a price to be paid where everyone throws 100 and little guys hit the ball 430 ft.
Bro, I WISH Tony Kemp would hit a ball 430 feet, ughhh
Let’s not forget that there was no minor league season last year. If a guy got hurt last year, there was no rehabbing him at Double-A. It was go to the alternative site for a week to get stretched out and get back into the major leagues.
Wonder who might be rolling over in the grave or just plain embarrassed over this?? 🙂
Seriously, you are right on this one. Dovetails in with what I was saying above about the increase in TJ surgeries. If I guy had an arm strain last year, no rehab would have been made available because of no MiLB season to be able to have a guy rest then rehab to see if thy could heal the problem instead of surgery. Instead it was shut down and since it was such a short season no rehab to really test it out till spring training this season.
Yep I pretty much lost everyone on my fantasy team, so I have already thrown in the towel !!
Sad but injuries are part of the game. That has been said for years.Put your best 9 out and play. Maybe this will help smaller market teams.
Too much weight lifting
I do think injuries are up to some degree, but I think this has a lot to do with the optimization of utilizing the shorter IL. Being only 10 days and having retroactibility, it is being used as a handy roster limitation workaround, especially with the oddball seasons/off-seasons with less practice games, less practice and compressed schedules. Teams are trying to be cautious and any little thing is a reason to sit and get healthy. I wonder if they switched it back to 15 days, or didn’t allow the retroactive option, what the numbers would look like.
It’s also a way to get players a few extra days off at the beginning of the season. A couple extra days off in April/May could mean not having to take as many days off in September due to having to play 90+ more games.
The Angels putting Rendon on the Il today is a great example. Normally, he’d be out three or four games and not get an IL visit.
It seems quite a number of the “injuries” are done simply to keep players that would have to be DFAd. Need to open a roster spot? The team could put someone on waivers or, presto, someone gets a “bruised finger” and they are stashed on the IL.
I bet a large part of the seeming increase in injuries has to do with more efficient diagnosis.
Oh brother, can we stop complaining about everything? If hitters hit for low averages its not good, but if pitchers have high ERAs and low K rates they get told they arent good either – you cant have both, you either get lots of offense and bad pitching numbers, or great pitching numbers and no-hitters with bad batting averages – STOP TRYING TO MAKE BOTH HAPPEN.
Its ALWAYS about “the problems” with the game, I hate how we can’t even talk about games anymore, we only are allowed to talk about all dumb American media/ESPN narratives only.
The game is fine, there are no injury problems, there’s more players playing at a higher level with less warmup time. Its obvious, but sure, give the old folks ANY reason to whine and complain and call pro athletes “soft”, when any MLB player today would destroy any commenter here in their prime, at any kind of athletic activity.
Pathetic discourse all round around the game (not a shot at this site, MLBTR is just posting what is going around, but notice how nothing positive about the game is ever going around?).
A’sfan whatchu talkin bout Willis?
A’s fan: aren’t you the one who is generally complaining and suggesting radical changes to the game? Now you’re complaining that others are complaining?
I’m not going to read the article. I’ll just read the comments, get the Cliff Notes and hear all of the experts right here!
That’s the dumbest possible thing you could do. Why?
Idk, I found that quite funny.
It was sarcasm………….I guess that I need to make that clear next time.
No, it was pretty clear to everyone except for one clueless guy.
He’s probably a Benny Hill fan, but doesn’t like Python.
As a team, if I have the investment in Cole or Darvish (or insert your guy here), how can I seriously think it is a good idea to ask him to pitch 175 innings in 2021? Sure, if a guy is on a 1 year or expiring contract maybe as a team you run him out until he breaks. As a Padres fan, I don’t want to jeopardize 2022 and 2023 by asking Darvish, Snell, Musgrove, Lamet, Weathers, and Paddack (sure I want him healthy too) to go 3x 2020 totals. As I said in original post above – all teams have this dilemma. Certain teams have already lost part of what they started with!
No pitcher should even sniff 150 IP this year.
And thus my original question for discussion – how do teams do it? There are only so many arms out there and the innings to get thru WS is a quantifiable number that can’t be avoided (other than maybe you get some doubleheader’s)
I say let them pitch, just watch the pitch counts (no more than ~100 per game or 25 per inning) but don’t worry so much about innings. Even if they don’t throw in game they’re gonna toss in between to stay in game shape anyway.
Thanks for those points and I do agree that this can help alleviate the effect we are dealing with. I know in the games I have watched and box scores, it seems that this is being employed more than usual – pitchers complaining they don’t qualify for a win, etc. even this – 30 starts and 5 innings is that magical 150 that they shouldn’t “sniff”. Pitch counts are good but I can’t keep up with them over the course of the year as day as innings!
It depends on if they are accustomed to pitching that many innings or not. A pitcher that has had multiple seasons throwing 175+ innings shouldn’t have a problem going from 60 back to 150+. That’s not uncommon.
It’s those that haven’t reached that level regularly that shouldn’t.
i guess if you go all out on every pitch, play and swing, something is going to break.
Mlb hired the Dallas cowboys athletic trainer a few years back as their head of medicine. Clearly the only explanation of the rash number hamstring injuries we are seeing.
Players are bigger, faster and stronger than ever. They are also taught to put everything into every swing, pitch or play. The human body can only take so much. There’s a reason you see more max-effort pitchers have arm problems than guys like Maddux, Glavine, Moyer, Hendricks, etc
I wonder if kids are playing catch as much as they used to and if that is contributing. We used to play catch for hours every day. Just throwing the ball back and forth.
Based on what I’ve seen as a parent the last 20 years – no. Unorganized catch / sandlot play is a thing of the past with kids these days. Too much electronic / screens take up their time. We played catch and sandlot with ghost runners because we didn’t have anything else. Soccer wasn’t a thing back then either. My kids played soccer and baseball. I dont think I ever kicked a soccer ball until I had a 4 year old!
We were always outside, playing whatever sport was in season. My town had rec leagues for soccer (5th to 8th grade), basketball (9th to 12th grade) and baseball (3rd grade to 8th grade). Anyone who wanted was welcome to play and everyone got to play at least half of every game. No parents ever came to the games. There was no “my child is too good for this level” attitudes, we played for FUN.
Why is this happening in 2021, with all of the advancement in medicine and training? It should be the opposite result of the past.
I think we are reaching the era of sports specialization. More and more of today’s players have done little outside of playing organized baseball since the age of six. They had no opportunity or ability to just go out and play. They have just worked the same muscles over and over. The idea of “balance” is attending organized workouts with weights, bands, etc. Nobody swung an axe to chop down a tree, carried the logs to the woodpile, split the logs and burned them in a stove to keep warm. Of course I’m being facetious with the tree analogy, but not completely. Athletes, outside of their organized activities, are incredibly lazy. With the pandemic removing the organized activities, they have no idea what to do, how to stay physically fit on their own. They need facilities and trainers and videos and constant reminders of how to take care of themselves.
How did all the ancient pitching relics throw 10-20 complete games every year, pitching every 4th day?
How did Tom Seaver NOT MISS A START in 22 years? How did even the most average pitcher throw 200+ innings for 10 years without all of today’s tech, data and conditioning?
How did relievers like Jesse Orosco and Roger McDowell toss multiple innings in games and approach 100 innings pitched?
Now, for the sake of conversation, let’s not compare Hall of Famers to average players. But my goodness, look at all the 10-15 year QUALITY careers pitchers amassed before pitch counts and one inning relief stints became all the rage.
Today, you can probably count the over 30 quality starting pitchers without needed a friend’s digits.
Bottom line is, speed guns and pitch counts don’t protect ANYONE.
I bet very few pitchers prior to 1985 EVER did weight lifting for anything other than leg conditioning (leg presses) and to rehab muscles following injuries.
Someone can correct me, but I believe muscles get bigger by essentially damaging them by pushing them and creating scar tissue. So what happens when all these muscles get used hard again and that scar tissue gets damaged?
See, I really believe in weight training to prevent injury. But you can get one hell of a workout raking up the leaves in your lawn. Shoveling the snow off your driveway. Pushing a lawnmower around your lawn. Walking to the store and carrying home the groceries. And so many other informal activities that take time and effort. And use muscles. And breathing. And make you get tired. But don’t beat you up. And keep you constantly busy and productive.
Early concentration on a single sport also contributes. Up until the last 20 years or so, kids played all sort of sports during the year. Different muscle groups got used in different ways.
@Jim, How about non pitchers like Ripken and Jeter who played through most of their issues. I would love to hear their honest unfiltered takes on current players. I’m sure they’re thoroughly unimpressed.
As someone who’s been a trainer for a long time , you are on the right track. Baseball’s injuries have been going up for some time not just this year.
What’s happening is players are over training especially with weights . They don’t work on flexibility anywhere near enough. Baseball is a sport where you do nothing for an hour than have to sprint at full speed. You need muscles that are flexible and pliable. Tom Brady has figured this out with TB12.
Active rosters should be expanded by 2–3 players immediately.
Why?
They change rosters every day now.
Norcalblue – I agree with you on the surface and this could address my question of innings issues for pitchers. Yet, I see 2 problems: (1) this would require players Union and owners to agree – not likely; and (2) does every team have 2 MLB ready pitchers sitting around waiting for a spot on a roster – not likely. I personally, am concerned for what we are going to see in 60 days. Maybe it all works out just fine. For now and to be sure, I’m enjoying the season and watching games every day and loving it! Tomorrow will surely take care of itself.
Good points, but I think everyone is missing the big picture…..
Excessive baseball injuries may be more noticeable in 2021, but they’ve been going up in all pro sports continuously for over 20 years now….in spite of medical advances and knowledge.
As for MLB – don’t go to the baseball executives that have changed the game by ignoring the balance of the sport and imposing this years fad overload to get a realistic explanation of why the sport is both uncatchable and dangerous to the participants….even as they’ve pretty much outlawed any contact players can have with one another and padded the walls around the parks.
The problem is that guys don’t play through minor injuries anymore. They’re more than happy to sit on the bench collecting their millions. I’m sorry but Anthony Rendon is carried off the field and then placed on the IL and the only thing wrong with him is a bruise on his knee. That’s a big problem with this sport right now. It’s a joke and I’d be embarrassed to be carried off the field for a bruise. I’d like to know how many players are currently on the IL for bruises, I bet there’s many more than most of us would imagine.
Wondering what the 60 Day DL comparison is.