Hope "justbaseball" doesn't mind. I did a little research on his son. Erik was an outstanding pitching prospect in High School. He played in 4 PG events. National Showcase, Aflac All American Classic, and two tournaments with his Travel team NorCal. I would have to go to the office to see how many innings he pitched in those two tournaments. I know he was not abused and NorCal has had many MLB players and prospects over the years.
Eric pitched two innings at the National Showcase. Not many pitches because there were no base runners. He threw one short inning in the Aflac Game. Total 3 short innings!
i have no idea how much he threw in high school.
At Stanford in 4 years he threw 227 innings. In his first two full seasons in professional baseball he threw 267 innings. His total innings pitched in the minor leagues is 556 innings. That does not count the innings he has thrown in the Big Leagues. Also doesn't count any off season or winter ball.
If someone uses him in a study, he will be listed as someone that attended showcases and played travel baseball. Maybe the reason he is having TJ surgery is those three short innings he threw for us.
This whole topic is getting the best of me. When I find time I am going to check every MLB player who has ever had Tj surgery. I am going to find out if they ever attended a PG event. Wonder what people would think if I find out that the vast majority of those MLB pitchers that have had TJ surgery did not attend showcases or play travel baseball?
Any time a pitcher takes the mound he is taking a risk. Yes, that includes showcases, travel baseball, high school baseball, legion baseball, college baseball, sand lot baseball, pro baseball, or any other baseball. I find it very strange that while looking for something to blame, our name gets mentioned at times. Heck, I have seen kids blow their arm in high school baseball. I will always remember seeing the Legion pitcher laying on the mound in pain after being used to death in order to win the legion tournament. Yes, he ended up having TJ. Some of the college pitch counts are insane.
Yet when I read these articles, there never seems to be any mention of all those cases. Even here on this site, we read the stories, i.e. 191 pitches. I suppose if that kid needs surgery and they find out he went to a showcase and played travel ball, that will be the reason he got injured.
I'm willing to bet that the truth in most cases is exactly what "justbaseball" stated. We just don't know for sure! BTW, I too have a son that had TJ surgery. I actually think I know what caused it. However the doctor that did the surgery, told him it was something that happened over a period of time. He never went to a showcase and he never played travel ball. He did pitch a lot in professional baseball. 11 or 12 years!
in the past few years we have seen a very large number of the top Dominican prospects at our events. I have to respectfully disagree with TPM. They are flocking over here with Dominican teams and players. We are very well known to the consulate there. We are working with some former executives from the MLB office to actually do some events in the Dominican. The part I disagree with TPM on is we have seen a large number of young Dominican pitchers throwing in the mid 90s at 16 years old.
I did find it interesting that so few Dominicans have had TJ surgery. Of course, they only referenced MLB pitchers in the article I read. It seems like Japanese pitchers also have less cases of TJ. Got me to thinking, maybe it is some kind of genetic issue. It seems like African American players also have less cases. Could it be so simple that some people have smaller or weaker ligaments than others?
Anyway, for the record, I do believe youth baseball in some cases is a problem. I'm talking about the very young kids, 8-12 year olds. I get reminded of this every year while watching the Little League World Series on television. And they monitor it better than most at that age.
Also, I am all for kids playing other sports. All for pitchers taking time off. At the same time I see nothing wrong if someone wants to concentrate on one sport. I can say that we know a lot of current MLB players who only played baseball year around. We also know many that were two or even three sport guys in high school. However, if concentrating on baseball is the problem, then most every college and pro player is in danger.