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Revolution in the Bleachers

S spizzlepop1,000+ posts
Exerpted from a new book by Regan McMahon in todays SF Chronicle. An interesting read.
Here's a link to the entire piece.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/15/CMG7OOP5OB1.DTL

Bob Tewksbury, a former Cy Young Award-winning pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, who also pitched for the Minnesota Twins, is now a sports psychologist for the Boston Red Sox. He says that overuse injuries have become so rampant that major league scouts are no longer turning to the South and West -- regions where athletes have more opportunity to play and train because of the mild weather -- to find pitchers. They're realizing that guys who have been taxing their arms year-round, for years on end, may have only so many throws left before they'll end up on the disabled list. Scouts are now turning to the East for talent, figuring the players' arms there might last longer.

"There's an incredible increase in [the Tommy John] injury, and that injury is strictly an overuse injury at a young age," Tewksbury told me. "So these guys are playing more and more baseball at a younger age and they're getting hurt. So what the special teams are looking at is: How much wear and tear has this guy got? Where does this guy go to school? I know they look at how many college innings pitched and say, 'You know, this guy pitched 200 innings in college and he's gonna break down.' And some teams will go back and ask, 'What did he do as a youth? Where did he play, how much did he play? Did he play on a specialized team? And does he have a greater chance of being hurt?' So they're shying away from those types of players, for the most part."
"There are two kinds of people in this game: those who are humble and those who are about to be." Clint Hurdle
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TPMTPMHSBaseballweb Member since 2003
"The average kid we operated on had only the week of Thanksgiving and the week of Christmas off", Andrews said in the same article.

I find this statement incredible.

I mentioned about 2 years ago kids at 9 were having TJS and got blasted for the comment. You can read it in print.

Injuries can occur for no apparent reason, but as discussed here over and over, prevention is the key.

200 innings in college baseball can be alot if done over a short period of time and done together with a high pitch count. Some pitchers are a bit more durable than others, but I really do feel that eventually it catches up.

Parents of pitchers be smart pay attention to the article. JMO.
Last edited by TPM
L lafmom5,000+ posts
It's amazing to me to observe different coaches and their use of their pitchers. Obviously, this article is referring back to youth and there's probably some very valid points there.

I saw a college team play a couple of weeks ago and they used the same senior (their #1) for an entire 9 innings of a game. I wasn't counting his pitches, but can assure you it was at LEAST 130-140. Not only that, but the temperature was 30 degrees with a wind chill of 20. To top it all off, the kid was out there without any kind of sleeves on. One of that team's parents told me that "he's tough". All his dad did was go around in the stands and brag on how good the kid was. I left that game and didn't know whether to feel sorry for some folks or feel angry. Apparently, this school uses both of their seniors in this manner. Red Face

That psychologist needs to visit that school and coach!
infielddadinfielddad10,000+ posts
"****** went 3-for-4 and threw 187 pitches in a complete-game effort for the Bears (23-8)."

This is from the DIII baseball website. Pitcher went 10 1/3 in a losing effort. Allowing for 7 pitches between innings and his pregame warmup, that would be around 325 pitches on a cold day.
As long as youth league coaches and parents see this type of stat,Dr Andrews and his colleagues will continue to be very busy in the operating room.
Last edited by infielddad
WalesWales1,000+ posts
infielddad

Thanks for that piece of info.

All I can say as a pitcher who is coming off of shoulder surgery is what the **** are some of these Coaches thinking out there, there's absolutely no reason for that type of abuse in the game with all the knowledge that is available for Coaches, and Parents and Players nowadays.
infielddadinfielddad10,000+ posts
I just checked the teams website.
This pitcher started a game 2 days before throwing 187 pitches. He went 2/3 of an inning giving up 5 runs. He is also the starting CF and will likely play both games of a doubleheader today. That is the type of "rest" that can have longer term impact.
Geez, I hope the DIII writer made a mistake on that pitch count number!!
Last edited by infielddad
P PGStaff10,000+ posts
quote:
He says that overuse injuries have become so rampant that major league scouts are no longer turning to the South and West -- regions where athletes have more opportunity to play and train because of the mild weather -- to find pitchers. They're realizing that guys who have been taxing their arms year-round, for years on end, may have only so many throws left before they'll end up on the disabled list. Scouts are now turning to the East for talent, figuring the players' arms there might last longer.


Well how about as recent as the last draft?

We often hear people in MLB say things, but the facts show something completely different. Makes me wonder where they’re getting this information.

First 10 rounds 2006 draft
128 pitchers from warm weather climates
39 from all other states

First 200 picks
83 from warm weather states
25 from all other states

Some of these are hard to place and one would need to determine if the state is warm or cold climate.

Example – Luke Hochever the #1 pick

Here is where the top draft pick pitchers selected in the first 50 picks came from The definite cold weather states are in bold.

Hochever – Tennessee pick 1
Reynolds – California pick 2
Lincoln – Texas pick 4
Morrow – California pick 5
Miller – NC from Florida pick 6
Kershaw – Texas pick 7
Lincecum – Washington pick 10
Scherzer – Missouri pick 11
Kiker – Alabama pick 12
Jeffress – Virginia pick 16
Drabek – Texas pick 18
Sinkbeil – Missouri pick 19
Kennedy – California pick 21
Willems – Florida pick 22
Morris – NC/TN pick 26
Bard – North Carolina pick 28
McCullough – Texas pick 29
Ottavino – Massuchusetts pick 30
Beato – Florida pick 32
Brown – Georgia pick 34
Rasmus – Alabama pick 38
Huff – California pick 39
Johnson – Kansas pick 40
Chamberlain - Nebraska pick 41
Perez – Florida pick 42
Evarts – Florida pick 43
Clay – Alabama pick 44
Butler – California pick 47
Felix – Alabama pick 48
Tillman – California pick 49

quote:
Scouts are now turning to the East for talent, figuring the players' arms there might last longer.


Scouts will surely look at pitchers this year from the East, because there are a lot of power arms out there for this draft. But how many on the list above are from the East and in cold weather climates? Sometimes those little things called "facts" get in the way of some good reports.

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