Breaking: Stephen Strasburg to have Tommy John Surgery

[MisterRoddy]

http://www.masnsports.com/the_goessling_game/2010/08/stephen-strasburg-will-need-tommy-john-surgery.html

Devastating news for the young pitching prodigy that has a torn ulnar collateral ligament and will likely need Tommy John Surgery.

I pray this kid comes back full force. Being a Cubs fan (Prior, Wood), I know all too well about injuries derailing the careers of pitching phenoms. Hope this ends differently.

[muzikfrk75]

Bad bad luck for the kid...

[MChambers]

Bad bad luck for the kid...

As the Nats' GM pointed out, the two pitchers who started the Nat's game last night have had the surgery and returned. As a DC resident, I'm choosing to be optimistic.

[InSpades]

The whole thing kind of reminds me of Francisco Liriano to be honest.... young guy comes up in the middle of the season. Throws lights out, dominates hitters. Soon thereafter has arm troubles and it leads to Tommy John surgery. Liriano has never really been the same since then (though he's having a better season this year, he's nowhere near as dominant as he once was). Hopefully Strasburg can regain his form.

[JBDuke]

Thanks for the news, although as a Nats fan, this really hurts. The management had been so careful with Strasburg this year - really treating him with kid gloves in the hopes of avoiding any injury from the stepped up workload of becoming a professional pitcher. And now this.

[BlueDevilBaby]

As a Nats season ticket holder, I am totally bummed. What is it with this franchise and their pitchers? There have got to be 20+ pitchers since 2005 that have been injured or required surgery. Seems to be a much higher rate of injury for this team than the rest of the league. Oh well, guess I will patiently wait for 2012. Maybe Harper will be in the show by then.

I'm doubly mad because my new baby dog (Elsa) destroyed my 2005 opening day Nats hat this morning. Twit!

[MisterRoddy]

I definitely sympathize with you Nats fans. Speaking of Washington's young pitching talent, how is Ross Detwiler doing? (Living so close to the org.), I remember him being your first round pick a few years ago. If Washington can get their young pitchers healthy in a few years, they will have quite a collection of talent with Stras, Zimm, Det, and Storen.

Best of luck to you guys.

[weezie]

I am so sorry for this young man. I never felt good about his being in the Nats pen so early in his career without absolute kid-glove handling. The whole sensational atmosphere that followed him 24/7 must have been impossible to rein in on the mound. When SS stated that he would start calling his own pitches instead of relying on his catchers (Pudge Rodriguez may be slowing down and over-staying his time but he's no slouch behind the plate) I really began to feel queasy. I don't think McCatty had clue one as to what was needed to preserve the golden arm.
Gosh, what a darned shame.

[JBDuke]

I am so sorry for this young man. I never felt good about his being in the Nats pen so early in his career without absolute kid-glove handling. The whole sensational atmosphere that followed him 24/7 must have been impossible to rein in on the mound. When SS stated that he would start calling his own pitches instead of relying on his catchers (Pudge Rodriguez may be slowing down and over-staying his time but he's no slouch behind the plate) I really began to feel queasy. I don't think McCatty had clue one as to what was needed to preserve the golden arm.
Gosh, what a darned shame.

But they never worked him on less than 5 days rest. They never took him over 100 pitches or 7 innings in a game, and they had him on a hard and fast limit of 160 total innings pitched, combining his minor and major league starts. He didn't show signs of any sort of wearing down until that issue on July 21st. And now, a year off to recover from Tommy John surgery.

I really thought that the organization was being very cautious, but wise, in protecting their investment in Strasburg. Looks like they might as well have not bothered.

[JasonEvans]

If I am correct, the folks behind the Nats had always targetted 2012 as the year they expected to being to really challenge for the playoffs, right? Even if Stras had been healthy, the expectation was that the team would not get there next year. So, on the surface losing Stras for next year may not be all that significant...

...but, the problem is that everyone says it takes time to build up a pitcher's arm and get them ready to throw the 210-250 innings a top-line starter throws -- especially with a guy like Stras who uncorks the ball at such massive velocity. The idea is that you limit a guy to about 160 innings one year and then boost him up to about 200 the next year and then you can pretty much remove any inning limits upon him.

But, Starsburg did not get to anywhere close to 160 innings this year (55 in the minors and 60 more in the majors). This means that when he does come back (likely in 2012) he is going to again be on an inning limit for the season (probably the typical 160).

--Jason "this may mean we do not see a fully unleashed Strasburg until 2014" Evans

[hurleyfor3]

As a Nats season ticket holder, I am totally bummed.

So what else is new?

[BlueDevilBaby]

So what else is new?

Ok, so I'm more bummed out.

[4decadedukie]

Heartbreaking for all DC-area Nats fans; I can only hope he will return with unimpaired capabilities. Strasburg's pitching talents are simply extraordinary -- among the very best I have seen in six decades of baseball observation.

[dukebluelemur]

Horrible news... you just kinda had this sinking feeling that he was too good to last :(

Mark Prior 2.0?

!@#$ you Inverted W!! (http://www.chrisoleary.com/projects/Baseball/Pitching/RethinkingPitching/Essays/DeathToTheInvertedW.html)

I for one would love to hear Greybeard's thoughts on the pitching mechanics debate.

[greybeard]

Horrible news... you just kinda had this sinking feeling that he was too good to last :(

Mark Prior 2.0?

!@#$ you Inverted W!! (http://www.chrisoleary.com/projects/Baseball/Pitching/RethinkingPitching/Essays/DeathToTheInvertedW.html)

I for one would love to hear Greybeard's thoughts on the pitching mechanics debate.

This is some pretty high end stuff, more than a tad out of my league, but, hey, never stopped me before.

If I had to guess, which I do, the reason guys get into a position with their throwing shoulder lagging so far behind and the arm extended back is because they are incapable to doing what they need with the pelvis and hip joints and ribs to do anything else.

If you look at the video of the unit, you will see that his pelvis is not level through out. That as he turns, I believe that his right hip comes up and his right shoulder down, which brings his left shoulder joint forward in line or light forward of the torso as the left side turns around his slightly tilting pivot. He achieves an angle with his arm that allows his forarm to drop back and as it is dropping, and the should pivots forward and passing its appex and moves down slightly, the interruption of the dropping arm (32 feet per second) with rotation of the hips and shoulder on a slightly tilted axis, flings the lower arm up and out, multiplying the acceleration of down by the centriphical force created , with the head of the upper arm forward in the shoulder joint which forward and close into the torso.

So, my guess is that these guys with reverse Ws or whatever have very little if any ability to move either side of the pelvis up and down, have scapulas in their pitching shoulder that no not move well as they rotate and their arms move back (by "well", I'm guessing here sports fans, we are probably talking something like, the bottom inside of the scapular moves closer to the spine and slightly up as the top exterior rotates out and slightly down. If the scapular can't move in such a fashion and others smoothly and easily, than the choice is to leave the arm either stretched out behind you or with your forarm straignt up. In either case, if the scapular cannot drop down, and the pelvis on the pivot leg and the leg that swings stays rigid, it just might produce a lagging (open) shoulder joint whether the elbow is above or below the shoulder line, and put tremendous strain on that joint.

Tracy Boomer wrote a terrific book on the golf swing in which, among other things, he discusses the notion of connectedness. If I'm not misstaken, he specifically discusses this lagging, open shoulder joint as a no-no in the golf swing. Of course, it might be someone other than Tracy Boomer, but it is definitely the guy who put focus on connectness into the modern golf swing.

If you look closely at the Unit in this video, you will see a slight tilt in his pelvis as his weight transfers to his right (forward leg) and his torso begins to turn and you will see that his shoulder takes on a new shape which literally moves it forward of his torso. I think that that has to do with the tilt of his pelvis, the softness in his ribs, and the ability of his scapula to slide in multiple directions, two of which I'm guessing might be integral to the ability to drop the forarm down and back while swinging the shoulder joint forward to a connected, secure position supported by the torso.

100 miles an hour is too FAST! So, far, guys who throw like that are a serious injury waiting to happen.

[77devil]

I didn't remember the impact of Tommy John surgery on a pitcher's velocity after rehabilitation and came across this snippet in Wikipedia:

"In some cases baseball pitchers throw harder after the procedure than they did beforehand. As a result, orthopedic surgeons have reported that increasing numbers of parents are coming to them and asking them to perform the procedure on their un-injured sons in the hope that this will increase their performance. "

Now that's just crazy. Some sports parents never cease to amaze me.

[4decadedukie]

I didn't remember the impact of Tommy John surgery on a pitcher's velocity after rehabilitation and came across this snippet in Wikipedia:

"In some cases baseball pitchers throw harder after the procedure than they did beforehand. As a result, orthopedic surgeons have reported that increasing numbers of parents are coming to them and asking them to perform the procedure on their un-injured sons in the hope that this will increase their performance. "

Now that's just crazy. Some sports parents never cease to amaze me.


Isn't this essentially identical to cosmetic surgery for aspiring models, fashionistas, actresses, "celebrates" and so forth (unrequited surgery potentially to enhance an individual's "professional" opportunities)? Whether sports- or "Hollywood"-parents, it is repugnant (IMHO).

[cf-62]

This makes me very sad. I enjoyed watching the kid pitch - even his senior year in college.