Brewers sign John Halama, Capuano to minor league deals

[Patrick425]

If I'm an older minor league pitcher (25-28ish) and I'm seeing a guy like Halama get another shot, it has to be frustrating. Halama? He wasn't good when he was good!

[TheCrew07]

TheCrew07, isn't it kind of normal for a player on their first year back from TJ to lose velocity, which they get back after about a year? I'm definitely no expert on this, but Cappy was only a high-80's guy before the surgery, so it wouldn't be too hard to believe he could get back there.

They do add needed depth, plus it may help some of the young guys at AAA to have a couple of guys with some major league success in the rotation with them.

I'm not familiar with that at all monty57. Some pitchers actually gain a tick or two on their fastball that they will gradually lose again over time as the UCL begins to degrade. While velocity loss with TJ surgery isn't common, there are cases when it happens like with Pedro Liriano (I'm sure there are others, he's the only one I recall off the top of my head). However, velocity loss is more commonly associated with shoulder surgery like with Mark Rogers and Mike Jones. If I recall correctly TJ surgery has a full recovery rate in something like high the 80s to low 90s percent. In this case though we aren't talking about a single TJ surgery, this is Cappy's 2nd. I went out and did a google search for multiple tommy john surgeries and found this article. In those 1100 surgeries Dr Andrews performed only 12 pitchers had multiple surgeries, and Andreews estimates that a pitcher coming back in for a second surgery has a 1 in 5 chance of it being a success.

 

"First, a pitcher has to take a year to a year-and-a-half to recover," Andrews said. "A promising, young pitcher may go through it again, but an older one in the twilight of his career will just call it quits."

Furthermore, when pitchers have their first surgery, they use what is normally their one and only chance for a healthy elbow, Andrews believes.

"You can always get it redone, but it won't be as good as the first time."

It would seem that the odds are stacked pretty firmly against Cappy regaining any velocity and even making it back to MLB. I'll never say never, but as I said, he's likely done as a starting pitcher. He'll have success as he works his way back up through minors because many of those players won't make good contact with his breaking stuff but I'm not sure that any of that success will translate to MLB, especially as a SP where you have to get through the order multiple times.

[clancyphile]

It would seem that the odds are stacked pretty firmly against Cappy regaining any velocity and even making it back to MLB. I'll never say never, but as I said, he's likely done as a starting pitcher. He'll have success as he works his way back up through minors because many of those players won't make good contact with his breaking stuff but I'm not sure that any of that success will translate to MLB, especially as a SP where you have to get through the order multiple times.

But if he can get through two an outing, he'd be very valuable in the pen.

 

That said, I'm pulling for him - if only so that the Brewers can boast one of the best (if not THE BEST) pickoff moves in the majors on their staff. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[xisxisxis]

But if he can get through two an outing, he'd be very valuable in the pen.

 

That said, I'm pulling for him - if only so that the Brewers can boast one of the best (if not THE BEST) pickoff moves in the majors on their staff.

 

Forget his pitching, why don't we move him to the OF.

[HiAndTight]

Don't you think Josh Butler will be at AAA in 2010?

 

I forgot about Butler. But asside from Butler and a few interesting bullpen guys, the AAA pitching staff is looking to be mainly AAAA players again. So it's not like these signings will be taking away innings from prospects.

 

Yes, the point is there are far, far more spots available in AAA than there are viable pitching prospects to be blocked.

Hopefully this becomes an issue in the coming years, even next year, but as of now...sadly.....no such concern.

 

[HiAndTight]

But if he can get through two an outing, he'd be very valuable in the pen.

 

That said, I'm pulling for him - if only so that the Brewers can boast one of the best (if not THE BEST) pickoff moves in the majors on their staff. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

Yeah, I understand how unlikely it is for a pitcher to come back, and I don't expect him to just for that reason, but I'm not going to hold it against him that he was throwing in the low 80's in Helena. That was more about just getting back out there and getting into it a little bit.

And while pitchers often gain a tick or two shortly after TJ surgery, that, to my understanding is when they've strengthened their arm again and are pitching a little bit more. Cappy it seemed was taking it pretty easy just to get back into the swing.

Regardless, I think he's the type of guy we're all rooting for.