Strasburg hurt again; Update: Will need Tommy John surgery

[PrinceEatMeat]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5482450

Just thought I'd post this, because I think Nationals management is completely idiotic for even having Strasburg out there after his last injury. And now he gets hurt again. They need to shut him down, and rest his arm. It's really stupid to leave the future of your franchise out there just to try to get ticket sales, and possibly risk hurting him seriously and jeopardizing the future of the franchise. If he returns again after this injury someone should be fired.

[Gobias Industries]

And another inverted W bites the dust.

 

Yeah, he probably should have been shut down, but with his mechanics, it's just a matter of time. Hopefully he can come back strong. Reports say strained forearm flexor tendon. Could be a precursor to a partially torn UCL.

[HiAndTight]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5482450

Just thought I'd post this, because I think Nationals management is completely idiotic for even having Strasburg out there after his last injury. And now he gets hurt again. They need to shut him down, and rest his arm. It's really stupid to leave the future of your franchise out there just to try to get ticket sales, and possibly risk hurting him seriously and jeopardizing the future of the franchise. If he returns again after this injury someone should be fired.

I don't see why they would be idiotic at all. At what point do you start to let him pitch? He had a stiff shoulder, something any other guy in the game has and they may skip a start, the Nats threw him on the DL instantly and got him an MRI. They gave him ample time to come back, he said he had absolutely no soreness throwing last time, he was at less than 110 innings, so they let him pitch.

 

What are they suppose to do? Anytime the guy has anything shut him down for the year? What about next year? He has 95 Innings in, and he gets a sore elbow. Shut him down for the rest of the year to be safe? I get he's the future of the franchise, but you can't just go from young phenom to grizzled vet without actually throwing those pitches and starting those games. And I'd agree if there was any reason whatsoever to believe he wasn't healthy, but there wasn't as far as I know, and the injury tonight seems unrelated.

[Invader3K]

I'd be shocked if he pitches again this season.

[jerichoholicninja]

When you treat a guy's arm like porcelain eventually it will become like porcelain.

 

I agree shut him down for the rest of the year but eventually he's going to have to actually pitch.

[logan82]

I know this will sound like hindsight but I would not have brought up Strasburg until next June at the earliest because of service time reasons.

[Invader3K]

I know this will sound like hindsight but I would not have brought up Strasburg until next June at the earliest because of service time reasons.

He was completely dominating AAA. I'm sure he or the player's union would have filed a grievance sooner than that. The Nats couldn't argue they had five pitchers better than him in the majors.

[HiAndTight]

I'd be shocked if he pitches again this season.

Yeah, I can't imagine they'd bother again this year. But now next year what's your limit with him? Given as careful as they've been with him, are you only going to let him go 130 next year? What if you're in a race?

 

If a guy's going to be a Mark Prior, he's going to be Mark Prior. Obviously you don't want to exacerbate any issues by throwing him out there for an obscene amount of innings and abusing him like the Cubs and Dusty did Prior, but they only get this guy for 6 years.

 

Nats fans have to be getting worried about him moving forward.

[logan82]

I know this will sound like hindsight but I would not have brought up Strasburg until next June at the earliest because of service time reasons.

He was completely dominating AAA. I'm sure he or the player's union would have filed a grievance sooner than that. The Nats couldn't argue they had five pitchers better than him in the majors.

Just because you don't have better players in the majors doesn't mean you have to bring a guy up. Strasburg wasn't stretched out to pitch a full season yet. They should have topped him out at AA this year no matter how dominating he was.

[pitchleague]

BA said during the broadcast that earlier reports out of Washington are that he's done for the season and will be visiting Dr. Andrews soon. I haven't seen anything to confirm this yet, however.

[jerichoholicninja]

I just read that Strasburg might be looking at Tommy John. If that is the case you can't really blame the Nats for that. Some guys are just made of glass (Prior, Harden). This is kind of surprising as I don't remember him having any injury issues in college or during his short time in the minors.

[zurch1818]

It's too bad to hear Tommy John and Strasburg in the same sentence. Add another name to the list of pitchers that have HOF potential that may never pan out. This article applies perfectly to the Strasburg situation. According to this article, all pitching getting hurt is a rule and the norm. The great ones are the ones are an exception to this rule. The article does not mention Sheets, but he does fit right in with this rule. I thought it was a great read.

[MJLiverock]

Just because you don't have better players in the majors doesn't mean you have to bring a guy up. Strasburg wasn't stretched out to pitch a full season yet. They should have topped him out at AA this year no matter how dominating he was.

What difference does it make if pitched 100 innings in AA or MLB? They were going to limit his innings at the MLB level as well. Even the Yankees mentioned limiting Phil Hughes innings this year at the MLB level despite his success. Strasburg's career high for innings was just over a 100 so there was talk of limiting him to 140 to 150 this year whether those came at the MLB or AA or AAA wasn't really going to matter to his elbow.

 

 

[thebruce44]

MJLiverock[/b]]

logan3825[/b]]

Just because you don't have better players in the majors doesn't mean you have to bring a guy up. Strasburg wasn't stretched out to pitch a full season yet. They should have topped him out at AA this year no matter how dominating he was.

What difference does it make if pitched 100 innings in AA or MLB? They were going to limit his innings at the MLB level as well. Even the Yankees mentioned limiting Phil Hughes innings this year at the MLB level despite his success. Strasburg's career high for innings was just over a 100 so there was talk of limiting him to 140 to 150 this year whether those came at the MLB or AA or AAA wasn't really going to matter to his elbow.

MLB innings can be more stressful to a young pitcher. They get fired up and over throw. Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't Nick Neugebauer's first couple of starts implicated in his injury and eventual retirement. Didn't Sheets get injured overthrowing in his first All Star game (if I remember correctly he threw one inning where every pitch was a fastball above 96, awesome to watch at the time).

 

It seems to happen all the time. A guy gets up to the majors, then hits the DL after a couple of appearances. Its not just a coincidence.

 

 

[MJLiverock]

Not buying that at all. Strasburg throws hard either way. There is no guarantee he doesn't overthrow in a minor league game because he knows the GM is in the crowd, or he wants to impress a hot girl, or he is pissed the guy hit a bomb off him in his last AB. There is also nothing that says it was overthrowing. Injuries happen and given that he wasn't being overworked it was probably just his time, plenty of pitchers go down in minor league starts as well. He wasn't over any career innings amount by a large amount and he had never even topped the magical 100 pitch count.

[RockCoCougars]

This guy's career path is so similar to Kerry Wood's, its kind of scary.

[Crash2303]

thanks for providing the link to that article, Zurch. It was great- and made me think of guys recently who we got to see their phenomenal ability at the major league level, then injuries so young and are now left wondering...what if?

Out of this pool of players, who do you think would have had amounted to the best pitcher if they had played at least 10 major injury free seasons?

Mark Prior

Scott Kazmir

Rich Harden

Kerry Wood

Nick Neugebauer (to make it relevant for brew fans)

[MJLiverock]

I'd say probaby Prior out of that list. Wood had some fairly injury free years and was always in the mid to upper 3 ERA range. Not awful but not dominate over the course of a season. Prior's 2003 was better than any of Wood's seasons and he had better control. Prior's sample is a lot smaller than the other guys (outside Neuge) so maybe he gets the benefit of that. Wood could be nasty but he was also hittable and tended to sway between the two a lot - - sort of like Zambrano.

 

I didn't see Kazmir as much so it is hard to say with him. Harden never seemed as dominate and was never able to go deep into games.

[colbyjack]

I agree with Prior. He was the first real deal/complete package coming out of college before Strasburg, and while Strasburg consistently throws harder, Prior is just a few tickets behind him, with arguably a better overall repertoire at a similar point in their respective careers.

 

Keep in mind that while Strasburg's mechanics have always drawn some skeptics, Prior's were always considered to be crystal clean.

 

All the more reason to keep a close eye on Gallardo's innings too. Don't forget about cases like Dwight Gooden and Fernando Valenzuela who pitched marvelously over the course of several seasons before getting burned out by so many innings so early in their careers.

[TooLiveBrew]

Keep in mind that while Strasburg's mechanics have always drawn some skeptics, Prior's were always considered to be crystal clean.

 

Prior came from the USC inverted W school of mechanics, though, right?

[Crash2303]

I think Gooden was 'burned out' for other reasons...

[Crash2303]

i'd have to Prior- for the all around package, but Harden might have been the filthiest of the bunch. when he was on- he was downright goodenesq. nobody could touch him. i remember spring training of '07 had like 25K's in 13IP. had he stayed healthy, he might have been the best of the bunch. though, i also think Kerry Wood had some big-time potential and would have become a better 'pitcher' as the years went on.

[logan82]

Just because you don't have better players in the majors doesn't mean you have to bring a guy up. Strasburg wasn't stretched out to pitch a full season yet. They should have topped him out at AA this year no matter how dominating he was.

What difference does it make if pitched 100 innings in AA or MLB? They were going to limit his innings at the MLB level as well. Even the Yankees mentioned limiting Phil Hughes innings this year at the MLB level despite his success. Strasburg's career high for innings was just over a 100 so there was talk of limiting him to 140 to 150 this year whether those came at the MLB or AA or AAA wasn't really going to matter to his elbow.

 

140 innings will only get you through roughly 4 months of baseball. I see no reason to bring up a guy who will not be able to contribute for the whole year. It also gives you a chance to see how he handles the stress of a whole year of professional baseball. Pitching in the minors may not be much different than pitching in the majors but pitching in the majors is drastically different than pitching in college.

[Gobias Industries]

Keep in mind that while Strasburg's mechanics have always drawn some skeptics, Prior's were always considered to be crystal clean.

 

Prior came from the USC inverted W school of mechanics, though, right?

Yup. Prior's was much worse, but Strasburg certainly has some characteristics of an inverted W.

 

I remember expressing concern over Bush's inverted W 2-3 years ago on here and basically being laughed at. I have no doubt that's what has contributed to his decrease in velocity.

[TooLiveBrew]

I don't think so. He showed no real decrease in velocity until the Hanley Ramirez line drive. That's what I think led to the decrease in his velocity.