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Yup...it's a bloody shame. Could it be his velocity and/or a kink in his mechanics that caused the tear? Whatever the case, I wish him a speedy recovery.
who knows, probably both. when you can reach 102 MPH, your arm may explode at any time. its a shame.
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Not sure if you remember the Dave Dravecky thing, but that was brutal. Here's a cut and paste from the Wiki page:The following season, a cancerous desmoid tumor was found in Dravecky's pitching arm. He underwent surgery on October 7, 1988, removing half of the deltoid muscle in his pitching arm and freezing the humerus bone in an effort to eliminate all of the cancerous cells. By July 1989, he was pitching in the minors, and on August 10, he made a highly publicized return to the major leagues, pitching eight innings and defeating Cincinnati 4–3. In his following start five days later against the Expos, Dravecky pitched three no-hit innings, but in the fifth inning, he felt a tingling sensation in his arm. In the sixth inning he started off shaky, allowing a home run to the lead off batter and then hitting the second batter, Andres Galarraga. Then, on his first pitch to Tim Raines, his humerus bone snapped, and Dravecky collapsed.The Giants won the National League pennant in 1989 (defeating the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS in five games), and in the post-game celebration, Dravecky's arm was broken a second time when running out to the mound to celebrate. A doctor examining Dravecky's x-rays noticed a mass in his arm. Dravecky's cancer had returned, ending his career. Eighteen days later, Dravecky retired from baseball, leaving a 64–57 record with 558 strikeouts and a 3.13 ERA in 1,062⅔ innings. He won the 1989 Willie Mac Award honoring his spirit and leadership.I recall listening to, if not watching, that game (I was an Expos fan). Dave Van Horne and Duke Snider (the play-by-play dudes) were just in shock. Awful moment...

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The other secret to being successful is having managers and owners who care about your arm and your career more than they do about filling the seats for 2 months. Seriously, this is such a shame. Same goddam thing that happened to Francisco Liriano a couple years ago. Liriano's pitching pretty well this season finally, but it's been FOUR years since he blew his arm out as a phenom, and he certainly isn't pitching like he was then.Note to baseball: Young dudes need time to learn how to not blow their arm out. For fuck's sake. This makes the Nationals look really, really bad. Like, they just ruined the only good thing they had going for them cuz they unwrapped it too early.

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Not sure if you remember the Dave Dravecky thing, but that was brutal. Here's a cut and paste from the Wiki page:The following season, a cancerous desmoid tumor was found in Dravecky's pitching arm. He underwent surgery on October 7, 1988, removing half of the deltoid muscle in his pitching arm and freezing the humerus bone in an effort to eliminate all of the cancerous cells. By July 1989, he was pitching in the minors, and on August 10, he made a highly publicized return to the major leagues, pitching eight innings and defeating Cincinnati 4–3. In his following start five days later against the Expos, Dravecky pitched three no-hit innings, but in the fifth inning, he felt a tingling sensation in his arm. In the sixth inning he started off shaky, allowing a home run to the lead off batter and then hitting the second batter, Andres Galarraga. Then, on his first pitch to Tim Raines, his humerus bone snapped, and Dravecky collapsed.The Giants won the National League pennant in 1989 (defeating the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS in five games), and in the post-game celebration, Dravecky's arm was broken a second time when running out to the mound to celebrate. A doctor examining Dravecky's x-rays noticed a mass in his arm. Dravecky's cancer had returned, ending his career. Eighteen days later, Dravecky retired from baseball, leaving a 64–57 record with 558 strikeouts and a 3.13 ERA in 1,062⅔ innings. He won the 1989 Willie Mac Award honoring his spirit and leadership.I recall listening to, if not watching, that game (I was an Expos fan). Dave Van Horne and Duke Snider (the play-by-play dudes) were just in shock. Awful moment...
yeah, i was there. sure i was only 3 (my mom started taking me to giants games when i was 7 months old, lol) and dont remember it, but my mom tells me how horrible it was to witness it, and hearing cracking sound it made. we had season tickets 8 rows up from first, so we were pretty close. i actually met Dave a few years ago. great guy and went out of his way just to chat with a few fans (myself included). im glad i dont remember that game.
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The other secret to being successful is having managers and owners who care about your arm and your career more than they do about filling the seats for 2 months. Seriously, this is such a shame. Same goddam thing that happened to Francisco Liriano a couple years ago. Liriano's pitching pretty well this season finally, but it's been FOUR years since he blew his arm out as a phenom, and he certainly isn't pitching like he was then.Note to baseball: Young dudes need time to learn how to not blow their arm out. For fuck's sake. This makes the Nationals look really, really bad. Like, they just ruined the only good thing they had going for them cuz they unwrapped it too early.
What did the Nationals do wrong? Are they supposed to not pitch him? If not, at what point do they let him go? If you're a pitcher, you pitch. If you get hurt, you get hurt.I traded for him in a keeper league just before he was called up. I hate you Nationals.
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The other secret to being successful is having managers and owners who care about your arm and your career more than they do about filling the seats for 2 months. Seriously, this is such a shame. Same goddam thing that happened to Francisco Liriano a couple years ago. Liriano's pitching pretty well this season finally, but it's been FOUR years since he blew his arm out as a phenom, and he certainly isn't pitching like he was then.Note to baseball: Young dudes need time to learn how to not blow their arm out. For fuck's sake. This makes the Nationals look really, really bad. Like, they just ruined the only good thing they had going for them cuz they unwrapped it too early.
What did the Nationals do wrong? Are they supposed to not pitch him? If not, at what point do they let him go? If you're a pitcher, you pitch. If you get hurt, you get hurt.I traded for him in a keeper league just before he was called up. I hate you Nationals.
Poppy is right here...they did protect him, and limit him, and keep as close an eye as possible on every single thing he did, and he willingly obliged to all of their requests. Posnanski wrote a good piece on this situation; the lucky ones/freaks are Nolan/Clemens/Randy Johnson. Most young, hard-throwers don't last very long; the human body isn't meant to do the things that baseball pitchers do. You ever watch a full windup in slow motion, it's pretty disgusting.Aroldis Chapman supposedly got clocked at 105 today, according to scouts. I don't believe its accurate, but what scares me more is there is probably a 90% chance he gets severely injured if he consistently throws that hard.Loogie's statement is a very accurate one.
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Poppy is right here...they did protect him, and limit him, and keep as close an eye as possible on every single thing he did, and he willingly obliged to all of their requests. Posnanski wrote a good piece on this situation; the lucky ones/freaks are Nolan/Clemens/Randy Johnson. Most young, hard-throwers don't last very long; the human body isn't meant to do the things that baseball pitchers do. You ever watch a full windup in slow motion, it's pretty disgusting.Aroldis Chapman supposedly got clocked at 105 today, according to scouts. I don't believe its accurate, but what scares me more is there is probably a 90% chance he gets severely injured if he consistently throws that hard.Loogie's statement is a very accurate one.
Agree with everything said here. I'm not sure how the Nationals could have, within reason, been more cautious with Strasburg than they were. Unless you think they should have shut him down after the first DL stint, but given how much the Nationals know Strasburg is worth, I really doubt they would have let him pitch again this season after that unless their doctors really thought he was ready to go back out there 100%.
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What did the Nationals do wrong? Are they supposed to not pitch him? If not, at what point do they let him go? If you're a pitcher, you pitch. If you get hurt, you get hurt.
Maybe he wasn't ready for the majors? Not because he didn't have the stuff (he obviously had the stuff) but because he maybe didn't have the discipline yet. Like Loogie said (or implied), if you throw 100% on every pitch you're gonna be in trouble. But when your organization is heralding you as the next coming of Jesus and you're 21-years-old and on national tv nearly every start, it's probably pretty easy to overthrow and blow out your arm.
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Zumaya has been injured every season after his first year. (Though one injury was caused by guitar hero) I just don't think you can throw that hard consistently without doing damage.

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http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/story/13824602I thought this was an interesting take on the damaged arms of hard-throwers. And strikes me as the most plausible explanation.
Wow never thought of something like that but that does sound plausible. Especially after watching the little league world series and how all those kids can throw gas. Guess I will take my son to play second base instead of pitcher.
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Maybe he wasn't ready for the majors? Not because he didn't have the stuff (he obviously had the stuff) but because he maybe didn't have the discipline yet. Like Loogie said (or implied), if you throw 100% on every pitch you're gonna be in trouble. But when your organization is heralding you as the next coming of Jesus and you're 21-years-old and on national tv nearly every start, it's probably pretty easy to overthrow and blow out your arm.
I watched every one of his starts, he wasn't going 100% on every pitch. After the first couple starts he was sitting at 96-97, and hitting 99-100 mostly on out pitches. Also, right around start 5 or 6 you could easily tell he was pitching to contact a lot more.
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I watched every one of his starts, he wasn't going 100% on every pitch. After the first couple starts he was sitting at 96-97, and hitting 99-100 mostly on out pitches. Also, right around start 5 or 6 you could easily tell he was pitching to contact a lot more.
Not to mention his doctor said that the injury looked more like it happened on one fluky pitch.....not an injury of accumulated wear and tear. Josh Johnson and countless others went through the same thing and he could end up coming back more durable and better than ever.
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That cbssports article was really interesting.
Gregg Doyel, though. He is the CBS token "guy who writes wildly inflammatory columns". Pretty sure his column today was themed "If you think Tiger Woods should be on the Ryder Cup team you have your head up your ass". I'd take that article (which I did read) with a grain of salt.
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Gregg Doyel, though. He is the CBS token "guy who writes wildly inflammatory columns". Pretty sure his column today was themed "If you think Tiger Woods should be on the Ryder Cup team you have your head up your ass". I'd take that article (which I did read) with a grain of salt.
I don't know anything about the writer, but this definitely isn't the first time that this theory has been tossed out there (as Doyel himself admits in the article). I can say for me that I've heard it a bunch of times, so it's not like Doyel is unveiling a crazy unheard of idea.There's constantly a lot of discussion about whether pitchers are being coddled too much (usually it's "old school" people arguing this side) or whether pitchers in their late teens and early 20's need to be watched over carefully. I think that the theory from the article is most likely the correct answer regarding many pitcher blowouts, and obviously there's at least some scientific research which backs that claim. Probably more than enough considering we ought to be relatively conservative when it comes to gambling on the (future) health of children anyway.The only problem with this (for baseball people anyway) is if they accept that the "child overwork" theory is (most) correct in explaining blowouts, it kind of leaves everyone with a bad taste in their mouth since no matter how MLB uses the pitcher, they're sitting on a (potentially) ticking timebomb that can't be avoided. So they continue to argue over whether ML pitchers are being coddled too much or not because nobody likes being negatively fatalistic about talented young pitchers who at least appear to still be okay at 18 or 20 or 22.
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I don't know anything about the writer, but this definitely isn't the first time that this theory has been tossed out there (as Doyel himself admits in the article). I can say for me that I've heard it a bunch of times, so it's not like Doyel is unveiling a crazy unheard of idea.There's constantly a lot of discussion about whether pitchers are being coddled too much (usually it's "old school" people arguing this side) or whether pitchers in their late teens and early 20's need to be watched over carefully. I think that the theory from the article is most likely the correct answer regarding many pitcher blowouts, and obviously there's at least some scientific research which backs that claim. Probably more than enough considering we ought to be relatively conservative when it comes to gambling on the (future) health of children anyway.The only problem with this (for baseball people anyway) is if they accept that the "child overwork" theory is (most) correct in explaining blowouts, it kind of leaves everyone with a bad taste in their mouth since no matter how MLB uses the pitcher, they're sitting on a (potentially) ticking timebomb that can't be avoided. So they continue to argue over whether ML pitchers are being coddled too much or not because nobody likes being negatively fatalistic about talented young pitchers who at least appear to still be okay at 18 or 20 or 22.
I am not saying it is not an idea; I am just saying that we need to consider the source. I knew a lot of baseball kids growing up in Florida and there was plenty of time off from the season until you hit like 16-17. Of course, maybe a lot has changed in the last 15 years but that seems unlikely.
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I knew a lot of baseball kids growing up in Florida and there was plenty of time off from the season until you hit like 16-17. Of course, maybe a lot has changed in the last 15 years but that seems unlikely.
I didn't read the article in question (I skimmed it), but I did read a different article that talked about the specialization of youth sports. If you're a kid who excels at a sport, then you're going to play it all year. Youth sports has changed drastically in the last 15 years.
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I didn't read the article in question (I skimmed it), but I did read a different article that talked about the specialization of youth sports. If you're a kid who excels at a sport, then you're going to play it all year. Youth sports has changed drastically in the last 15 years.
The AAU-ization of youth sports, I guess. I feel old now....in my day, you played little league or Babe Ruth league.....season was 5 months or so and that was it.
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