Strasburg (probably) needs Tommy John surgery

[EagleNYC]

Seems likely. Fuck. That's some bullshit.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5502866

[apbc12]

Sorry, Nationals fans. Looks like Bob Costas will have to hold off on the Hall of Fame speech for at least a year.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5502866

[EagleNYC]

Why would you write that?

[BC '00]

:74

Why would you write that?

and



are now less fun. That is all.

[pick6pedro]

11 starts in the minors. That's it. While I'm sure the Nats pay lip service to the fact that he was "brought along correctly", I don't know of any pitchers who hit the majors with less pro experience, not even the biggest studs with the biggest hype. Doc Gooden pitched 50 before he started in the majors. This just screams of the Nats not looking out for his interests. Of course this could have happened at any level and I feel awful for the kid, but I've been saying all along I thought they were going about this the wrong way (tm Teddy and HJS masturbatoriness).

[eepstein0]

11 starts in the minors. That's it. While I'm sure the Nats pay lip service to the fact that he was "brought along correctly", I don't know of any pitchers who hit the majors with less pro experience, not even the biggest studs with the biggest hype. Doc Gooden pitched 50 before he started in the majors. This just screams of the Nats not looking out for his interests. Of course this could have happened at any level and I feel awful for the kid, but I've been saying all along I thought they were going about this the wrong way (tm Teddy and HJS masturbatoriness).

I can't really fault the Nats for what they did. It's just unfortunate.

[twballgame9]

Well, that was pretty fucking predictable.

[flyingelvii]

Strasburg went to college so the Gooden comparison isn't a great one.

The big problem is the Nats handling of its young pitchers. This is the second year in a row where the Nats top pitching prospect has needed Tommy John, with Zimmerman, who just returned the other day, being the other. And all this time I thought Dusty Baker was in Cincinnati. Oh, whoops, just realized Mike Leake went on the DL. Dusty's still there.

[twballgame9]

Count me in the category of people that think traumatic arm injuries come from throwing too little, not too much. When guys are exerting to throw 100 mph, you need to build up the muscles in the right areas. For a weird motion like throwing a baseball, you must accomplish this by throwing. Weights can't recreate those mechanics. Limiting guys too much leaves their arms too weak to handle the exertion of game level pitching.

There are certainly injuries that will occur no matter what (I'd hate to see an MRI of my right arm, for example) because they are flukes or you effed up mechanics one time. And I am sure that dollars invested in these guys magnify injuries and caution rules such that guys in the old days that pitched with injuries would sit today. But I believe kids should throw more, at 50-80% velocity than they do today.

I'm no orthopedic surgeon, but it strikes me that with every other joint, you protect it by building the muscle around it. With the elbow and rotator cuff, we protect it by not using it as much. To me, that is counterintuitive.

[cvilleagle]

I was at the Nationals game on Sunday, and it was just depressing how many people were wearing Strasburg jerseys - the fans had all bought in to the hype, and I think they were right to do so, but it has to really hurt for the actual fans up there (not that there are that many).