Tommy John Surgery

The Tommy John Dilemma

 

The Rays announced Tuesday that their top young pitcher, Matt Moore, recently placed on the DL, would be undergoing Tommy John surgery and miss about a year of action. He is just one of already a long list of 2014 players to require this elbow reconstruction. This surgery has essentially saved the game from destruction as elite players are able to continue their careers from what once used to be a career-ending injury. It can have a different effect on everyone; some come back strong (i.e. Adam Wainwright), others are never the same again (i.e. Josh Johnson). But even though this procedure is saving careers, the numbers of players that require it are becoming quite alarming. No one is safe really. It’s not necessarily guys who have been around for 10 years or guys who have pitched well over 200 innings in a season. A lot of the more recent players are young guys just starting their careers and tweak their elbows during early games, some during spring training. It’s well known that throwing a baseball is an unnatural motion for the human body. Does that mean that it is pretty much inevitable that if you are an MLB pitcher, that you’re going to need the surgery at one point or another in your lifetime? I would say as of right now, that you may not necessarily need surgery, but your arm won’t be the same down the road. It also doesn’t help that most pitchers coming into the league these days are only called up if they throw in the upper 90’s. That puts an unbelievable amount of stress on your arm, especially if you’re a starter and are going to be doing it for 100 pitches every five or so nights. Look at Stephen Strasburg. Everyone raved about his speed and how his changeup was as fast as many pitchers’ fastballs. And look where he ended up. He’s still a solid No. 1 starter, but he’s not the same phenom. I can see some similarities with him and Yordano Ventura, who recently made his Royals debut. He hit triple digits multiple times in his first MLB start, which although impressive, makes me wonder how long he can keep something like that up. But what can be done to prevent this? Honestly, I don’t think anything can prevent it. Some teams try leaving their pitchers in the minor leagues for longer periods of time to build their arm up to be able to endure an MLB schedule. However, just as many minor league players have Tommy John surgery. They just don’t get the publicity because not many people have heard of them yet. You can try and limit their innings, but that’s also going to be a huge cost to your team. They’re either only going to be able to go 4 innings per game which tires out your bullpen, or you’d go through a ton of starters per year. Ultimately, I think it’s just going to be part of the game of the baseball and the only thing we can really do is be thankful that the surgery exists at all to lengthen the careers of the MLB’s best.

 

Christian Yelich

 

Yelich flew somewhat under the radar when the Marlins called him up last year mostly because he was playing on one of the worst teams in baseball. He hit a solid .288 and stole 10 bases along with 34 runs in 62 games. Definitely not superstar numbers, but significant nonetheless. Let’s be honest, at that point last year, the Marlins were pretty much only playing because they were being paid to. There was no hope at all of escaping from last place. They were just trying out new talent to see what their farm system had to offer. But Yelich made it through that and has started almost every game in left field for Miami in 2014. Granted, the team is right back in last place, but Yelich is hitting .302 with 9 runs and 3 stolen bases in 12 games played. He’s not the type of player that I would confidently build a franchise around due to the lack of power, but luckily for the Marlins, they already have Giancarlo Stanton, not to mention Jose Fernandez on the mound. But Yelich is a valuable leadoff hitter that can get things going for a lineup. One thing he could definitely improve on is his hitting against left-handed pitchers. So far in his career, he’s batting .165 against lefties compared to .365 against righties. It’s pretty common to see that in left-handed hitters, but improving on that could set him apart from others. At this point in the organization, the Marlins aren’t ready to be a playoff squad, so his numbers still might be skewed this year, but in a couple years, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him eclipse 100 runs in a season. Don’t worry, I’m not promoting the Marlins to be a great team; just keep an eye on this young outfielder.

 

Hot

1. Alexei Ramirez .400/3 HR/ 7 RBI
2. Adrian Gonzalez .409/6 HR/11 RBI
3. Chase Utley .524/1 HR/4 RBI
4. Justin Upton .500/4 HR/8 RBI
5. Adam Eaton .455/10 R
6. Mark Buehrle 12.1 IP/1.46 ERA/2 W
7. Francisco Rodriguez 0.00 ERA/2 S
8. Aaron Harang 12.0 IP/1.50 ERA/1 W
9. Ervin Santana 14.0 IP/0.64 ERA/1 W
10. Kyle Lohse 13.2 IP/2.63 ERA/2 W

Not

1. Josh Reddick .063/0 HR/0 RBI
2. Mike Moustakas .222/0 HR/0 RBI
3. Chris Carter .143/0 HR/1 RBI
4. Jordy Mercer .125/0 HR/0 RBI
5. Zack Cozart .200/0 HR/2 RBI

*I’m going to cut pitchers out of the “Not” section just because in 7 days, they could have had one bad outing, which doesn’t mean they’re necessarily on a cold streak. From now on, I’ll just stick to hitters on this one.

 

-Robert