OT: Mets Wheeler has fully torn UCL in
- Thread starter Ru2bnj
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While it's certainly not good news at least there is an experienced replacement ready to step right in. And two more guys pending more seasoning down below. The way I see it these type of injuries are just going to continue throughout baseball. Just like knees in football these elbows and shoulders simply undergo a lot of stress when you repeatedly throw that hard and also mix in the torque from those breaking pitches.
Never like to see that on any team. I guess a silver lining here is that Wheeler can get the surgery and possibly be ready to go a year from now. Better that than having this happen before Memorial Day and have him gone most or all of 2016. Best to him on his injury recovery.
It could be worse. You could be a Yankee fan and realize the ARod is doing just barely enough to make the team.
Sorry to hear about Wheeler. I was actually looking forward to a Mets team that was better than the Yankees. Maybe it would shake up the Yankee brass....again....to start growing home grown talent. It took for Steinbrenner to be suspended for it to happen the last time.
This post was edited on 3/16 1:03 PM by WhiteBus
Sorry to hear about Wheeler. I was actually looking forward to a Mets team that was better than the Yankees. Maybe it would shake up the Yankee brass....again....to start growing home grown talent. It took for Steinbrenner to be suspended for it to happen the last time.
This post was edited on 3/16 1:03 PM by WhiteBus
Makes Alderson look pretty smart by keeping that stockpile of young pitchers he's got. I'm a Yankees fan, but anyone would be jealous of the Mets pitching depth and it had to have been tempting many many times to trade some of it away for a big bat or two. But baseball is at the point now where you almost have to assume you're going to lose 1-2 of your starters to season ending injury, so the depth is huge. Good for the Mets stockpiling it.
Why do you think that is? Growing up watching baseball, I don't think I ever remember this many season-ending injuries to frontline starters like this. Maybe we weren't aware of it as much, I dunno. The surgery was named after one good pitcher from my era, so maybe things weren't that different.
Young arms take a beating growing up these days. Baseball is a year round sport. These kids are pitching 12 months a year, throwing curve balls earlier and earlier, and by the time they are in their early twenties, the elbows and shoulders are shot.
For the Mets, it's Gee for now, syndergaard or montero come May or June.
This post was edited on 3/16 1:07 PM by RUaDevil
For the Mets, it's Gee for now, syndergaard or montero come May or June.
This post was edited on 3/16 1:07 PM by RUaDevil
This Tommy John epidemic is a real problem for baseball. You know Tanaka will go down soon and you're just waiting for Kershaw and Sale to get hit. It's unbelievable.
I get that, but at the same time, there are so many specialists now and guys are rarely throwing more than 6 innings or 7 tops. Throwing the curve earlier and regularly probably has something to do with it. It's just crazy to see how many have gone down recently.
So what is the starting pitching lineup for Mets?
1. Harvey
2. deGrom
3. Colon
4. Niese
5. Synnegard or Gee or ???
1. Harvey
2. deGrom
3. Colon
4. Niese
5. Synnegard or Gee or ???
Guess you thought wrong because Colon won 15 games last season and other than DeGrom was the Mets most reliable starter last season and a trade target for some contenders.
While elbow injuries have risen, baseball has gotten much better at preventing shoulder injuries, which are often career enders. Just think of how many guys would've eventually torn their UCL in the past except their career was already over after tearing their rotator cuff.
It's still a major problem though and year-round baseball for kids can't be helping.
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It's still a major problem though and year-round baseball for kids can't be helping.
Posted from Rivals Mobile
Back in the day, pitchers ran, ran, and ran some more. Now they lift, lift, and lift some more. I am not sure that the change is beneficial.
It's all about overuse. As a previous poster stated, playing a particular sport is now a year round activity with very few 3 sport players anymore. Repetitive use of the same muscles in these young athletes doesn't allow for all muscles to develop equally as they would if each season they played a different sport. My friend has 4 sons who play/played baseball competitively, 2 at a bigtime Div 1A school. Spring, summer and fall, they played on travelling teams. The 2-3 winter months were spent in batting cages, indoor training facilities specific for baseball and throwing. There was absolutely no baseball related down time. The 2 older ones have already had elbow and shoulder surgeries (note the plural for each) and the younger ones who are still in high school are frequently undergoing some sort of PT for muscle/joint injuries.
Pitchers who have good coaches still run a great deal - as much as ever. They also lift weights in programs designed for pitchers. Most weight training is designed for their core and legs. So I do not think that is the reason for arm injuries. Kids do tend to pitch too much at a young age and I agree that is a huge problem. They also fail to take an appropriate amount of time off to rest their arms. There was a recent study that showed pitchers growing up in the north had fewer injuries because the weather precluded them from pitching as much as they did in the south.
In HS, I was always taught, for strength like football, and power hitting in baseball, lift as much as you can, for as long as you can. For building up pitching and throwing a football strength, lift light weights fast, and as long as you can, to build elongated muscles. That's what I did, had great arm strength, and till this day at age 60, I've never had an arm injury, and can still throw a baseball and football pretty darn good.
Unfortunately Syndergaard may be the next for Tommy John. He had some elbow stiffness last year and then came back to pitch after some rest.
