11/21/24
March 26, 2012
Force of Habit: Science, not the scalpel, is the real solution for Tommy John injuries. Too bad few MLB teams are paying attention.
I read the article in my son's print issue of ESPN, The Magazine. Now while watching some spring training games, I find myself watching elbows, hoping that there will be a slow-motion sequence where I might better see the delivery. One has to wonder why, in this age of technology and information sharing, more teams are not paying attention.
posted by Howard_T at 02:51 PM on March 26, 2012
Seems to me that baseball is like most other industries; one doesn't make changes unless they feel they have to, and in the meantime everyone looks out for their own job first.
And the worst part is that someone always wins. If an industry is completely screwed up, you can see it from the outside -- but in sports, all you can tell is whether someone is slightly more screwed up than someone else.
posted by Etrigan at 02:59 PM on March 26, 2012
I thought the article was well done and well worth reading.
It bears noting that the changes (out of sheer fondness, I don't want to call them advances) in erudition, articulation, and overall skill with the English language that have occurred in the author's family in the course of just two generations is nothing short of breathtaking.
Just think: if all the players whose careers were put on hold or shortened due to having UCL surgery were mapped, retrained, and kept healthy instead, they'd be better pitchers over a longer period of time, and some of the stiffs that are pitching today would not be able to earn major league roster spots. More big league clubs would have adequately skilled staffs.
With a greater supply of pitching talent and greater career longevity in the game, competent pitchers would command smaller sums in the free agent market.
Overall hitting production could decrease, with decent free agent hitters putting up reduced numbers and also signing for less money...and so on...
(If grum goes digging, he'll likely find ample data to blow up this theory, but still, it's nice to dream...about a pro game with smaller salaries, lower ticket prices, better quality of play, etc.)
posted by beaverboard at 08:28 AM on March 27, 2012
(If grum goes digging, he'll likely find ample data to blow up this theory, but still, it's nice to dream...about a pro game with smaller salaries, lower ticket prices, better quality of play, etc.)
I'm a little disappointed that I'm now thought of as the guy who ruins dreams.
:(
That said...
Ticket prices have absolutely nothing to do with salaries.
That's just basic economic principle of supply and demand.
If there was one lesson I would want every sports fan to know, it's that one.
It's probably the greatest lie told to fans by the owners/league/media, and the one that gets repeated most often.
Also, I'm not sure that everyone would agree that better pitching = lower scoring = "better" quality of play.
posted by grum@work at 11:56 AM on March 27, 2012
Fascinating article, apoch. Thanks for posting. This quote stood out for me: "Baseball is a game of failure coached by negative people in an environment of misinformation," says [Tom] House.
Seems to me that baseball is like most other industries; one doesn't make changes unless they feel they have to, and in the meantime everyone looks out for their own job first.
I think the part late in the article where they reference the player who had had his delivery mapped but was never told about it is the sort of thing that could have the potential to change things. If a kid has his delivery mapped and blows out his arm and then sues the team/league, that is probably the only way things will change. Kind of like American football injuries.