According to strong rumors.
This sucks. These kids clearly came in with UCL issues, but no doubt other teams will use this against us in recruiting. Hate it for these guys. Our pitching is quickly disappearing for next season.
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According to strong rumors.
This sucks. These kids clearly came in with UCL issues, but no doubt other teams will use this against us in recruiting. Hate it for these guys. Our pitching is quickly disappearing for next season.
It's common now. No one can look at what we do with our pitchers and say we're terrible on pitchers. It's just bad luck. When you recruit power arms like we have been this is the risk you take.
Damn BB cannot catch a break.
Or it's the fall, summer, and spring baseball a lot of these kids have been playing since 8 years old.
Eh, it's starting to happen everywhere. I bet you would be hard pressed to find an SEC roster that doesn't have a current TJ issue or have a couple arms that have already had TJ.
Kids play way too much baseball at too young an age these days.
It's not what MSU's coaches have done that is the cause of this problem. It's what the parents of these kids and their coaches when they were 10, 11, and 12 years old did. Baseball is not a year round sport for pitchers. It just isn't. I've seen 14 and 15 year old kids in my clinic with elbow pain, and I've told them all that they are heading towards TJS if they don't let their arms rest and play another sport. Heck, last summer, I took a kid out of baseball medically until January. He was having shoulder and elbow pain and was 15. I told him he could play football, but not to touch a baseball till after I saw him back in January.
UCL tears are just as preventable as diabetes and hypertension. You have to take ownership of your body and take care of it. These kids that are throwing 12 months out of the year are not taking care of their bodies.
Probably not a popular stance but with 3 current tommy John injuries do we need to cut bait with 1 or 2 of them? We can't afford to carry 3 pitchers on scholarship when none of them will pitch an inning in 2017.
Now we see why Cohen is recrooting seemingly so many pitchers. I'm sure he knows this crap is widespread. I'm glad we have those JUCOs now.
This has really been becoming a problem the last 10 years ago. If something don't change it will soon be out of the norm for a pitcher to never get TJ. The awful part is, that it can be attributed to overly obsessed dads pushing their kids way to hard. Just like there is a set distance between the plate and the mound for each age group, there should be a pitch count limit for each age group, gradually increasing until 15 years old. Most of the damage is done before the age of 15.
The bad thing is, Ethan was doing very well in the Cape League. I think he would have been one of the headliners on the staff in 2017.
There are pitch count limits.
The thing is, it isn't just pitch counts and rest in between starts. A lot has to do with the types of pitches you throw. Overthrowing to light up the radar gun is one possible cause. Throwing junk pitches at a young age is another.
Greg Maddux once said that his son would throw nothing but fastballs and would learn how to locate the fastball before throwing any off speed or breaking pitches. He said that young pitchers shouldn't throw breaking pitches till they get into college.
Do we have some position players who pitched in HS? I know LA did he wasn't overpowering but threw mid to high 80's with a good slider. Maybe with some coaching could be a mid week/pen option. Just saying if needed to give minor relief in certain games to spare better arms.
I'm talking about a set in stone nation wide, regardless of league, legal pitch count. Is that a thing now? Make the umpires responsible for keeping pitch counts, fine the parents if the kid goes over. This isn't a "pussification of America" issue, it's a real issue that is affecting the futures of some of our kids.
My dad always told me that I would never break my wrist with a pitch until he could pluck a whisker off my chin. Taught me how to throw a curveball with your wrist broken before going to the plate, which was still very affective at the age. Circle change and knuckle curve among other pitches can be taught to kids without breaking their wrists on delivery.
There is a right way to teach kids how to throw junk without tearing up their arms at a young age. So sad going to the local ball park and seeing a 10 year old breaking his wrist to throw a curveball. It's just too much stress on their young underdeveloped arms. The solution starts and finishes with parents and coaches becoming better educated on the risks of over pitching and throwing junk at a young age.
Some pitchers have gotten Tommy Johns and not need it.
Sadly, you are spot on. So many parents use their kids for their own good, trying to live vicariously through them in the hopes of some how achieving a goal that they couldn't do for themselves in the past. It's just sick hearing of grown men fighting over a 10 year old baseball game and using their kids as some sort of time machine to correct their own past.
This is horrible news if true. I was already thinking next year was going to be a bad year because we lost all of our end of the year weekend starting pitching couple that with we lost ALL of our power hitting to the draft and now we just lost the one kid I thought might be our Friday starter next year! brace yourselves bulldog faithful next season is going to be a long one. but I hope like hell I'm wrong! HAIL STATE!
It's not our coaches it's the stupid coaches of youth baseball who wear their kids out. Find one kid and ride him. I just coached my travel team in a World Series. There was a team that threw their ace 16 innings over 4 days and that was after he pitched 5 in a league game 2 days before! That's 20 innings in 6 days and it ain't the first time. Kid has potential but his arms gonna fall off. My ace threw 6 innings 2 opening day and 4 in championship game(we run ruled that very team and that kid). I have 9 of my 11 players that pitch and none threw more than 6 innings or 85 pitches total! What I see on the travel circuit week in and week out disgusts me. These kids are ruined before they ever get to college.
Wow. People believe anything they hear. Who is your credible source?
Small is on the shelf for 2 months- Tommy John is 50/50 at this point they say.
Padgett is assuredly headed for Tommy John.
And yes- young kids playing 50 freaking games a year is ridiculous. There is no doubt the amount of strain being put on young elbows these days is causing the arm problems. Thats obvious.
I wonder why he thinks that because a cutter is basically the same as a fastball with a slightly different finger places and or pressure on the ball? It just seems odd to me now that studies have shown that curveballs and split finger fastballs aren't the culprits we once thought they were.
50 games is on the lower end of the spectrum now. When the USSSA started to form and overtake Dizzy Dean and other post rec-league all star leagues, I knew this problem was inevitable. USSSA became a separate entity, and the more talented kids stopped playing rec ball, and only played travel ball. This switch over happened about 10-15 years ago, which is why we are now just starting to see the TJ outbreak, because the first travel ball kids are now in 18-25. Rec ball + dizzy dean all star would be about 30 games a year for these kids, tops. The USSSA is a different monster, tournaments every weekend from March to August, where a kid could play up to 7 or 8 games a weekend through the losers bracket. Throw in the increase in fall ball tournaments, and these kids are playing ball 9-10 months out of the year. I'd say the average USSSA team plays close to 100 games a year. Someone needs to regulate this stuff before it ruins the game.
It isn't any type of pitch or age or anything it is simply overuse. Too many games, too many innings. Couple that with bigger, stronger players and the ligament can't take it.
Seems if the vast majority of good young baseball players are playing pretty much year round it would be hard to not let your kid play too. While letting them rest would be great for their bodies, it could cause then to fall behind the others that aren't resting.
Why isn't this being reported on any other site? Not that I don't believe you guys but by now the chicken littles on all the other sites would be screaming this from the roof tops and saying we would be screwed next year.
Because we have the best baseball board among MSU web sites?
Plus the rumor has been put to rest- no Tommy John but rest for the next two months. Worst case scenario we're rolling Pilkington, Breaux, Keegan, and maybe Cyr out there. I can live with that if that's what it comes down to- which I hope it doesn't because I want a healthy Small out there.
Is it year around baseball or too much pitching?
The Dominicans play baseball year around from the time they can walk, dontheybhave this problem?
Maybe the Dominicans aren't irresponsible with the pitching.
I dorm believe for one minute that just playing baseball, as in everyday practice, pickup games, etc. is the problem. The game of baseball just isn't that hard on the body compard to other sports. Outside of pitching, the rest of the game is relatively easy on the body.