RealGM

The Nationals will receive their clearest indication yet about the status of Stephen Strasburg's right arm today after the 22-year-old rookie undergoes an arthrogram exam.

The Nationals will not receive the results until Friday and will then make their decision on Strasburg.

The arthogram will reveal if anything else is amiss with Strasburg's forearm/elbow area.

"He'll do everything he can to throw 97 miles per hour," the doctor said, speaking in general terms. "It sets up a red flag. You look for a sign in his delivery. Why is this happening? It's something you've got to ask."

@MarkZuckerman Rizzo: #Strasburg MRI shows significant UCL tear, probably requires TJ surgery.

Ok, you throw a pitch, it bothers your arm, and you immediately call out the manager and the trainer? Suck it up, kid. This is your profession. You chose to be a baseball player. You can't have the cavalry come in and save your butt every time you feel a little stiff shoulder, sore elbow.

Schadenfreude wrote:Better the elbow than the shoulder, but he's probably going to need to learn how to live at 94 rather than 98.

tsherkin wrote:

Schadenfreude wrote:Better the elbow than the shoulder, but he's probably going to need to learn how to live at 94 rather than 98.

He seems to pitch, rather than throw, anyhow, so it won't be an issue, but haven't a bunch of guys come back throwing harder than they did pre-surgery? Not that I suggest he'll throw FASTER, per se, but I was under the impression that it didn't rob velocity that bad. Or did you mean that the motion for that power is what's causing the problem?

In terms of his having elbow problems rather than shoulder problems, the fact is that it's hard to predict which will fail first because there are lots of variables involved. However, in many cases the elbow will fail before the shoulder does (especially if the pitcher relies heavily on his slider). For example, fellow Inverted W pitcher Anthony Reyes went down with elbow problems before his shoulder problems were able to take their toll.
Going forward, the way this typically works for Inverted W guys is that they come back from the surgery and look great for a few years and then their mechanics again take their toll, but on the shoulder this time. Given Strasburg's velocity, I'm thinking that, if nothing changes in his mechanics and he remains a starter, then the Nats will get one or two years of value out of him before his shoulder blows up.
For Strasburg to have any chance of pitching more than 5 years he's got to change his arm action and get rid of the Inverted W. He also needs to ditch the slider because that is an absolute killer of the elbows. Changing his arm action may knock 5 or so MPH off of his velocity, but that's what it's going to take to reduce the load on his arm.

Randle McMurphy wrote:Mark Prior.

Dr Mufasa wrote:Wow at that O'Leary article, calling this and a Smoltz like career if lucky in June 08. I thought I heard a poster here saying Strasburg's technique was injury risk free, unlike Lincecum's... guess not!

Ong_dynasty wrote:
This is what I thought as well.
I remember one of the main selling points of him was that his motion was fluid or something like that.

I mean are these pitching mechanic "errors" just hindsight?

Avenger wrote:Hey Schad, you obviously know a lot about pitcher mechanics, if you have the time would you mind doing a quick rundown of how much our pitchers (both MLB and guys like Drabek and Stewart) would be prone to arm problems based on their mechanics?