OT: Strasburg Has Torn UCL; Tommy John Surgery Likely

[Schad]

With Marcum, watch him tonight as he delivers...he really pinches his shoulders together, and both his elbows get quite high. That puts quite a bit of stress on his shoulder as his arm is coming through, largely because it causes his arm to come through a bit late on footfall. I'll try to freeze-frame it at some point.

[Avenger]

that looks ok to me

this is from his seattle days, is it still considered an inverted W if its angled like that? In the examples O'Leary provides, the inverted W's all seem to be pretty parallel to the ground, does it still cause a timing problem if its an angle like it is(or was) with Morrow?

[Hoopstarr]

^I don't think that counts as an inverted W. I think that's more of a dragging arm or nothing at all.

I know people always point to those O'Leary breakdowns anytime some guy goes down but I've never put too much stock in it. Pitching isn't as simple as a set of universally accepted mechanics that are "right".

Anyway, I'm appreciating our crop of pitchers more and more by the day.

[Schad]

this is from his seattle days, is it still considered an inverted W if its angled like that? In the examples O'Leary provides, the inverted W's all seem to be pretty parallel to the ground, does it still cause a timing problem if its an angle like it is(or was) with Morrow?

Those are all fine...as mentioned, his elbow tends to get high only on occasion, usually when he's tiring and tries to reach back for a little extra, which causes a timing issue (and with Morrow, often means that his fastball finishes up because his elbow is leading). That's why I'm comfortable using him as a starter, though somewhat uneasy about running his pitch count about 115.

I know people always point to those O'Leary breakdowns anytime some guy goes down but I've never put too much stock in it. Pitching isn't as simple as a set of universally accepted mechanics that are "right".

But there are definite risks involved in certain pitching styles, and while pitchers can have long and productive careers despite them, it does mean that an extra dose of caution is necessary...Prior's mechanics were the root cause of his downfall, but he might not have had catastrophic shoulder failure if not for Dusty Baker.

[satyr9]

IMO Morrow is more borderline than you guys think. With the inverted W, draw a line along his shoulders and if the elbow's getting over it, it could be a problem. Because his torso's angled backwards, the shoulder plane isn't flat and his elbow definitely is right on the edge (and not in the pics above, but on TV) quite often over that plane. That isn't to say it's any guarantee he'll get hurt, but he's definitely torquing himself pretty good, which is hardly surprising 'cause almost every guy who's got hard stuff does this to some degree and for Morrow's pure tools he's not nearly as bad as many.

The other thing you can see in the bottom two pics is the extra stress from how far his forearm swings through when it's down in the delivery. I can't imagine whipping it all the way to the bottom (and past vertical on the downside) and then pulling it up and through to get his forearm vertical on the upside to throw do his elbow any favours (overextending IMO, in the 2nd pic, what's closer to the camera his hand or his elbow, and in the third which one's farther away? Maybe I'm just seeing things?)

I know this sounds like I know what I'm talking about, but what it really amounts to is I've read a few of the same sites Schad has and I could be soooo full of BS, so if you don't agree with my take, no worries, I'm not trying to sound like an expert.

And for Strasburg, I just don't see it. He does look incredibly smooth, he's scap loading, but it looks really clean to me (that back elbow isn't breaking the plain and he's not wrenching his forearm around either). Again, I'm no expert, but I think this was just unfortunate and not bound to happen because of his delivery. Bad mechanics vs. good mechanics don't promise anything. Best mechanics in the world still put tremendous amounts of pressure on your elbow and shoulder.

[hyper316]

this is sad news. so much hype.. gotta blame the Nats for pushing the kid too fast too early.

side question, is Washington Nationals the equivalent of LA Clippers?

[dagger]

Here's a first person piece from Chad Durbin on rehabbing TJ surgery.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=sn-durbin082810

[ItsDanger]

Too bad for the kid. But seems to happen a lot lately to electric arms. I'll defer to more knowledgeable people but Marcum and his changeups dont pose as big a risk. From what I've heard, its the hard breaking stuff that screws their arms up.

[Avenger]

I know people always point to those O'Leary breakdowns anytime some guy goes down but I've never put too much stock in it. Pitching isn't as simple as a set of universally accepted mechanics that are "right".

Anyway, I'm appreciating our crop of pitchers more and more by the day.

Are you sure not because retardi actively drafted and signed players with terrible mechanics and then used bad luck as an excuse when they started to flame out and you guys ate up his sob stories

[Mike Hunt]

this is sad news. so much hype.. gotta blame the Nats for pushing the kid too fast too early.

side question, is Washington Nationals the equivalent of LA Clippers?

They babied him. It's hard to blame the Nats for anything here. The brought him along the alleged "right way" and still got screwed.