Seth Wenig/APMets closer Bobby Parnell elects to have Tommy John surgery.
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Yankees relief pitcher David Robertson pitches in the 9th inning as they win 6-4 against the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday, April 6.
No, Mets closer Bobby Parnell (l.) wasn’t summoning his best Rodney Dangerfield (below) impression from ‘Caddyshack’ but his season-ending elbow injury and Yankee closer David Robertson’s groin issue feed into idea that injuries plaguing baseball again this season.
Aaaarrrghhhh!
Such is the resounding cry again being heard throughout baseball as pitcher after pitcher comes walking off the mound grabbing his elbow and position player after position player suddenly comes up lame with a hamstring, groin, calf, wrist, oblique, lat or quad injury. It’s an epidemic, like all the strikeouts, that’s getting worse and worse in baseball.
After the first 12 days of the baseball season there had already been 124 players going on the disabled list for a total of 1,411 days lost to injury. This was right on pace with a year ago when 127 players had gone on the DL, with a loss of 1,349 games. And, with Tampa Bay Rays lefty Matt Moore and Pirates top pitching prospect Jameson Taillon joining the blown-out elbow brigade last week, that makes 14 pitchers alone so far this season who may be going under the knife for Tommy John surgery. It is getting to a point where maybe every ballpark in baseball should be equipped with both an MRI room and a surgeon on call. Thus, when a pitcher comes off the mound grabbing his elbow in pain, he can simply report directly to the MRI room and if the MRI shows a tear in the ligament — as they almost always do now — he can then go right next door, where the surgeon is waiting to perform the Tommy John procedure. This way, pitchers can eliminate the obligatory trip to Dr. Andrews in Birmingham, Ala., and get the clock started immediately for their recovery. And since so many pitchers are now getting Tommy John surgery in college and even high school, it would stand to reason those who do should have extra value in the draft, no?
GM: “What’s our report on this guy?”
Scouting Director: “Fastball consistently topping out at 95. Plus curve. If he’s still on the board when our first pick comes up, I recommend we take him.”
GM: “What about his delivery. . . injury issues?”
Scouting Director: “No problem there, either. He’s already had his Tommy John surgery.
GM: “That’s huge. Save us a year in development. Let’s hope he’s still on the board.”
The Mets have already had their season wrecked with their No. 1 starter, Matt Harvey, and their closer, Bobby Parnell, down with Tommy John surgery, and the White Sox suffered a similar blow to their season last Wednesday when budding star Avisail Garcia tore the labrum in his left shoulder attempting to make a diving catch in right field in Colorado. They’re elbow injuries to pitchers and the kind of injury sustained by Garcia attempting to make a play you just have to chalk up to ill fate. Others, such as Jose Reyes pulling his hammy on Opening Day or Josh Hamilton stupidly sliding head-first into first base and tearing a thumb ligament (he did the same thing three years ago, sliding head-first into home, fracturing his humerus bone and missing six weeks) are somewhat more predictable.
In any case, the continuing rise of injuries in baseball — in 1996 there were 398 trips to the disabled list and 19,677 days missed and the numbers have been over 400/20,000 ever since, rising to 521 disabled list trips and 29,387 games missed in 2013 — has become maddening to general managers, managers and fans alike. Unfortunately, nobody seems to have a reasonable explanation for it.
A letter I recently got from one such fan — no doubt a fantasy league player — summed up everyone’s frustration:
“I am a 37-year-old man who has not stretched or done anything athletic since high school. I drink too much, smoke cigars, eat poorly and am overweight. I play softball two games a week and give it my all and have never had a pulled muscle or any other injury issue. I therefore can’t, for the life of me, understand how come a world-class, well-conditioned athlete like Jose Reyes can’t even get out of the batters box on his first at-bat of the season without going on the DL!”
Or as every Yankee fan from the Bronx to Bogota could be heard screaming last week: “How in the hell does David Robertson — a pitcher for god’s sake! — strain his groin?”
“I can’t ever remember any pitchers when I played going on the disabled list with leg injuries, and that was before the designated hitter, when all the pitchers had to bat and run the bases every game,” said Ralph Branca, who won 88 games in the big leagues, mostly with the Dodgers, from 1944-54. “I can only surmise that was because we all ran. . . and ran. (Don) Newcombe and I were both big guys and before games on days we weren’t pitching we’d play pepper for a while and then run 8-10 laps from first base to center field and walk back. That’s what all the pitchers did, the reason being you needed to strengthen your legs for pitching off the mound. In spring training, we ran every day.”
For the record, the Yankees have been one of the most injured teams the past few years, leading the majors with 28 trips to the DL in 2013 and most days on the DL (1,494) in 2011. The least-injured: The White Sox, who had the fewest days on the DL in 2009 (333), 2010 (285) and 2012). For that, a shout-out is probably due to White Sox longtime trainer Hermie Schneider, one of the first “pups” out of Gene Monahan’s Yankee school.
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Mark Bonifacio/New York Daily News Baltimore Orioles center fielder Adam Jones has some ‘choice’ words for a fan that runs on the field at Yankee Stadium during Tuesday night’s game. IT’S A MADD MADD WORLD …
- Orioles center fielder Adam Jones certainly didn’t mince any words in New York last week when, two nights after voicing his displeasure about two fans running onto the field (“They should let us have a shot to kick them with our metal spikes on because it’s stupid), he disparaged Masahiro Tanaka (and Japan) by saying: “Why don’t you ask Tanaka about me? I’m the one who’s been in the major leagues for a while. Congratulations, he did it over there. Don’t make it like he’s the dirtiest guy in the world . . . another pitcher in the rotation. Nothing special to me.” You gotta love this guy’s candor.
- After starting the season with two losses, one blown save and an 18.90 ERA, Jim Johnson has been demoted as Oakland A’s closer, perhaps further explaining why the Orioles were so willing to part with the 2013 AL saves leader (who also led the league with nine blown saves). Of course, the player the O’s got back for Johnson, second baseman Jemile Weeks, has started the season in the minors, making the trade a straight salary dump on their part for now.
- That was quite an outing by Indians righty Danny Salazar last Thursday in which he lasted just 32⁄3 innings against the White Sox, giving up six hits, five runs and walking two. Ten of the 11 outs recorded were strikeouts, making him the first pitcher since 1900 to fan so many batters in such a short outing.
SAY IT AIN’T SO …
“Elvis’ beard is terrible — horrendous. He cuts half his chin off, too. Yeah, it’s terrible. He looks like Abe Lincoln.”
Mike Napoli, leader of the 2013 Red Sox “beard brigade” on Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus’ beard in a Dallas radio interview.
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