[BJWilliams]

I wasn't sure where to put this because of the connection to Liberty (Herndon having this surgery) but ESPN has been talking about the spate of Tommy John surgeries from major league pitchers and it has spawned a good bit of discussion in how baseball is a year round sport with pitchers getting little to no break and then their arms fail in college and the pros.

Thoughts?

[SumItUp]

There is not a simple answer to this question, but I believe it relates to not enough training. There are lots of different theories and there is not a general consensus among MLB pitching coaches. There is not a one-size fits all way to pitch or to train a pitcher. It takes a lot of time and effort to develop the pitching craft and good instruction with proper feedback is not available to most amateur athletes. There are many different pitching styles when you look at professional and high level amateur athletes. Bad mechanics will not prevent a player from being dominant and advancing to a high level. Sometimes, a mechanical flaw in the delivery can allow a pitcher to be more effective when facing batters, while accelerating the risk of injury. Too much emphasis is put on pitch counts as a way to reduce injury. More time should be spent on properly training sound mechanical pitching efficiencies and building pitching strength and endurance. While rest for the arm is important, I believe pitchers need to throw more than they currently do. Most of this additional throwing should take place outside of game situations.

[RubberMallet]

There is not a simple answer to this question, but I believe it relates to not enough training. There are lots of different theories and there is not a general consensus among MLB pitching coaches. There is not a one-size fits all way to pitch or to train a pitcher. It takes a lot of time and effort to develop the pitching craft and good instruction with proper feedback is not available to most amateur athletes. There are many different pitching styles when you look at professional and high level amateur athletes. Bad mechanics will not prevent a player from being dominant and advancing to a high level. Sometimes, a mechanical flaw in the delivery can allow a pitcher to be more effective when facing batters, while accelerating the risk of injury. Too much emphasis is put on pitch counts as a way to reduce injury. More time should be spent on properly training sound mechanical pitching efficiencies and building pitching strength and endurance. While rest for the arm is important, I believe pitchers need to throw more than they currently do. Most of this additional throwing should take place outside of game situations.

its a combination of too much pitching during development ages and not enough pitching during maturity if i was a betting man with no history of having a clue regarding arm tendons.

i think we pitch kids too early too much and i think that major league pitchers don't train their arm to pitch enough. they throw off a mound like once in between starts.

[BJWilliams]

You have little league/dixie youth, AAU travel teams, showcases, then high school ball then recruiting combines and you have kids pitching literally 12 months out of the year

[SumItUp]

its a combination of too much pitching during development ages and not enough pitching during maturity if i was a betting man with no history of having a clue regarding arm tendons.

If you are talking about pitching in game situations, often competitive tournaments, I would agree.

[SuperJon]

Throwing too much.
Not enough rest.
Throwing a curveball/slider too young.
Poor mechanics.
Tommy John is super cheap (in terms of surgery).
You can come back from it even stronger.

[adam42381]

I wonder how much it has to do with young guys using things like HGH and other muscle building supplements at the high school level over the past 10 or so years? I personally know of several guys who used when they were in high school and stopped using once they got to the college level and beyond. I have no idea if there is any correlation, but it's something worth considering.

[Purple Haize]

It seems, and I could be wrong, that pitchers prior to the late 70's early 80's threw a lot more pitches than today.
I will say mechanics play a HUGE role in it though. If a kid is throwing mid 90's with poor mechanics are YOU going to be the coach to convince him to back off the velocity until his mechanics are good. Or will you just ride the horse till it drops?

[HenryGale]

So much of it comes from overuse. Kids in the past were playing 3 sports throughout the year. Their arms got rest. Kids are "forced" to specialize so early..."forced" to play travel ball year round....in the middle of travel ball, they are playing their high school seasons at the same time. Their bodies are not yet fully developed, and not meant to handle these stressed placed on them. All the elbow and shoulder issues were inevitable.

[olldflame]

Here are some ideas/opinions from someone who juuuuuuuuuuuuuuust might be considered an authority; Dr. James Andrews, the "inventor" of the Tommy John procedure

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-l ... 38202.html

Interesting that he doesn't mention throwing breaking pitches at all. The gist of it is that an arm can only hold up to a certain amount of throwing at 100% velocity, and pitchers need to back off trying to light up the radar gun so much in game situations and especially in training. He also is not a fan of winter ball, feeling the arm needs time off to recover, and says that the more velocity a pitcher has, the more at risk they are and the more careful they need to be not to overdo it.

[BJWilliams]

I am definitely in agreement about baseball not being a year-round sport. If players learned the value of cross-training again, and didn't feel like they had to be the next Justin Verlander, Joel Zumaya or Aroldis Chapman (among others), you probably would see some reduction in this type of injury.

I would much rather be a knuckleballer 6 months out of the year than a fireballing 100+ pitcher 12 months and have to have my elbow reconstructed once or twice