[Seven]

Originally Posted by G1911

I don't think anyone is expecting Nolan Ryan or Warren Spahn when we talk about pitcher fragility. The problem is we have tons of guys who are clearly talented enough and destroy their arms very very quickly. This has always happened, there has always been a Herb Score, but it seems to increase even as the complete game has died out. There seems to be a clear decrease in Lou Burdette and Livan Hernandez type pitchers that can hurl consistently over the years. Conserving pitch counts and innings limits, having pitchers throw significantly less every year has not extended careers and in fact seems to have correlated to a shortening of them. We still have the freaks of nature one offs like Verlander that just keeps going, but the problem is the not the .1%.

Pitching has become an all or nothing endeavor and is no longer the art form it once was. This is not an "Old man yells at cloud" sort of rant, the reason why arm injuries are more prevalent than ever is due to the over specialization of youth sports, and the fact that every pitcher is maxing out at extremely high speeds on the gun. Throwing is not a natural motion as it is, the amount of stress that is being put on elbow ligaments and shoulders is too great for the body to handle. Combined with the fact that these kids have been throwing hard and often for a long time by the time they hit the Bigs, it's an epedmic of sorts.

You have facilities like drive line emphasizing velocity and spin rate for 12 year olds, it's no wonder that by the time they're 25 their elbows are shot and they'll need either their 2nd or sometimes 3rd Tommy John Surgey.

The position players, probably experience something similar with Baseball being a year round sport now, but the stress is more prevalent IMO in pitchers. We also have the situation now where players are truly investments. Baseball is a Billion Dollar Business. Players are not going to play through minor injuries anymore because the organizations do not want to lose how ever many millions are invested into their young players. It's an unfortunate reality.