So....it's not really so much that March is any worse for elbow injuries than any other month, it's just that it is the best time to have elbow surgery and rehab the injury with minimal loss of down time during the season. Fixed it for you, BA.
from Baseball America:
Ask BA: March Is A Bad Time For Elbow Injuries - BaseballAmerica.com:
Jon Roegele’s excellent public database of Tommy John surgeries counted more than 20 pitchers who needed Tommy John surgery after sustaining elbow injuries last year in spring training, so these names likely won’t be the last.
And like Darvish, it’s likely that several pitchers will face difficult decisions on whether to attempt to rehab or go under the knife. If the ligament is completely torn, there isn’t really a decision to make, only surgery will fix it. But with a partial tear or “sprained elbow ligament,” rest and rehab will sometimes allow a pitcher to return to the mound without surgery, albeit with risk that you are delaying the inevitable.
That’s something the Rangers have seen first-hand. In 2012, Neftali Feliz went on the disabled list in May with a sprained elbow ligament. He tried to rest and rehab the injury, and returned to the mound for some minor league rehab starts in July, but he never made it back into a big league game that season. He eventually had Tommy John surgery on Aug. 1. Because he waited, he ended up missing most of two seasons instead of one (he did make six appearances in Sept. 2013).
The timetable of the season can provide pressure to a pitcher deciding whether to have surgery now or take a wait-and-see approach. It takes on average 13 months for a pitcher to return from Tommy John surgery, with some pitchers taking a little longer to return to pre-injury form.
If a pitcher gets a diagnosis in July or August, there’s not as much risk to waiting and trying to rehab the injury. A Tommy John surgery in late July or early August is going to likely wipe out the next season anyway. Waiting two to three months doesn’t cost in-season time, as an October or November surgery still gets the pitcher back on the mound in plenty of time for spring training 14-15 months down the road.
But a March diagnosis puts a more-pressing timetable on the decision. Have surgery now and a pitcher can plan on a pre-all-star break return for next season. That’s the timetable Patrick Corbin and Jarrod Parker, a pair of March 2014 Tommy John surgery survivors, are on. But if a pitcher waits until June in hopes of returning to action and then finds he needs the surgery, then you’re looking at the possibility of some or most of two seasons.
No one wants to go under the knife, but the calendar makes it tougher to turn down the surgery for pitchers who get injured in March."
'via Blog this'
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