John Smoltz on Tommy John Surgery, Pitch Counts and Sports Specialization | USA Today

(Photo: Dale Zanine, USA TODAY Sports)

Well, well, well. Smoltz, Glavine and Maddux all against pitch counts. That's good enough for me. Leo Mazzone probably not a big fan of them either, nor is he likely to be in favor of a schedule that favors a lot of rest over a lot of throwing between starts.

It sounds decidedly "old-school" nowadays, but Smoltz is correct in that it has led us in the wrong direction as far as number of injuries. I'm not sure the bail-out from medical science is such a great thing either and I can't wait for Smoltz to use the Hall of Fame as a platform to get folks to re-think what we're doing and the direction we are going.



from USA Today:
John Smoltz worries he may be last Tommy John pitcher in Hall of Fame:

The problem with baseball today, and the reason for the soaring amount of Tommy John surgeries, Smoltz and famed orthopedist James Andrews say, is that pitchers and ball clubs have fallen in love with velocity. These players have never learned to really pitch. So when they blow out, they come back too quickly, throw as hard as they can, and are soon back on the operating table.

"We're not developing pitchers the right way,'' says Smoltz. "We're asking them to go as hard as you can, and as short as you can, and that's not good enough.''

"So when they come back from this, that's all they really know. It looks sexy,'' Smoltz said. "It feels good. And we fall in love with it. But these guys are not given the balance, or they're not given the proper time to figure out what kind of pitcher they are. I'm fearful and feel bad for a lot of these guys.''

The rash of surgeries and the neglect to teach the art of pitching leaves Smoltz incensed, and his passion will be reflected in his Hall of Fame speech.

"I really want to really capture how it happened for me, not just getting to the Hall of Fame, but how many different things I had to do to survive,'' says Smoltz, the only pitcher in baseball history to win more than 200 games and save 150 games. "People don't realize what's going on out there. I'm blown away with people not having a clue.

"We've asked kids to do too much, too early, and at a high velocity at a young age, and you're just not able to handle that over time.

"It's like RPM-ing your car. If you red-line it enough, you're going to blow your engine.''

...

 Smoltz, who had his surgery in March 2000, will ask parents to stop having their kids play year-round baseball, advising them to take a minimum of two to four months off a year, just as Andrews prescribes. He'll implore teams and the Tommy John patients to take at least 14 months off before returning to action, perhaps reminding them of Oakland A's pitcher Jarrod Parker, who has undergone three elbow surgeries before the age of 27.

Why, 276 players have undergone Tommy John surgery since 2000, according to MLB statistics, including 13 this year. There were 31 performed last year, including 11 who had their second surgeries within three years of their original procedure. Most alarming, says Stan Conte, the Dodgers vice president of medical services, a research study revealed that just 67% of those patients undergoing reconstructive elbow surgery return to even pitch another 10 games in their career. New York Yankees pitcher Chris Capuano is the only two-time Tommy John patient to make more than 10 major-league starts after his second procedure.

"The younger professional pitchers that we're seeing now at such an increased rate of injury,'' Andrews said on a conference call, "you'll find out that most of them had some type of elbow injury when they were playing youth sports. …The pitchers of today are throwing harder. They're bigger and stronger. And they are doing more, as I said, at a younger age. So their wear pattern on their throwing arm is greater before they get to that level.''

The trouble, Smoltz says, is that they only learn how to throw hard. Smoltz and former Hall of Fame teammates Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine feel like choking the folks responsible for implementing the idea of pitch counts.

'via Blog this'

At Least All These Tommy John Surgeries Aren’t Rotator Cuff Surgeries | FiveThirtyEight

The rise in elbow surgeries is closely linked to the success rate of the surgery and the return to form of the pitchers that undergo the surgery. The success ratio of those that undergo shoulder surgeries have yet to catch up. A bad rotator cuff is still a near death knell for pitchers today as medical science has not come up with the equivalent of Tommy John Surgery for torn rotator cuffs or labrums.

from FiveThirtyEight:
At Least All These Tommy John Surgeries Aren’t Rotator Cuff Surgeries | FiveThirtyEight:

Having a bum elbow sure beats having a bum shoulder. Despite all the Tommy John surgeries, we’re living in a golden era of pitcher health.

It’s hard not to be anxious about a crisis when you look at data about just how many ulnar collateral ligaments are being repaired through Tommy John surgery. The number of surgeries in the past 10 years is 115 percent higher than it was the 10 years prior.

 That’s a huge spike, yes, but the intriguing thing is what’s happened as those elbows have flared up: Shoulders haven’t. Using data from Baseball Prospectus’s injury archive (maintained by Corey Dawkins), we can chart the escalating number of elbow surgeries over the past 35 years against the number of shoulder surgeries²: Right around 1998, the two paths diverge, and in recent years, shoulder surgeries are down.³

After a peak in 2009, when more than 40 operations were performed, shoulder surgeries seem to be fading toward extinction, with only 12 in 2014. Some have attributed the decrease in shoulder injuries to improved shoulder exercises. This explanation is consistent with the fact that shoulder injuries have disappeared for position players, as well.

The decreasing trend in shoulder problems matters because shoulder surgeries are more debilitating than the now-routine Tommy John. Whereas about 80 percent of major league pitchers in my data set⁴ returned from UCL reconstruction to pitch in the majors, only 67 percent came back from shoulder surgeries. (From here on out, I’m examining only the pitchers who were major leaguers at the time of their surgery.) Whether because of recency bias or some other factor, we tend to forget once-great throwers like Johan Santana, Brandon Webb, and Kerry Wood, all of whose careers were cut short because of shoulder ailments. Wood, in particular, is an instructive example. He came back from Tommy John early in his career only to be done in by a rotator cuff surgery several years later.

"Having a bum elbow sure beats having a bum shoulder. Despite all the Tommy John surgeries, we’re living in a golden era of pitcher health.

It’s hard not to be anxious about a crisis when you look at data about just how many ulnar collateral ligaments are being repaired through Tommy John surgery. The number of surgeries in the past 10 years is 115 percent higher than it was the 10 years prior.

That’s a huge spike, yes, but the intriguing thing is what’s happened as those elbows have flared up: Shoulders haven’t. Using data from Baseball Prospectus’s injury archive (maintained by Corey Dawkins), we can chart the escalating number of elbow surgeries over the past 35 years against the number of shoulder surgeries2: Right around 1998, the two paths diverge, and in recent years, shoulder surgeries are down.3

After a peak in 2009, when more than 40 operations were performed, shoulder surgeries seem to be fading toward extinction, with only 12 in 2014. Some have attributed the decrease in shoulder injuries to improved shoulder exercises. This explanation is consistent with the fact that shoulder injuries have disappeared for position players, as well.

The decreasing trend in shoulder problems matters because shoulder surgeries are more debilitating than the now-routine Tommy John. Whereas about 80 percent of major league pitchers in my data set4 returned from UCL reconstruction to pitch in the majors, only 67 percent came back from shoulder surgeries. (From here on out, I’m examining only the pitchers who were major leaguers at the time of their surgery.) Whether because of recency bias or some other factor, we tend to forget once-great throwers like Johan Santana, Brandon Webb, and Kerry Wood, all of whose careers were cut short because of shoulder ailments. Wood, in particular, is an instructive example. He came back from Tommy John early in his career only to be done in by a rotator cuff surgery several years later."

from SI.com:

http://www.si.com/vault/2013/04/01/106303863/the-rays-way

Shields did more than gobble up innings. He devoted himself to the Rays' shoulder-strengthening program, a 30-minute workout using bands, dumbbells and weighted balls—the details of which the team prefers not to divulge. All teams have programs to promote shoulder health, but what the Rays have may be the secret sauce that keeps their pitchers remarkably healthy. "No matter where I pitch," Price says, "I'm taking the program with me. It's the best. I tell everybody that comes here, 'You probably won't be very good at these [exercises] for a year. It's tough on your arm at first. It makes you pretty sore. But once you get acclimated to it, it's great.' If I didn't do it now? I would feel it big-time."

Last September, when Price whiffed a batter to reach the 200-inning mark for the third time, he wheeled to look into the dugout at Shields. They made eye contact and smiled. "The 200-inning mark is such a big deal," Price says. "It's consistency. It's durability. Shields is the guy who started it with this program. The way he went about his work was the biggest thing.

'via Blog this'

Ask BA: March Is A Bad Time For Elbow Injuries - BaseballAmerica.com

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'

Duke's Matuella Done For Season, Will Require Tommy John Surgery - BaseballAmerica.com

Two key points from this article that help explain why some of the recent commentary regarding the cause and effect that "leads" to Tommy John surgery is at times overly presumptuous. To point to any one factor as THE ANSWER is foolish and ignores the fact that each injury is unique and in many cases is multifactorial.  

• For a pitcher, pain in any part of the body can lead to unintentional mechanical consequences.
• With mechanical changes and injuries, there’s no telling what happened first.

from BaseballAmerica.com
Duke's Matuella Done For Season, Will Require Tommy John Surgery - BaseballAmerica.com:

Duke righthander Michael Matuella, who entered the season as the top draft-eligible college pitcher and a projected top-five pick despite a back condition that was discovered in the fall, will miss the remainder of the college season due to a completely torn ulnar collateral ligament. Tommy John surgery will follow.

One area scout who saw Matuella’s last start, in Delaware against Boston College, said he topped out at 94 mph but that his fastball velocity sat in the 90-92 mph range most of the outing, which included five walks and just two strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings. Matuella’s slider, which sat in the 84-86 mph range a year ago, was mostly in the 79-81 mph range much of the spring as well.

As a sophomore, the 6-foot-6, 220-pounder hit 98 mph and showed a unique package of stuff and command, making him the very early favorite to be the first overall pick in 2015.

Matuella then dealt with back issues, particularly a condition called spondylosis. Spondylosis refers to a combination of pain and degeneration in the spine. Rather than potentially exacerbating the issue, Matuella opted not to pitch and instead rest and rehabilitate his back last summer and last fall.

For a pitcher, pain in any part of the body can lead to unintentional mechanical consequences. Two evaluators who have seen Matuella pitch in each of the past two years told Baseball America that the righthander’s delivery has changed significantly. Matuella is finishing across his body, with his arm deeper out front at release and firing down and across his torso.

With mechanical changes and injuries, there’s no telling what happened first. What we do know is that Matuella has not shown the same caliber of stuff as a junior than he did as a sophomore. Here’s a timeline of the righthander’s past two months:"

'via Blog this'

7 Charts that Show the State of Youth Sports in the US and Why it Matters | The Aspen Institute

The declining participation numbers are the most disturbing chart in this article, IMO. More important than Wins and Losses to a youth sports coaches record should be the number of kids who return to the sport in the following years versus drop-outs (See: Why Johnny Hates Sports). Your retention rate should matter more than your W-L percentage.

from Aspen Idea Blog:
7 Charts that Show the State of Youth Sports in the US and Why it Matters | The Aspen Institute:

7 Charts that Show the State of Youth Sports in the US and Why it Matters

By Alice Lee

In the words of US Olympic Committee member Anita DeFrantz, “Sport is a birthright.” From combatting the growing obesity epidemic to promoting camaraderie and confidence, sport plays a pivotal role in helping kids become healthy on all levels —physical, social, emotional, and cognitive. 

Unfortunately, the number of kids participating in sports is decreasing. According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), the number of kids that played a team sport on a regular basis decreased from 44.5 percent in 2008 to 40 percent in 2013. To reverse this continuing trend and to make youth sport a national imperative, Project Play at the Aspen Institute aims to make sport more accessible and engaging to all youth across the country. Below is an infographic overview of how we can change the current state of sports. 

The Current Sports Problem

In the time period from 2008 to 2013, sports participation and fitness have significantly dropped. Nearly 3 million fewer children have played basketball, soccer, track and field, baseball, football, and softball, and less than 1 in 3 children between the ages of 6-12 participated in a high-calorie-burning sport or fitness activity three times a week, according to SFIA data.

Household income is one major indicator of sports participation. In urban or poorer areas, schools often provide fewer sports options and opportunities for their students than suburban or more affluent areas. Additionally, youth from homes in the lowest income bracket ($25,000 or less) are at least half as likely to participate in sports such as football, lacrosse, and swimming than youth from wealthier households ($100,000 or greater). Simply put, families that can afford more can allow their kids to play more.

With the decrease in sports participation, the current public health status of the US is likely to become more precarious. Lack of activity is closely linked to obesity, and today obesity is one of the biggest problems plaguing the US. Currently, the US is the country with the highest number of obese youth among 15 of its peer countries. For children ages 5 to 17, nearly 40 percent of girls and 35 percent of boys are obese.

Sports participation will certainly combat the growing obesity epidemic, but youth sports also provide a number of other important benefits. In a study done by University of Illinois researcher Dr. Chuck Hillman, physical activity was shown to activate the brain: After children went on a 20-minute walk, MRI scans of their brains showed the highest amount of neuro-electric activity (shown in red below). 

Research has also shown that sports provide compounding benefits for active children. When children enter sports at an early age, they experience many lifelong benefits: they are one-tenth as likely to become obese, 15 percent more likely to go to college, and they are more likely to be productive adults than children who do not play sports.

Solutions to Building Athletes for Life

To increase sports participation, Project Play outlines eight strategies so that children from all backgrounds are able and eager to get into the game. Read the report to learn more about these possible solutions. 

RELATED CONTENT:

• Seven Steps to Improving Youth Access to Sports

A New Vision, Platform for Youth Sports in America

'via Blog this'

I just did my baseball and softball re-certification for umpiring HS sports and in addition to the concussion protocols, there is now a section on arm injuries. This is now a focus because some of the numbers the IHSA cited were truly alarming:

• 45% of pitchers under 12 years old experience chronic elbow pain
• UCL reconstruction ie: Tommy John surgeries have increased over 700% in the last decade for adolescent pitchers. 

Those are stunning numbers. They also offered some worthwhile recommendations to turn the tide. 

• pitchers should have somewhere between 2-4 months off from pitching competition, and I would add to that, preferably playing another sport in order to prevent mental burnout.
• Less than 100 inning pitched per year. ( note: and to me, 100 IP seems like a lot )
• Pitchers should play any other position except catcher. ( coaches may be reluctant to implement that since they want a solid arm behind the plate to combat steals )

Some of the commentary I hear on the radio or read in periodicals is simply abysmal as well, so I feel for concerned parents trying to sift through some of the garbage and get good information for their kids. 

Collegiate Baseball has been running a series of articles from a coach who links the rise in Tommy John surgeries to the beginning of the PED era, even going so far as to pinpoint 1994 as the exact year that both problems began to run in the wrong direction across the baseball landscape. IMO, a 

stunning misunderstanding of  cause and effect, correlation and causality.

Hey, why not? I look at the chart below, I see a rise in TJ surgeries beginning around 1994 and I say to myself, "Hey self, isn't that about the time the steroid era began in baseball?" Then I grabs me my pocket calculator, I put 2 and 2 together and I come up with 5. However, I do continue to stand behind my observation that every time the rooster crows, the sun rises. Therefore, the rooster caused the sun to rise.  

I thought the consensus and prevailing explanation was that pitchers were not partaking of the juice, so to speak, therefore they were being cheated by hitters who were. I can tell you from being involved in strength training and conditioning somewhat that pitchers were reluctant to weight train, which leads to them being less likely to have a need for muscle building or weight training, The balls only five ounce for crying out loud. Therefore, weight training most likely would have little or no causal effect on the rise in Tommy John injuries. Especially among adolescents and pre-adolescents where weight training would almost have no effect. And yet we see a rise in surgeries migrating to the lower ages.

"We confuse coincidence with correlation and correlation with causality". Can I get an amen on that?

When we confuse coincidence with correlation and correlation with causality we end up with spurious correlations or relationships just as sure as when we assume we make and a$$ out of 

ourselves. Here it's just good comedy, in the sports arena it's tragedy. 

Odd Couple - "My Strife in Court" (Assume Scene)

https://youtu.be/tKlWGZHEO7Q

Again, I sympathize with parents. There are a lot of pseudo-experts out there and the stakes are high: your children's health and well-being or a chance at a college scholarship? So lets not do that A$$UME stuff  anymore, OK?

This stuff is too important to keep screwing up.

1. 1. Spurious correlation is often a result of a third factor that is not apparent at the time of examination. Spurious comes from the Latin word spurious, which means illegitimate or false.

   In statistics, a spurious relationship (not to be confused with spurious correlation) is a mathematical relationship in which two events or variables have no direct causal connection, yet it may be wrongly inferred that they do, due to either coincidence or the presence of a certain third, unseen factor (referred to as a "common response variable," "confounding factor," or "lurking variable"). Suppose there is found to be a correlation between A and B. Aside from coincidence, there are three possible relationships:

   Where A is present, B is observed. (A causes B.)

   Where B is present, A is observed. (B causes A.)

   OR

   Where C is present, both A and B are observed. (C causes both A and B.)

10 Correlations That Are Not Causations - HowStuffWorks

				10 Correlations That Are Not Causations - HowStuffWorks Whenever you kiss your bowling ball, you bowl a strike. Learn about 10 other correlations that aren't causations at HowStuffWorks.
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You would think by now that we could say unequivocally what causes what. But the question of cause, which has haunted science and philosophy from their earliest days, still dogs our heels for numerous reasons. Humans are evolutionarily predisposed to see patterns and psychologically inclined to gather information that supports pre-existing views, a trait known as confirmation bias. We confuse coincidence with correlation and correlation with causality.

For A to cause B, we tend to say that, at a minimum, A must precede B, the two must covary (vary together), and no competing explanation can better explain the covariance of A and B. Taken alone, however, these three requirements cannot prove cause; they are, as philosophers say, necessary but not sufficient. In any case, not everyone agrees with them.

Speaking of philosophers, David Hume argued that causation doesn't exist in any provable sense. Karl Popper and the Falsificationists maintained that we cannot prove a relationship, only disprove it, which explains why statistical analyses do not try to prove a correlation; instead, they pull a double negative and disprove that the data are uncorrelated, a process known as rejecting the null hypothesis.

With such considerations in mind, scientists must carefully design and control their experiments to weed out bias, circular reasoning, self-fulfilling prophecies and hidden variables. They must respect the requirements and limitations of the methods used, draw from representative samples where possible, and not overstate their results.

Ready to read about 10 instances where that wasn't so easy?

Correlation, Causation & Coincidence in SEO

				Correlation, Causation & Coincidence in SEO It's absolutely critical to understand and remember the differences between correlation, causation, and coincidence. Here we define each term, and look at some exam...
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Merriam-Webster defines them each as:

• Correlation: a relation existing between phenomena or things or between mathematical or statistical variables which tend to vary, be associated, or occur together in a way not expected on the basis of chance alone.
• Causation: the act or process of causing.
• Coincidence: the occurrence of events that happen at the same time by accident but seem to have some connection.

The difference then is that correlation doesn't make the claim that one event causes the other, just that they occur together statistically in a way that wouldn't be expected based on random chance. One can view this as similar to consistent coincidence.

Causation, on the other hand, claims that two or more events are tied together directly. And coincidence, as we are all likely aware, occurs when two events happen at the same time but aren't at all related.

Let's put this into real-world examples.

• Correlation: If you eat three square meals every day promptly at 8 a.m., 12:30 p.m., and 6 p.m., there will be a sizable period of time twice per year where your dinner time will correlate to the sun setting. An outside observer for this fixed duration may easily claim that like Pavlov's dog, your hunger for dinner is caused by the setting of the sun. Obviously this isn't true, but for this period the two events correlate.
• Causation: If you're walking down the street, texting all the way and walk face-first into a lamp post, you will get a bruise. While obviously texting doesn't cause facial bruises (though in this instance there is a correlation), the event of striking one's face against a hard object is the direct cause of the bruise. Thus, this is an example of causation.
• Coincidence: If you're sitting in a coffee shop and say hello to your friend and at exact the same time someone's phone rings, this is a coincidence. The mere sound of your voice doesn't inspire the ringing of phones and statistically one wouldn't expect the event to occur together outside of random chance.

It's very important to understand and remember the difference between the three and to question data based on an understanding of this difference. In fact, below I've included a link to an article on "spurious correlation" (which the meal-time situation noted above is an example of), but for now these definitions will work well.

Glenn Flesig On Tommy John Incidence | MLB Trade Rumors

When looking for the magic bullet in the correlation / causation argument, a key phrase from the article sticks out in my mind.

 "since the recovery rate is so high, teams are willing to project a return to normality for prospects". 

Looking back to the 70's - 80's and even the early 90's, having Tommy John surgery was considered a Hail Mary pass for aging veterans. Since 1994-95, due to the miracle of modern medicine and advances in rehabilitation, the surgery has gone from pariah to panacea for pitchers of all ages. 

It used to be considered like a major overhaul to the pitching arm and now it's looked on as more akin to a tune-up. It has become almost an enhancement to a prospects career more than a detriment. All in one generation. 

Oh, The Times They Are A-Changin'.......... Thanks Bob.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
Keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again

Don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'

For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they, they are a-changin'

Read more: Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-changin' Lyrics | MetroLyrics 

from MLB Trade Rumors:
Glenn Flesig On Tommy John Incidence – MLB Trade Rumors:

Injury expert Glenn Flesig discussed the latest Tommy John surgery epidemic at the annual Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, writes Matthew Leach of MLB.com. Flesig, who holds a doctorate in biomedical engineering, is the partner of Dr. James Andrews at the American Sports Medicine Institute (ASMI). The institute aims to “improve the understanding, prevention and treatment of sports-related injuries through research and education.”

Flesig presented data on both professional and youth pitchers. At the professional level, 16% of pitchers have had Tommy  John surgery. Flesig found that once pitchers have recovered from the procedure, “they have the typical flexibility and typical mechanics. So they’re back to normal.” Of course, lost time and the potential for complications means that it’s best to avoid the issue in the first place.

Of course, UCL replacement can often impact free agency and the trade market. The increased incidence of the injury last season had some teams reaching for outside help. The Braves were able to call upon Ervin Santana on a one-year deal when Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy both required a second procedure. Atlanta forfeited a draft pick when they signed Santana. We saw both Medlen and Beachy sign short-term, incentive-laden contracts this winter.

Since the recovery rate is so high, teams are willing to project a return to normality for prospects. Last June, the Blue Jays drafted Jeff Hoffman ninth overall. The Nationals took Erik Fedde with the 18th pick. Both pitchers had Tommy John surgery shortly before the draft.

A study of youth pitchers could reveal the way to decrease the incidence of elbow injury. Flesig offered a few convincing correlations. Youth pitchers who threw over 80 pitches in a game were four times more likely to require surgery. Those who pitched for more than eight months a year were five times more likely.

Pitching when fatigued was the biggest risk indicator. Youth who self-identified as having “often pitched” when fatigued were 36 times more likely to go under the knife. For the parents in the audience, don’t let your kid pitch too often or when fatigued.

'via Blog this'

I like that the stats community is getting interested in this and disseminating some of the knowledge down to where it belongs, at the youth level. The professionals are just that, professionals. They can do what they want and they have the best of the best out there helping them make informed decisions.

It seems like there are still organizations scattered out there that are thirsting for this type of direction and information. It appears that MLB has to get a grip on issues like this and that may require a bit of centralization. Colleges, high schools and youth leagues are going to have to be willing to give up some autonomy in exchange for some of this information. We'll see at that point who really cares about kids and who cares more about pocketbooks and bottom lines.

New commissioner Rob Manfred has made some noises about a USA Baseball type of umbrella,

Get the right information into the right hands and let's see what happens.

from Irvine Youth Sports Parents Blog:
http://irvineyouthsportsparents.com/

Our Mission

The mission of the Irvine Youth Sports Parents Network is to provide a forum for parents to exchange ideas and information on youth sports while promoting  the ideals of student-athlete citizenship.

Irvine is a city known for its cultural diversity, academic excellence and love of athletics. Our children are citizens first, students second and athletes third.

We believe in “sport as metaphor” – that 99.9% of our children will not go on to become professional athletes but take what they learn from athletics and pursue excellence and competition in other endeavors.

It is our hope that this organization can support the early nurturing of those dreams.

The Professionalization of Youth Sports

14. October 2014 · Write a comment · Categories: clubs, money, youth sports

Youth sports is a serious business.

Take a look at this piece in the Boston Globe on a proposed $150 MILLION Youth Sports Facility backed by Red Sox executive Dan Duquette and slated for construction on Cape Cod.  The growing money trend in youth sports is incredible. It’s estimated that the Travel Ball world of tournaments ALONE represents $7 billion per year and is projected to grow at 4% per year.Not only are athletic fields being constructed all over the country but so are the hotels for housing players and their families.

The benefits of youth sports have morphed from fun and development into trophies and cash.  The payoff has shifted from kids to adults.

When kids are polled about why they play sports their top three answers are:

1. To have fun

2. Be with friends

3. Do something I’m good at.

Nothing there about cash or hardware.

Clubs that get paid money to coach kids need to remember that sports doesn’t last forever.

But the values they impose do.

And the best values of sport are based on character…not cash.

Travel Ball, Tournaments and Tommy John Surgery

14. October 2014 · Write a comment · Categories: clubs, youth baseball, youth sports

“We mathematically, statistically, scientifically have proven that the kids who play baseball year-round are three times more likely to end up on a surgery table by their 20th birthday that those who don’t,”

Glenn Fleisig, of the American Sports Medicine Institute, citing a 10-year study targeting teenagers who pitch more than 100 innings in a calendar year.

A lot of youth baseball parents have lost their minds.

That is the only conclusion any rational human being can come to when they are faced with the reality of this chart below indicating the exponential rise of Tommy John Surgeries for baseball pitchers.

What is it going to take before we parents realize that not only are we wasting too much of our time and money on travel ball and tournaments but we are also wasting the physical health of our children.

Isn’t that ironic?

Here we are putting our boys in a situation to enjoy their physicality and fun with friends and twisting it all up in a perfect mess of ego gratification and delusions of grandeur.

“Major League Baseball gets the blame for pitchers getting injured,” says Fleisig, “But the fact is these pitchers definitely have some damage in their arm when they get them.”

Consider the case of Jameson Taillon.  His elbow gave out recently at the age of 22 and after just 382 professional innings, all of them monitored with extreme caution by the team that handed him $6.5 million out of high school, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Taillon had been throwing more than 90 miles per hour since he was 16 and a sophomore in high school. He threw as hard as 99 mph as a senior.

According to Sports Illustrated…

“Beginning in July 2008, when he was 16 years old, Taillon threw at six events sponsored by Perfect Game, one of the country’s top youth baseball services, in a 13-month period. Those events occurred in the summer, fall and winter. (In the spring, he was busy pitching for his high school team in The Woodlands, Texas.) His top velocities were meticulously recorded: 92, 93, 95, 96, 96 and 97. Every high school pitcher is known by the top velocity he “hits,” even if he gets there once, as much as his very name.

As a high school senior, Taillon hit 99. In June of that year, 2010, the Pirates selected him with the second pick of the draft, in between Washington selecting Bryce Harper and Baltimore taking Manny Machado. He was labeled as another “can’t miss” in the long line of Texas schoolboy power pitchers, including Josh Beckett and Roger Clemens.

Now he joins another long line: First-round high school pitchers who are blowing out their arms before they even accrue any major league mileage — a line that hardly existed as recently as five years ago.”

The problem is that parents and coaches are seeing results in all the private training, tools and techniques they are using to capture “increased velocity”, the buzzphrase of the moment in baseball.  The combination of year round travel ball and too many tournaments is putting a strain on young arms while the average speed of major league pitchers has increased from 90 MPH to 92 MPH.

But forget for a moment that you’re a parent of a prodigy because, like me, you’re not.

But you still have to suffer in this system and so does your boy.

The suffering comes whether he is an average player or shows a bit of promise.

If he’s average he’s going to be relegated to the worst positions on the field and he’s going to stop playing with some of his friends who are moving up to more competitive divisions.  If he’s got a little something extra, welcome to increased batting practice, throwing lessons and all kinds of private training just to keep up.

It can become stressful on everyone.

The difficulty is that you can see differences, measurable differences, in kids that put in extra time and those that don’t.  You CAN get results and that’s what gets everyone in a lather.  The reality is your really don’t know what you have until post puberty.

My wife and I struggle with this and try to remind ourselves…they’re kids.  And they deserve not be burdened with our unfulfilled ambitions but to simply experience the short-lived joy of being a kid.