The Sad Tale of Matt Harvey

[barrysloate]

If you're a Mets fan, or just a fan of great baseball, the news that Matt Harvey probably needs Tommy John surgery comes as devastating news. He is unquestionably the team's most valuable property, and now he may miss the entire 2014 season.

It's strange, because last month the Mets tried going to a six man rotation to take some of the wear and tear off their starting pitching. So what was the result? Three of the six pitchers- Harvey, Hefner, and Mejia- are facing arm surgery. What's going on here?

Doesn't it seem like the more these guys are pampered, with watchful pitch counts and inning limits, the more they are getting hurt?

[Leon]

I wonder if they had/have improper training? Maybe they were being told to throw too hard too quickly or something? They are professionals but it could happen. It's hard to believe so many on one team at one time are hurt with the same condition.

[frankbmd]

Robin Roberts (305)
Early Wynn (290)
Warren Spahn (382)
Don Sutton (178)
Gaylord Perry (303)
Tom Seaver (231)
Nolan Ryan (222)

All of them pitched over 4500 innings.
I wonder what their pitch counts were in all those complete games (in parentheses).
For the younger generation a complete game is when the starting pitcher and the closer have the same name.

The highest active pitcher on the list
Andy Pettitte at 3268 innings

and the second highest
Mark Buehrle at 2851 innings

Even Tommy John pitched 4710 innings.

It does make you wonder about the current crop of pitchers and the pampered development process.

We seem to be headed for the day when there will be no pitchers qualified statistically for Cooperstown and with the PED thing perhaps no batters either.

And to make matters worse, with the impending advent of instant replay and challenges, we probably will not have any umpires that qualify either.

[barrysloate]

I was thinking the same thing Frank. Pitchers from a generation or two ago pitched complete or near complete games every fourth day and they pitched for fifteen years without a major injury. Now they are being coddled yet so many of them are getting hurt. Something appears to be wrong.

The Mets were watching Harvey carefully and were thinking of shutting him down sometime in September- they're a hundred games out of first so why risk anything- but he did say his elbow felt tender and they did nothing about it. In his last start he gave up thirteen hits in like six innings so I have to think he was already hurt. What a shame. No guarantee he will be the same.

[howard38]

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[barrysloate]

Pitching is a profession fraught with risk, no doubt. The two great phenoms of the last five years were Strasburg and Harvey, and both suffered very bad injuries right out of the gate. It's a shame.