This guy thinks college baseball is ruining pitchers.

[DesotoCountyDawg]

I don’t watch enough college baseball to know. Thoughts?

College baseball coaches must be stopped from abusing pitchers’ arms: Law

MLB seems to want colleges to replace some of their player development. That's a dangerous idea with the track record of college coaches.

www.nytimes.com

 

[jethreauxdawg]

You mean Korbin throwing his aces for 110+ pitches could be bad? I doubt it. Whatever happened to those guys?

 

[ZombieKissinger]

You mean Korbin throwing his aces for 110+ pitches could be bad? I doubt it. Whatever happened to those guys?

I remember Rocker going for 132 pitches. He’s MLB now but coming back from a rehab assignment

 

[dickiedawg]

I expected to see some form of data and not just anecdotes. I’m open to the argument, but not nearly convinced.
Show me percentages of Tommy John surgeries by former college pitchers vs. those who went out of HS. Give me a quote from a pro GM who doesn’t take college pitchers as a rule because their arms have been overused.
Sure it’s true that college pitchers are sometimes asked to go beyond their normal usage in the postseason. Every season you might see an ace come back on short rest in the CWS or a Friday night guy come back in relief in a game 7 on Monday.
But you also see that in the MLB postseason. I know they go on “short rest.” Maybe the ace coming in in relief is rare in MLB, though I’m sure I’ve seen it. Players want to push themselves further in the postseason at any level.
I’m open to the argument. It stands to reason that college coaches aren’t incentivized to be as careful with an arm as an organization with millions invested in said arm. But I want to read more than a few examples of “this pitcher threw way more pitches than normal in a postseason environment where he knows he’s going to have all summer to rest”.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

I expected to see some form of data and not just anecdotes. I’m open to the argument, but not nearly convinced.

Yep.

This is very much an opinion piece and feels unfinished.

If he had some good data to mention at the beginning and then sprinkle in the people behind the data afterwards, this article would have been stronger.

 

[8dog]

Yep.

This is very much an opinion piece and feels unfinished.

If he had some good data to mention at the beginning and then sprinkle in the people behind the data afterwards, this article would have been stronger.

Agree with both these takes. It’s just a few stories of guys. Nothing to show a systemic issue. Pretty poor attempt

 

[HRMSU]

You mean Korbin throwing his aces for 110+ pitches could be bad? I doubt it. Whatever happened to those guys?

I can't stand the guy either but usually weekend guys pitch on 6 days rest right?

Also, Leiter has already cracked the Rangers rotation and Rocker is beating down the door. It's not like Rangers pitching sucks either it's top 5 in ERA. Hitting not so much!

 

[PBRME]

The pitch count and rest days are a good thing for the majority of pitchers. Unfortunately lost in the fold are exceptions like Bob Gibson, Nolan Ryan etc who ate a lot of innings.

 

[ETK99]

It's more hard throwing guys and year round ball/training to throw hard that's tearing up arms. Guys that don't naturally throw hard, shouldn't be throwing hard but we've gotten all these kids trying to throw hard. Lots of poor mechanics and over throwing. Guys like Nolan Ryan didn't go work on throwing hard every offseason workout. He wasn't throwing weight balls etc. all the time. Long toss and strengthening the lower body was more priority. Old school MLB guys threw more innings too, so innings aren't the issue. Same with HS pitching, guys were piling up big innings. Reputable travel ball doesn't throw guys big innings either. Biomechanically, everyone can't throw hard, and shouldn't be trying to. Kids don't want to learn to pitch like a Greg Maddux because a premium has been placed on throwing hard. It's similar to kids standing on top of the plate trying to pull every ball when they aren't capable, instead of being a Tony Gwynn. (Rant over LOL)

 

[StillTbonewannabe]

Could have wrote a hit piece every year that Skip Bertman blew out arms. Lane Mestepay was a travesty even though we benefited.

 

[maroonmania]

I think most of these pitchers are ruined way before they get to college by overusing their arm through pitching on their HS team and then continuing to pitch in travel ball and even Fall ball. Pitchers need to give their arm a break sometime during the year and work on pitching rather than just throwing with high velocity. Also, college pitchers normally only start once every 7 days and rarely ever pitch past the 6th or 7th inning at least that's what happens in the SEC. That's WAY less than what guys do in the majors where they are starting every 4th or 5th day.

 

[Chesusdog]

Could have wrote a hit piece every year that Skip Bertman blew out arms. Lane Mestepay was a travesty even though we benefited.

Was gonna say long before it became a velocity arms race Skip was wrecking pitchers for the glory of the Corndogs.

 

[jethreauxdawg]

I think pitchers are hurting their arms more now because kids only throw hard and play video games. Kids don’t even cut grass anymore. Get off my lawn

 

[OG Goat Holder]

It's more hard throwing guys and year round ball/training to throw hard that's tearing up arms. Guys that don't naturally throw hard, shouldn't be throwing hard but we've gotten all these kids trying to throw hard. Lots of poor mechanics and over throwing. Guys like Nolan Ryan didn't go work on throwing hard every offseason workout. He wasn't throwing weight balls etc. all the time. Long toss and strengthening the lower body was more priority. Old school MLB guys threw more innings too, so innings aren't the issue. Same with HS pitching, guys were piling up big innings. Reputable travel ball doesn't throw guys big innings either. Biomechanically, everyone can't throw hard, and shouldn't be trying to. Kids don't want to learn to pitch like a Greg Maddux because a premium has been placed on throwing hard. It's similar to kids standing on top of the plate trying to pull every ball when they aren't capable, instead of being a Tony Gwynn. (Rant over LOL)

This is definitely the issue, we all know that. But it's often the only way a lot of guys can have a shot in baseball. Velo and power is what sells.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

Problem is that college and pro operate differently. College operates like travel ball....talent is more spread out, so one dominant pitcher can carry you. And the games aren't every day, they are less often and stacked into tournaments. It's a win now approach. Pro ball is a long game, where stats and shlt matter more, and there are more elite pitchers. So therefore college coaches are more likely to overuse their best pitchers.

Both sides could learn from each other but they really need to do something about that misalignment.

 

[Drebin]

I don’t watch enough college baseball to know. Thoughts?

College baseball coaches must be stopped from abusing pitchers’ arms: Law

MLB seems to want colleges to replace some of their player development. That's a dangerous idea with the track record of college coaches.

www.nytimes.com

The article is more of a rush to judgement that lacks any evidence to back it up.

Are there going to be some coaches who abuse their pitchers? Sure.

Does every pitcher who throws high volume in college flame out? No.

Are there situations where pitchers get babied throughout high school and college and still have issues? Yep. Our own JT Ginn is an example.

It's also true that even if college pitchers get pushed to 110-115 pitches in an outing, they generally only pitch once per week so they get more recovery time between starts.

Everyone wants to look for the boogeyman responsible for all the tommy john injuries. The real cause in my opinion is that pitchers are max effort now. Guys throw and don't pitch anymore. They want to hit triple digits and strike everyone out, and they don't want to waste pitches because they know they're throwing against pitch counts. The old school guys sat in the high 80s/low 90s throwing at 80% effort but knew how to use pitches to set up hitters and pitch to contact.

 

[The Cooterpoot]

Parents and kids are stupid. They pay some "trainer" to make scrawny little Billy throw hard and 17 up his arm. They focus on nothing but throwing hard and many don't play anything but baseball. Most of these "trainers" spout off **** they've seen on YouTube or heard watching MLB games on tv & daddy eats it up and yells at little Billy to throw that 17er harder while he's knocking down his Mich Ultra between weighted balls and tension bands! Daddy has him throwing everyday at home except on church night. He gets mad if little Billy's coach pulls him or he's not starting every other game. Poor little 8 yr old Billy was trying to learn the slider because daddy's favorite pitcher throws it. Daddy yells more YouTube lingo at little Billy. Little Billy has the nicest glove and bat and all the body armor. He's got expensive sunglasses and batting gloves. He's cocky and gets his *** beat everyday at school but he's going to change schools anyway so he can be the "star" player.

 

[StillTbonewannabe]

At the end of the day, tendons and ligaments can only take so much. Just because muscles get bigger doesn't mean that you won't injure yourself especially when muscle gains jump quickly.