Comments on: Mariner Pitcher Attrition, 1995-2004

By: JMB

JMB — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 02:20:55 +0000

I’d like to point out that Dusty Baker is on the advisory board of the National Pitching Association.

jason

By: RickL

RickL — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 13:59:44 +0000

Another interesting source is throwmax.com. The site owner is the brother of a former major league pitcher. He says many of the Mariners throw improperly. I don’t know if they are taught that by the organization.

By: Terry Benish

Terry Benish — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 20:45:46 +0000

The National Pitching Association, url below, has some interesting thoughts on the subject. Tom House was the momentum behind this organization which counts the following people on its board of advisors: Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Mark Prior, Robb Nen, Orel Hershiser, Dave Dravecky, Bobby Valentine, Dusty Baker, John Young, Tom House, Gary Heil, Jim Brogan, Glenn Fleisig, John Iams, Arnel Aguinaldo, Dr. Lewis Yocum, Dr. Rick Heitsch, Dr. James Andrews, Dr. John Conway, Dr. Hank Chambers, Dr. Todd Lanman.

Generally, the Mariners throughout their organization use “balance point” as their foundational “teach”. It is recognizable by watching the pitchers glove hand which is usually to the side of their body and low and visually looks like they are yanking on their arm. This causes huge shoulder torgue and with time causes injury. Some of the pitchers achieve an elbow forward posture of their pitching arm as they approach release point, causing tommyjohn…

House works with Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Mark Prior and others. Many people think he’s got the safer approach figured out. It also improves perceived velocity…

http://www.nationalpitching.com/

By: John D.

John D. — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 03:28:19 +0000

Re: (# 35) DOCTOR – You’ve probably heard of Dr. JACK RAMSEY and
Dr. BILL COSBY. There’s something about the word “Doctor” that makes many holders of Ph. D.s and D. Ed.s want to be so addressed. (And if you take them for medical doctors, so much the better.)
Pardon the comic definition. If I had a doctorate, I might not repeat it (though I think I would). The teller of it, a Pancho Gonsalez, a history professor at the U of Texas, DID have a doctorate. He said,
“A Ph. D. thesis is the transferring of bones from one graveyard to another.”

By: DMZ

DMZ — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 02:42:13 +0000

Mmmmmmmm… sort of.

Pretty much, 120+ is really bad, and reduces a pitcher’s effectiveness in the short and long term, and it gets progressively worse with each additional pitch. 100-120 is not a death sentence, but it’s possible cause for concern.

By: John D.

John D. — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 02:34:10 +0000

Re: PITCH COUNTS – The other night, I heard MIKE BLOWERS say that he didn’t believe in pitch counts. He seemed to feel that MECHE’S main trouble is that he hasn’t been “stretched out,” that the reason that PRICE visited him was to tell him that management expected him to finish the inning despite his already being over 100 pitches.
I thought that the jury was no longer out on pitch counts. If that’s the case, Mike should get with the program.

By: edwin

edwin — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 17:40:58 +0000

I heard that Oakland does not allow their minor legue pitchers to throw over 85 pitches a game. Two outings ago Feliz threw 98 pitches, and the outing before that I think he threw in the high 80′s. This is off the top of my head so forgive me if I am wrong. Having a kid throwing 98 pitches when he recently turned 19 is crazy.
I remember last year seeing Travis Blackley pitching too deep into games, he was 21 at the time.
I believe them having their pitchers on too high of pitch counts is their main cause of injury. They are having them pitch like they are pros, and not like people trying to learn.

By: John D.

John D. — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 08:29:17 +0000

Re: (# 44 and # 49) DRAFTS
Here’s a better one: http://tinyurl.com/brug4

Also: TOTAL BASEBALL contains a list of the 1st ten selections for each year of the draft.

By: John D.

John D. — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 02:01:35 +0000

Re: DRAFTS
A friend sent me an Email that contained instructions for how to access this information:

Access Baseball Almanac. Put “amateur draft” into search, click on, for example, 1988 (for some reason, only some of them appear on your screen). Then once you have one year, over on the lower left (scroll down) you can click on “previous year” or “next year.”

BTW, BP’s WILL CARROLL should be mentioned in this thread. He’s done some yeoman work in the area of pitching injuries, through interviews, his BP column (“Under the Knife”), and his recent book, SAVING THE PITCHER.

By: G-Man

G-Man — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 00:43:51 +0000

I agree with Kirk in #6 – I’d like to see similar data for the other MLB teams. However, I’ll bet that Seattle is in the Top – er, Bottom 5 in pitcher health, as measured by any reasonable metric.