Wood, Mechanics, &the Uncertainty of Explanation&For

[SaorsaDaonnan]

In the transactions forum, somebody compared a young pitcher's mechanics to Wood's. Then, he expressed his reservations about acquiring this player. The upshot was that Wood's mechanics led to his injuries.

 

Now, a couple of months ago, I wouldn't have blinked at this. But now, after reading a little on pitching and reminding myself about the trajectory of Wood's career, I'm not so sure.

 

Why not? Well, to put it simply, Wood's career featured almost every kind of negative indicator you could imagine (as far as on-the-field stuff goes, that is). Let's review some of the factors:

 

Inconcievable abuse as a very, very young pitcher

Years and years of throwing the slider in a horribly incorrect manner

large workloads as a professional at a young age

repeated usage well after obvious mechanical breakdown

(much more than the average pitcher, imo, because sometimes he was still getting results)

consistantly high pitch counts, even in seasons immediately following significant injury

consistant back-to-back and back-to-back-to-back outings w/ huge pcs

periodic back troubles from high school onward

repeatedly rushed returns from injury

obvious, extended outings where he was pitching through a lot of pain

clearly incomptent medical staff

led the league in PAP in 2003

lots of overthrowing

that beautiful, beautiful curve

ect

 

Lots and lots of things to worry about. So many, in fact, that it's damned hard to say which one caused which problems. Although it's obvious that a pitcher with a "perfect motion" and with perfect timing is much more likely to stay healthy, we typically express concern about any young pitcher with his kind of workload, no matter his attributes or background. So when you throw in a guy who was abused as much as he was before becoming a professional, it becomes really difficult to diagnose the specific cause of an injury. Was it accumulation of the kind of deeper wear and tear that overuse causes? Was it a specific, smaller tear from years ago on pitch #143 on a hot summer day in Texas that just kept growing and growing? Or was it something that would have happened to damn near anybody throwing that much as a very young rookie?

 

A guy with a big fastball and anything near that beautiful curve is always an injury risk, almost on that basis alone. And then there's the slider...and the medical incompetency. And what about scar tissue? It could have been cascade effects; it could have been so many things. No need for me to list them again.

 

Maybe he just had a brittle body. Maybe it was just the wild delivery each time. I doubt it.

 

To read the papers, it was all very simple. Wild mechanics- arm slot, falling off the mound. Simple, cookie cutter stuff that any idiot who spent a couple hours around a high school coach could understand and repeat. There's no doubt that much of it was true- his mechanics were very explosive, dangerously out of control. And there's no denying that this put him a poor position- it was, at its absolute and improbable best, a huge additional obstacle for him to try to overcome.

 

Nevertheless, I can't help but think that all those other factors mean that we have to be more careful in our analysis. In all honesty, I don't think that we can say what did it- not for any of the injuries, let alone all of them. Is there really anybody who thinks that they're in a position to tell me how much of, say, his tendonitis in August of '01 had anything to do with anything that happened beforehand? Was he going too hard in the aftermath of injury, or would lots of otherwise-healthy pitchers have come to the same fate?

 

One thing I'm thinking here relates to an article I just read on BP. An interview with Tom House, the piece explains his views on not changing mechanics. It's definately something to think about. Now, in the interview, House is stating a general philosophy. It's simply that- a broad approach to the subject. It does not[/] mean that he thinks that there is nothing which should ever be corrected. It does not mean that there aren't some things which are so bad that they "must" be stopped.

 

And -let me be very clear about this- I am not arguing that Wood's mechanics are not the problem, or that the main culprit is elsewhere. Nor am I arguing that Wood's mechanics should not have been improved. I'm an total amateur when it comes to these subjects, but it certainly looked to me like he was doing things that were totally disastrous. I think that he absolutely should have found a competent pitching coach to help him fix this, preferably outside the organization. But to say that the similarity of some kid's mechanics to Wood's portends disaster isn't a fair statement. Wood's case is too complicated. Unless, of course, one can produce other- clearer- examples. List six or seven other guys with comparable mechanics and injury histories, but with more normal backgrounds and characteristics. (In that case, why bring up Wood's name at all?) And even this would not be enough. You'd have to show that the probability of injury coming from this set of pitchers dramatically exceeds the risks of other types of pitchers. If you don't have the data, you've got to provide a long, detailed rationale to prove that you aren't talking out a certain waste disposal oriface.

 

To get back to this kid, let's remember that Wood has a whole boatload of issues. Trying to forecast a kid -for performance or injury- based on mechanics is a complicated issue. And many approaches might be fundamentally confused about what's important. The BP article, linked below, suggests that timing, conditioning, and workload are the things to watch. Is it true? Hell if I know. But if you want to argue with the man, bring your data. By the sounds of it, he's got reams of it.

 

http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=5324

 

 

Sorry for not looking for other mentions of this article...the search function says that it's temporarily disabled.

 

 

Edit 6:41 PM board time: fixed italics error

[UK1679666180]

Workload should be separated from pitching while fatigued.

 

Proper mechanics just slow down the tearing down process of throwing. Even with proper mechanics, there's a tearing down progress.

 

Factor ages into the equation and the individual's growth plate.

 

His mechanics have played a role in his troubles as did everything else you mentioned.

 

But, pitchers like Neugebauer and Kyle Peterson had violent deliveries and it cost them.