Darvish, Tommy John and culture...

A major reason DFW sports writers don't like Yu Darvish is that he won't talk to them.  He has a built-in excuse to not communicate with the press (the trouble he has with English, which may or may not actually be a significant issue), but when you're a superstar of Darvish's caliber, sports writers are going to insist on trying to get the standard spam expected of players to contribute to column inches.

Darvish shrugs this off, but a complicating factor is that he's quite talky with Japanese media.  In fact, he'll say things to the Japanese press that English-speaking players won't, such as being critical of American pitchers' training regimes.  The most fascinating part of this exchange to me is the Japanese press repeatedly trying to link Tommy John injuries to inferior cultural beliefs and traditions, while Darvish maintains the injuries are functions of

• Selecting for velocity over conditioning and endurance in training
• Workload, especially concerning frequency of pitching days.

The workload argument is probably the most accurate, although it probably can't be proven in any way other than to try it (the six-man rotation, that is).  There is still the counter-intuitive evidence that the frequency of Tommy John surgeries has been on the rise as individual pitcher workload decreased.  The possible explanation is that injuries that were never diagnosed or repaired in past decades are being attended now that we have the technology and will to address them.

Personally I think the sudden increase the last couple of years is mainly do to MLB outlawing and severely punishing human growth hormone as a PED.  Used properly HGH is extremely useful in maintaining health, and I think a lot of people were finally scared off of it the last year or two.

Another interesting note is that Darvish mentions that adding a sixth starting pitcher would depress salaries for starting pitchers overall.  Which is absolutely correct and a clear indication that the players union will be against the move.

Finally, something that we've had some minor rumblings about for a while:  Darvish explicitly states that the new Rawlings balls appear to be of very poor quality.  Of everything Darvish said, expect this claim to go the furthest, because now that he's said it others will step in, especially press who decide to push the slippery baseballs as the reason for Tommy John surgeries.  And since Rawlings isn't represented by the players union or an owner, MLB will take them to task.

Posted by: Ben at 09:18 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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