Ask any pitcher what injury they want to avoid
more between and elbow or a shoulder and undoubtedly the latter would win by a
landslide. It has pretty much been
proven over the years that shoulder trouble does so much more harm both
health-wise and stuff-wise to a pitcher than does an elbow injury. There are two big issues with shoulder
injuries that make them so much worse for pitchers, starting with the fact that
they tend to linger and re-occur.
Secondly, shoulder injuries almost always take a bite out of a pitcher’s
stuff. Often mileage is lost on the
fastball and there can become less bite on offspeed stuff as a result of
trouble in the shoulder. Look no further
than recent examples such as Matt Cain, Josh Johnson, the late Tommy Hanson,
and others as young ace-like pitchers who all flamed out quickly once they came
down with shoulder trouble. While Cain
is still pitching, he has never come close to his past skills. Meanwhile Johnson and Hanson both were out of
baseball soon after coming down with initial shoulder trouble that continually
re-appeared. That is why what took place
in 2016 with Tyson Ross is so troubling. One of the most talented young power pitchers
in baseball, Ross came into the 2016 season with a career 3.07 ERA and 526
strikeouts in 516.2 innings as his near 100-mph fastball was a huge handful for
opposing hitters. While Ross has always
struggled with control, there was a ton to like about a guy who also called
Petco Park home. Well Ross’ 2016
consisted of just one April 4th start and then nothing else as an
early bout of shoulder stiffness morphed into a series of setbacks that kept
him out for the remainder of the season. Rehabbing from the dreaded thoracic outlet surgery, there is no telling when or in what shape stuff-wise Ross will be when he return to the Texas Rangers. If he can regain the strikeout stuff though, he can be a nice second-half asset or maybe a bit sooner.
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