I think you are just seeing more and more pitching injuries and at younger ages. Combination of year round baseball but also more one sport athletes. No rest for the arm, 10u and younger throwing off speed. Parents ignoring pitch counts and playing little league and select at the same time.

You even have high school coaches of top recruits that yield to the parents/players on when they pitch and how much. That way if there is an injury it doesn't come back on the coach.

need more cash!

Great discussion and great insights, guys

I am not a coach and know very little about mechanics and all that. But I can't help but believe the cumulative effect of year round pitching at a young age is a huge factor in arm stress, and likely the biggest culprit in later injury. Back in the day, year round baseball didn't really happen. At least not that I knew of. There was no year round select. You played youth baseball for 3 months and that was that. In high school you played UIL in the spring, and summer ball if you wanted. Now it seems like these kids are playing year round, every weekend, starting at a young age. That HAS to take a toll on a pitchers arm

I do have a question. I have heard announcers frequently include the cutter in a pitcher's repertoire. It has been shown that professional pitchers who throw a lot of these cut 4-seamers lose velocity over the course of a season, presumably due to cumulative arm fatigue beyond what would be expected if the pitcher did not rely on the cut fastball. Some pro teams have discouraged their minor leaguers from throwing it, and if memory serves, the orioles all but banned their minor leaguers from throwing it at one point

But it seems that a lot of college guys throw it now

Anything to that?

Virginiaag16 said:

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Maybe so but Doxakis, Lacy, Roa, Kilkenny, Kolek, Saenz, Joz, Bryce Miller, Dettmer, etc had similar workloads if not more and I don't remember many issues.

Prager is about it from a SP standpoint in recent memory.

9 SP out of let's say 25 (36%) in a 5 year stretch just seemed high at first glance. Not that it matters I guess - I think it's clear we have to make a change there regardless.

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And those kids weren't playing 11 months out of the year 15+ years ago either. Travel ball has exploded as a money machine and parents go along for the ride.

So if the injuries are pretty much a youth baseball issue then all collegiate teams are on even ground and this isn't an A&M issue/excuse

Wabs said:

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The Marksman said:

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Kelly should be fired because he's one of the worst pitching coaches in the entire country, not because injuries are his fault

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This. Notice how USC seems to roll out arm after arm that can get outs? Our pitching staff is way underdeveloped. We have young pitchers that have not seen much game action and who knows what JK has done to develop them. We could use a couple of arms right about it now.

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We have a talent issue. Hunter Vincent is the only elite arm we have. Freshcorn is really good but thats due to his mentality. I don't like JK personally (knew it was a dumb hire), but without talent, it doesn't matter who the pitching coach is.

You have a former hitting coach as the head coach. Where did the NIL money go to ?? I would imagine the offensive side of the game this time.

If Childress was coach I imagine any NIL money would have gone to the pitching side.

In the words of Cyndi Lauper Money Changes Everything

Add in the fact that while we have had injuries on both aspect of the game this season and last we didn't have the pitching depth to overcome this season loss of a weekend starter, another weekend starter who didn't fully come back as expected and now another weekend starter sidelined late in season. Not to mention one or two key relievers who didn't pitch much if at all this season.

We didn't have the depth from the bump this season and we didn't have Sado or Moss honestly meet expectations this season based upon previous years.

But we can mash with anyone and that will give us a fighting chance as long as the pitching staff doesn't give up 11+ runs a game.