Email a copy of 'Quick Hits: Extensions, Scouting, Tommy John' to a friend
Loading ...
By Jeff Todd | at
Email a copy of 'Quick Hits: Extensions, Scouting, Tommy John' to a friend
MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com
hide arrows scroll to top
Mario Saavedra
To be fair, team friendly extension offer good guaranteed money as well. Many extended players would had been non-tender otherwise. Look at the padres, they extended Cameron Maybin, Nick Hundley and Cory Luebke to ¨team friendly¨ extensions, and none of them has been that great for the team.
Cosmo3
Bingo. That’s exactly why players take them. It’s easy for us to sit here and say, “well if he’d gone year to year, he could have made more money”. But if I’m the player looking at an offer that would make me financially set for life, I say a bird in hand is worth two in the bush.
LazerTown
Right. You can set yourself up for a very good life and never have to worry about money with $20MM guaranteed. Depends though. Matt Moore’s contract was excessively team friendly, many of the other ones are fair. Trout could fall apart tomorrow. Grady Sizemore was fantastic when he came up. Even putting up 7.8 WAR after his 2nd full season. He took a discount on his total salary value that he got now, but he also is getting $150MM guaranteed.
homer 2
Do not see how Matt Moore’s was excessively team friendly. Matt Moore may not pitch in 2014, if he needs surgery he will miss a chunk of 2015. He has already doubled his income from the min 500k to 1m for three years because of the contract and next year he being arb eligible not sure he would have exceeded the 3m he is getting in the guaranteed contract. Granted when he would have hit FA in 2018 he probably would get more IF he gets past this current issue. Now if he has a re-occurrence and never comes back will this still be excessively team friendly?
DarthMurph
If he never comes back it will not be team friendly. In almost every other circumstance, it will be. Even on the DL he’d be collecting arbitration time meaning that he’d be due for a pay hike when he got back. The options prevent him from hitting free agency until he’s on the wrong side of 30.
LazerTown
Doesn’t take a player long to get to $14MM, then to have an option for last year of arb at $4.5MM, 1 year FA at $9MM, and 2nd year FA at $10MM. Unless he completely washed out he took a big discount. Even if he turned out to be an ineffective Phil Hughes clone he would have still ended up at that money, then on free agency Hughes again got paid for his potential.
DarthMurph
Team friendly extensions allow teams to be competitive for longer windows. Saying baseball is a 9 billion dollar industry ignores the fact that much of the revenue comes from a small number of teams. The Rays can’t have a 200 million dollar payroll, but they can be competitive when their players take deals that set them up for life while leaving room for team improvements.
Derpy
I’ve been saying this for years, but you need good high school coaches. You need coaches who care more about the kids than winning, and they need to care more about the health of the kids than whatever limelight they might receive from that kid becoming famous. Just because you have one great player on your team doesn’t mean you make him pitch every single inning. You might win games, but you’re jeopardizing his health. I have seen so many bad coaches at the high school level, it is really depressing.
Robert Mango
I’ll say this about the rise in Tommy John Surgery – CC Sabathia, Justin Verlander, Felix Hernandez. 3 pitchers who throw more inning than most, and never had the surgery. Coincidence? I think not. Seems like when you coddle pitchers, watch their innings, their arms are fit enough to handle a season and they tear a muscle. These guys are workhorses. Guess the more you pitch, the less likely you are to get hurt. THe more you do’nt pitch, the less shape your arm is in.
Mario Saavedra
C.C. Sabathia is completely done at this point. Justin Verlander and Felix Hernandez they are both young still, and more importantly they are the exceptions, not the pattern.
Brian D.
The interview with Dr. Andrews highlights some key issues, it’s worth listening to the whole thing –
Young pitchers (high school) are
1) Throwing for too long (playing competitively year – round, no off-season )
2) Throwing too often (amateur showcases, playing for multiple teams at once)
and 3) Throwing too hard (this was the eye-opener for me – Dr. Andrews stated that the “redline” for TJ surgery for highschool aged pitchers was 80-85mph.) Because the ligaments are still developing, the Dr. states that most of these kids are incurring TJ injuries as a result of competing with the radar gun, trying to throw in the low 90’s in HS.
I do think that a regular throwing program to build and maintain arm strength is essential. In that sense, kids should be throwing “more” than they currently do. I remember Bert Blyleven mentioning on a broadcast of a Twins game that he had a long-toss program he following during his playing days that kept him relatively injury free, and that most of the pitchers he talked to in the majors did not have anything similar and instead opted for more rest between starts rather than regular throwing.
jed_hoyer
problem is also caused by mlb pitching. emphasizing high velocity with poor mechanics and throwing curve/sliders that put to much torque on the elbow.
connfyoozed .
I would have been interested to read what Tommy John himself thinks. 😉
Mikenmn
I’ve heard a lot of stories about LL managers and travel teams who ride their best pitcher’s arms until they nearly fall off. When you are coaching a kid, you need to understand that that child, and his parents, are putting his health in your hands. That’s a serious responsibility. Some managers understand it, some don’t.
connfyoozed .
And I suspect that some managers understand it, but just care more about winning, which is a shame.