Berardino: Twins Charting Fatigue, Players Union Concerned

[Seth Stohs]

Mike Berardino wrote about a system the Twins are trying to implement. The last year, the Twins have been charting  fatigue and workload of its players whether it's hitting in the cages, taking grounders, etc.

 

Tony Clark of the Players Union is concerned about the methods.

 

It's interesting to see how they think maybe moving around positions hurt Miguel Sano and Danny Santana last year. 

 

It'll need a lot of extra data points, but the system is at least interesting.

 

What do you think?

 

http://www.twincities.com/2017/03/25/twins-attempt-to-chart-fatigue-raises-concerns-with-players-union/

 

 

[theBOMisthebomb]

This could be the first step to a new method to improved player health and improved working conditions.  The Twins system seems very basic, at least it is a start down the right path.  The concerns from the union are silly.  Why would the union care if this data impacts the mental state of the players?

[nicksaviking]

I'm surprised and impressed that the Twins were thinking outside the box. I think Tony Clark's concerns are a bit of a stretch. If there is truly a concern then the MLBPA should just require the team to share the information. I doubt the Twins would actually withhold their findings from the player himself.

 

However this tracking does seem rudimentary as Berardino said. Also it seems odd that they'd need to visibly monitor the situation. These guys have daily schedules don't they? Don't they have specific routines for spring training and in season don't they have specific routines for home or away games; day or night games? Shouldn't they know that from 8:00 - 8:30 Sano is jogging/warming up with the other infielders, from 8:30 - 9:30 Sano is in a cage rotation with the other infielders, 9:30 - 10:00 Sano has individual fielding instruction etc...

[Brock Beauchamp]

The union argument is silly.

 

What happens if the Twins figure out Brian Dozier is a .780 OPS guy over 155 games or an .800 OPS guy over 151 games with the occasional off day from practice?

 

Is Brian Dozier REALLY going to complain about that?

[Guest]

Collecting health data on employees runs into a bunch of laws about the privacy of health information, even if the employees are athletes and there's an argument that it will "help" the athlete. Further, it's hard to prove that the information will never be used to the employee's disadvantage. Finally, if you or a family member have never been misdiagnosed by a "good" doctor, you're lucky, yet in this case it's not clear that only trained medical professionals will make decisions based on the data. Players don't want to lose a job and be labeled as having a condition based on incomplete or misunderstood data.

[nicksaviking]

Collecting health data on employees runs into a bunch of laws about the privacy of health information, even if the employees are athletes and there's an argument that it will "help" the athlete. Further, it's hard to prove that the information will never be used to the employee's disadvantage. Finally, if you or a family member have never been misdiagnosed by a "good" doctor, you're lucky, yet in this case it's not clear that only trained medical professionals will make decisions based on the data. Players don't want to lose a job and be labeled as having a condition based on incomplete or misunderstood data.

Maybe I missed something that you and Tony Clark picked up on, but it sounds like the team is only tracking physical activity that would already be required/assigned by the employer. Not only does that seem like common sense, but it sounds it would be OSHA approved.

 

But again, I don't know why the team wouldn't have them on an itinerary and just track it that way.

[The Wise One]

Other teams are doing it

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/pittsburgh-pirates-clint-hurdle-fatigue-monitor-training-staff-lineups-091615

http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/6479266/v1243450383/cards-introduce-player-health-monitoring-system

pay http://journals.lww.com/nsca-scj/Abstract/2014/12000/Monitoring_and_Managing_Fatigue_in_Baseball.4.aspx

[ScrapTheNickname]

 

Mike Berardino wrote about a system the Twins are trying to implement. The last year, the Twins have been charting  fatigue and workload of its players whether it's hitting in the cages, taking grounders, etc.

 

Tony Clark of the Players Union is concerned about the methods.

 

It's interesting to see how they think maybe moving around positions hurt Miguel Sano and Danny Santana last year. 

 

It'll need a lot of extra data points, but the system is at least interesting.

 

What do you think?

 

http://www.twincities.com/2017/03/25/twins-attempt-to-chart-fatigue-raises-concerns-with-players-union/

I always thought a 7-month grind (including March) with a four-day break along the way is too, too much for any sane person to endure. My "vision" has been to give players in-season vacations. Someone is always getting a week off while a minor league player is called up to fill their spot. They come back fresh and relaxed and ready to go. Like I said, It's just a vision I have while thinking of how damned exhausted they must all get!

[Richie the Rally Goat]

The union argument is silly.

 

What happens if the Twins figure out Brian Dozier is a .780 OPS guy over 155 games or an .800 OPS guy over 151 games with the occasional off day from practice?

 

Is Brian Dozier REALLY going to complain about that?

Theres a reason why MLB players have almost exclusively guaranteed contracts as opposed to every other US pro sport, where guaranteed contracts are almost never guaranteed. The MLBPA did not get that influential by letting "insignificant details" go by. They investigate everything that the owners and GMs do in regards to the sport's affects on its union members.

 

It's their duty to ensure the players cannot be negatively impacted by tracking fatigue. What if the intention to protect players from injury becomes a bargaining chip in contract negotiation? It's certain to happen at some point. The union would want to evaluate first.

[TheLeviathan]

 

The union argument is silly.

What happens if the Twins figure out Brian Dozier is a .780 OPS guy over 155 games or an .800 OPS guy over 151 games with the occasional off day from practice?

Is Brian Dozier REALLY going to complain about that?

 

That depends on how extensive their tracking is and what decisions they choose to use that information to make.  

 

Clark's not wrong to at least be concerned about it, especially if they don't know what the clubs are doing fully.

[Guest]

Maybe I missed something that you and Tony Clark picked up on, but it sounds like the team is only tracking physical activity that would already be required/assigned by the employer. Not only does that seem like common sense, but it sounds it would be OSHA approved.

But again, I don't know why the team wouldn't have them on an itinerary and just track it that way.

I don't read the article as saying that the players association has opposed the Twins' charting. The issue raised is more general - why the union would have concerns with capturing player health data. Its not just blue sky.

 

Also, a lot of teams, pro and college, in many sports, have been doing much more, for years. For example, based on the article, it's well behind the tracking that Stanford women's soccer has been doing for several years. The Twins are playing catch-up, unsurprisingly.