Tommy John for Lester Oliveros?

[SweetOne69]

yeah you can DFA him, but another team is gonna claim him & stash him on the 60 day DL till he recovers. Arm is still too valuable to give him away for nothing.

If nobody were to claim him he'd be a 6yr FA, so are ya gonna risk losing him over 400k

 

First, I don't think anybody will claim an injured player (especially one who is going to miss and entire year). I would be very surprised if it happens.

 

2nd, I don't think an injured player would elect to become a minor league FA. $72k is still better than nothing.

Teams claim/sign injured players...think TEX gave Brandon Webb a 2 yr deal & he never pitched.

It doesnt take up a roster spot if you're put on 60 day DL...what's the risk

 

If he did clear waivers, I think he automatically becomes a FA.....MN/ROC would have to sign him

 

We'll see what happens.

[DaveW]

Pitchers get TJS in this day and age, it's hard to blame the Twins for this happening. However they can be blamed for waiting so long on quite a few of these guys, but interestingly enough, they had no idea he needed TJS until they cut him open.

[StormJH1]

For a little perspective, here is a Tommy John tracker:

http://www.mlbdepthcharts.com/2010/08/tommy-john-tracker.html

 

Apparently pitchers outside the Twins organization undergo the procedure from time to time as well.

Yeah, I really think a lot of fans are missing the point. If you follow baseball (or even fantasy baseball), I've really never had the sense that pitchers in the Twins organization are any more prone to Tommy John surgery than in other organizations around baseball. I've never heard complaints of pitchers in the minors being overworked, and Gardenhire has actually been criticized for being TOO cautious with pitchers at the big league level (though he does overwork certain relievers at times). I remember Santana when he was just emerging as a star would rarely get to 100 pitchers, and Gardy angrily defended his decision to take him out of games early.

 

Tommy John surgery happens - I liken it to horse racing, where the animals have been bred to be extremely musclebound, yet with a lightweight bone structure that puts them at risk of broken legs. It should be apparent by now (after an era of extreme muscle training, steroids, HGH, etc.) that there is a physical limit on how hard the collection of bones and soft tissue we call the human body can propel a baseball. That limit is just over 100mph, and what's amazing about that is that Bob Gibson and Nolan Ryan were throwing that hard without "modern" training and nutrition, and the same was probably true of even earlier pitchers. However, there is some anecdoal evidence from pitchers of the Christy Matthewson era that while pitchers threw tons of innings on short rest, they weren't always exerting themselves 100% during the course of a game. That may be a partial explanation for what's happened. Of course, prior to Tommy John surgery, pitchers DID get hurt - you just never heard from them again after they blew out their elbow.

 

Where the Twins are rippable is that they fail to diagnose a TJ situation, and they have this fear of the procedure like it's the kiss of death. It isn't anymore. You're essentially giving a pitcher a replacement part for soft tissue parts of the elbow that have been worn out over many years. Pitchers who recover from TJ surgery almost always end up throwing as hard (or harder) as they did before the procedure. So when the Twins mess around with guys like Baker and pretend like it will just get better, they're doing both themselves and the player a great disservice. It's better to get the damn thing fixed and get back to your career sooner.