The Twins' Injury Issues Aren't Just a Twins Problem. Does MLB Have a Broader Concern to Address?

[Nate Palmer]

27 minutes ago, Coach Wheels said:

I'm not sure of the point of the essay. Guys have always gotten hurt; I remember being frustrated by Hrbek missing games every year. He was blamed for not being in shape, now we blame them for being too good of shape? 

I would love to see this team have their best players play 140 games together. I think they're talented enough to win this division by 8-10 games

The point is that injuries hit another peak league wide and the Twins are toward the top of that trend. 

[DJL44]

30 minutes ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

I think we are near the top of the velocity range for pitchers.  Batters will ultimately adjust and better learn how to hit these pitches. 

I think we already have selected for elite hand-eye-coordination and reaction time among hitters. Visual-motor response time isn't going to get any faster. 

[DocBauer]

A few different thoughts here.

1] Our very own TD physical therapy expert Lucas Seehafer had some interesting comments a few months ago concerning soft tissue injuries. The one that stuck out to me was discussing players recovering from serious injuries such as knee surgery. And this could apply to Lewis and Buxton both as an example. It can take a year or so for the rest of the body to fully "recover" from the injury as it's been compensating through surgery recovery and compensating as a result. Of course, I'm paraphrasing somewhat.

In other words, it's possible some of the soft tissue injuries Lewis has been dealing with, MAYBE the hip issue of Buxton, might somewhat take care of themselves and lessen somewhat going forward now that they will be over a year plus recovered from their knee surgeries.

2] The max effort velocity and muscle build up for power hitting isn't going anywhere, even if the tactics of speed and stolen bases is back up again. And I don't see any changes taking place in college or HS, or even lower in the amounts of games played. 

Personally, I really liked the 28 man MLB roster for the covid year of 2020. While MLB has callups from AAA when someone is hurt, most teams don't have the luxury of a AAA club across town. That's negated when the Twins are on the road, of course. HOWEVER you break down the ML roster, you almost always have 13 pitchers now and 13 position players. With 9 guys in the lineup, the player bench is only 4 players, 1 of them a catcher. That leaves only 3 position players available on any given day. I'd like to see the roster at 28 in order to provide a little more flexibility and rest for those guys who might just really need a day or two to get back vs playing short handed. I think it might help some with injury control and recovery, and help with the on the field product. 

3] I know this will be controversial, especially because of the game being "cheated" in the past from rampant performance enhancing drugs, but IMO, in ALL SPORTS, I would be in favor of growth hormone or steroids being used during rehabilitation for serious injuries. We're talking grown men, professionals, earning massive amounts of $ in some cases, and once seriously injured, I'd be OK with limited usage of doctor prescribed and controlled drugs of this nature in order to help with healing. NOT improvement or enhancement of physical abilities, but as part of rehabilitation in order to heal fully.

4] I have no doubt that ML training staffs work really hard to make sure players are healthy, fit, warmed up and ready to go. And yet the injuries are on the rise. If you aren't going to be able to change the structure of the game, then you can try to at least affect and mitigate the rehab of players, and the recovery of minor injuries, and keep the product on the field.

Just a collection of thoughts I have.

[DJL44]

24 minutes ago, DocBauer said:

3] I know this will be controversial, especially because of the game being "cheated" in the past from rampant performance enhancing drugs, but IMO, in ALL SPORTS, I would be in favor of growth hormone or steroids being used during rehabilitation for serious injuries. We're talking grown men, professionals, earning massive amounts of $ in some cases, and once seriously injured, I'd be OK with limited usage of doctor prescribed and controlled drugs of this nature in order to help with healing. NOT improvement or enhancement of physical abilities, but as part of rehabilitation in order to heal fully.

Buxton's cortisone shot and Correa's plasma rich platelet injection fit that description.

[DocBauer]

7 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Buxton's cortisone shot and Correa's plasma rich platelet injection fit that description.

They do. And medical science keeps advancing, such as the relatively new braces for elbows in TJ surgeries. I'm just saying that for anyone, including athletes who do this for a living, I'm in favor of other methods that might have a black mark against them, that might not be "evil" in the proper context.

For instance, I'd rather see athletes...and the public at large...be able to use something like marijuana or TCH supplements for pain vs opiods for pain. And on a limited basis, doctor controlled and monitored, I'm in favor of other options to promote actual rehab and HEALING. NOT for a competitive advantage, but for returned health.

[purplesoldier4u]

2 hours ago, USAFChief said:

In the specific case of Hrbek, he played fewer than 140 games once in his first 9 full seasons.

He was pretty durable.  

For a big as he was, he did pretty good. Sadly, had he taken better care of himself, he would have had a near HoF career ... not that those things mattered to him.

[Road trip]

4 hours ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

Only 67 players as of today has played 140 games, and they aren't the ones getting hurt, so I don't see how that addresses the injury issue.

I think one of the issues is that young kids are required to stress their bodies at a young age (6th, 7th and 8th grade), doesn't matter the sport unless you play at a small high school you really don't have much of a chance of playing varsity high school sports unless you are adding a bunch of weight from muscle. My son plays football at a 5A school and if you can't bench 200 plus pounds and much more if you play linebacker or linemen you have no shot of playing. It is very similar for the baseball players if you aren't in the gym getting stronger you get left behind.

Watch any MN state tournament and see how big and strong these kids are.

I do believe this is a big part of the problem.  Young bodies are being built up through strength training before they are ready.

Players from the 1980s had never lifted weights in their youth (or, at least, not around where I lived).  Players from the 1990s *might* have done some limited weight training in their youth, but probably not much.  Things have really changed for young athletes since this era.  I don't think it is a coincidence that near universal weight training for young athletes coincides with the increased injury rates we have seen at MLB in the past two decades.

It is a problem for MLB, even if a fix is elusive.  MLB is fast becoming like the NFL... at the end of the year, the teams that have suffered fewer injuries have a big advantage.

[jkcarew]

Wait. If ALL teams are experiencing a lot of injuries, how can the Twins still be scrapping for a 6 seed?

[purplesoldier4u]

2 hours ago, DJL44 said:

I think we already have selected for elite hand-eye-coordination and reaction time among hitters. Visual-motor response time isn't going to get any faster. 

I'm not sure that isn't the a major difference in elite athletes.

 

[Eris]

If they want to really fix the injury issues they will need to address it at youth sports. Today’s MLB players likely focused on playing baseball at least 9 months of the year. More in some regions. This is a very significant change from 40 years ago when most high school athletes played 3 sports. 
 

I live in NJ and player doesn’t make the high school baseball team if he doesn’t play club ball and they don’t pitch without have a personal pitching coach before 9th grade. There is a whole industry built around this for most high school sports with the possible exception of bowling. 

[Twins63]

Think of any profession that has repetitive movements...there will always be injuries. Now throw in year round specialized sport training...like it was mentioned earlier you need to pick your sport early or be left behind. We know the treatment for the injuries, however, treating before injury might be the creative key to prevention. Whatever it takes-the "training" needs to incorporate just as much injury prevention work as sporting work....

[Doctor Wu]

21 hours ago, Karbo said:

I wonder if the players were playing thru more injuries in the previous century. I know they are getting bigger and stronger today, but that may be part of the problem. Pushing the human body past it's limitations leading to more injuries?

I think there could be some merit in your theory. I think this era's emphasis on bulking up and working in the weight room may be counterproductive for some (but not all) players. 

[bean5302]

On 9/18/2024 at 11:15 AM, RpR said:

The season was 154 games for a long time; 140 is WAY too short.

But then, the hockey season is starting NOW and will run till May-June?

Baseball need more exposure, not less.

I really like a good burger. I don't want to eat burgers 3 meals a day 365 days a year. For a lot of people, Baseball is tuna casserole right now. Eating more of it won't make people like it more.