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Strasburg Meets his Ultimate Challenge

August 31, 2010

Strasburg Meets his Ultimate ChallengeI want to feel bad for Stephen Strasburg for tearing his ulnar cruciate ligament in his first MLB season but I remember that his signing bonus was $15 Million and then I don’t feel so bad. Having Tommy John surgery today isn’t that rare. Just view the list below of the 187 MLB and some minor league ball players who have survived the surgery and there is a lot more. Most say that you will come out of Tommy John surgery throwing harder but this is a misconception. Studies show that those pitchers who increase velocity post Tommy John surgery is mainly because they develop more of a focus on their training program along with making mechanical corrections. My experience with surgery is if you can survive it, you will come out better, not physically better but better prepared for life. If Strasburg is going to come back and be the next greatest thing again he is going to have to overcome a major hurdle in his professional career. Mark Prior is a pitcher who was dealt a similar hand than Strasburg and he is still trying to make his come back after his career ending injury. Mark Prior is now learning that his best years may be behind him.

The biggest question about the Strasburg injury is how did this happen? His mechanics looked good and he is young and strong, so what happened? This is a tough question. This shows that the MLB is still very behind in the health science world. They should have had ASMI analyzing every pitcher that they have spent $15 million dollars on or should I say that their insurance company should have required this of them. I believe that Strasburg is a perfect example of the superhero expectation of professional athletes along with an abusive minor and major league schedule. Velocities are increasing and game schedules are still excessive. 162 games a season is just insane. Do the math, a minor league or MLB pitcher throws around 200 innings a season, that could equal about 3,000 pitches a season or more, at an average speed of 95 mph equals extreme amounts of abuse to the pitchers body. I mean honestly do you really believe that Stephen Strasburg has a mechanical issue? I believe that his genetics are impressive but not freakish. My suggestion to his recovery would be that he needs to not throw his slider so hard. Before my rotator cuff tear happened in my career I remember having serious elbow problems. I had about six shots of cortizone in the elbow to deal with the pain, then before I knew it I am having shoulder surgery. I credit my elbow problems to my curve ball. Scouts told me I had a Major League curve ball and it became a problem because when you throw hard and use your ulnar cruciate ligament (UCL) to flex your forearm to fight against gravity and the speed of your arm to throw a curve ball or slider you are putting a lot of excessive forces on your UCL. As your UCL breaks down so does the rest of your arm. It becomes a chain reaction. I credit my ability to overcoming a major shoulder injury to not throwing my curve ball again. I never threw it again because just the thought of it post surgery made me want to throw up. I missed the hell out of my curve ball but I had to say goodbye because I wanted to continue playing this game at a professional level. This must have helped, along with my excellent training program and mechanical corrections that I have put in the Ace Pitcher Handbook, because I never had arm problems again. Once I got on the new program and made the mechanical corrections and stopped throwing my curveball my arm rarely ever hurt again and my velocity increased dramatically. This to me was a miracle and it was also a major transition in my life.

If we are going to see Strasburg emerge as the next best thing again he too must make a major transition in his life to overcome this major injury. Best of luck Stephen!

Tommy John Victims

  1. Nick Adenhart
  2. Brian Anderson[8]
  3. Rick Ankiel [9] (converted to outfielder)
  4. Andy Ashby [10]
  5. Luis Atilano
  6. Mike Aviles (shortstop)
  7. John Axford
  8. Luis Ayala [11]
  9. Brandon Backe [12]
  10. Danys Baez [13]
  11. Rocco Baldelli [14] (outfielder)
  12. Grant Balfour [15]
  13. Rod Beck [16]
  14. Erik Bedard [17]
  15. Ronald Belisario
  16. Francis Beltran [18]
  17. Jeff Bennett [19]
  18. Kris Benson [20]
  19. Jason Berken
  20. Adam Bernero [21]
  21. Brent Billingsley [22]
  22. Ricky Bones [23]
  23. Joe Borchard (outfielder)
  24. Zach Braddock [24]
  25. Bill Bray
  26. Dewon Brazelton
  27. Doug Brocail
  28. Taylor Buchholz
  29. Ambiorix Burgos
  30. A. J. Burnett
  31. Paul Byrd
  32. Jorge Campillo
  33. José Canseco (outfielder; injured while pitching)
  34. Chris Capuano (twice)
  35. Chris Carpenter
  36. Rocky Cherry
  37. Matt Chico
  38. Shin-Soo Choo (outfielder)
  39. Todd Coffey
  40. Tyler Colvin(while in the minors) (outfielder)
  41. Chris Coste (catcher)
  42. Neal Cotts
  43. Ben Davis (catcher)
  44. Ken Dayley
  45. Manny Delcarmen
  46. Ryan Dempster [20]
  47. Chris Denorfia (outfielder)
  48. Jorge DePaula
  49. Joey Devine
  50. Thomas Diamond (minor leaguer)
  51. Brendan Donnelly
  52. Octavio Dotel
  53. Darren Dreifort
  54. Phil Dumatrait
  55. Brian Duensing
  56. Adam Eaton
  57. Dave Eiland (twice)
  58. Willie Eyre
  59. Ryan Feierabend
  60. Scott Feldman[25]
  61. Jesse Foppert
  62. Chad Fox (twice)
  63. John Franco
  64. Frank Francisco
  65. Éric Gagné [20]
  66. Jaime García
  67. Luis Gonzalez (outfielder)
  68. Mike González
  69. Tom Gordon [20]
  70. Rusty Greer (outfielder)
  71. Lee Gronkiewicz
  72. Angel Guzman
  73. Mike Hampton
  74. Sean Henn
  75. Pat Hentgen
  76. Runelvys Hernández
  77. Shawn Hill (twice)
  78. Matt Holliday (outfielder)
  79. Norris Hopper (outfielder)
  80. Tim Hudson
  81. Philip Humber
  82. Todd Hundley (catcher)
  83. Eric Hurley
  84. César Izturis (infielder)
  85. Jason Isringhausen
  86. Tommy John [2]
  87. Kelly Johnson (infielder)
  88. Josh Johnson
  89. Steve Karsay
  90. Jimmy Key
  91. Josh Kinney
  92. Billy Koch [20]
  93. Bobby Korecky
  94. Hong-Chih Kuo (twice)
  95. Scott Lewis[26]
  96. Cory Lidle
  97. Jon Lieber [20]
  98. Brad Lincoln (minor leaguer)
  99. Jesse Litsch[27]
  100. Mike Lincoln (twice)
  101. Francisco Liriano
  102. Rodrigo Lopez
  103. Matt Mantei
  104. Shaun Marcum
  105. Scott Mathieson (twice)
  106. Joe Mays
  107. Macay McBride
  108. Seth McClung
  109. Dustin McGowan
  110. Mark McLemore
  111. Jon Meloan
  112. Zach Miner
  113. Sergio Mitre
  114. Paul Molitor (infielder)
  115. Matt Morris [20]
  116. Peter Moylan
  117. Xavier Nady (twice; outfielder)
  118. Tim Naehring (infielder)
  119. Joe Nathan
  120. Pat Neshek
  121. John Odom
  122. Russ Ortiz
  123. Josh Outman
  124. Juan Padilla
  125. John Parrish
  126. Carl Pavano
  127. Scott Proctor
  128. Bill Pulsipher
  129. Chris Ray [13][20]
  130. Carlos Quentin (outfielder)
  131. Britt Reames
  132. Al Reyes
  133. Anthony Reyes
  134. Arthur Rhodes
  135. Jose Rijo (three)
  136. Matt Riley (three)
  137. Ricardo Rincón
  138. David Riske
  139. Mariano Rivera
  140. Nate Robertson
  141. Fernando Rodney
  142. Kenny Rogers
  143. Francisco Rosario
  144. B. J. Ryan
  145. Ángel Sánchez[28] (infielder)
  146. Aníbal Sánchez
  147. Humberto Sánchez
  148. Scott Schoeneweis
  149. Jae Seo
  150. Alfredo Simon
  151. Andy Sisco
  152. John Smoltz [20]
  153. Kyle Snyder
  154. Joakim Soria
  155. Rafael Soriano
  156. Tim Spooneybarger
  157. Denny Stark (twice)
  158. Eric Stults
  159. Junichi Tazawa
  160. Clete Thomas (outfielder)
  161. Brian Tollberg
  162. John Tudor
  163. Merkin Valdez
  164. Rick van den Hurk
  165. Óscar Villarreal
  166. Edinson Volquez
  167. Billy Wagner
  168. Paul Wagner
  169. Don Wakamatsu[29] (catcher)
  170. Tyler Walker
  171. David Wells
  172. Jake Westbrook
  173. Scott Williamson
  174. C.J. Wilson
  175. Brian Wilson
  176. Vance Wilson (twice; catcher)
  177. Mark Wohlers
  178. Randy Wolf
  179. Kerry Wood [20]
  180. Mark Worrell
  181. Jaret Wright
  182. Tyler Yates (twice)
  183. Matt Young
  184. Mike Zagurski
  185. Víctor Zambrano (twice)
  186. Jeff Zimmerman (twice)
  187. Jordan Zimmermann

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Comments

2 Responses to “Strasburg Meets his Ultimate Challenge”

  1. Tyrrell Hughes on September 2nd, 2010 9:22 pm

    So should we all just stop throwing deuces or is it more of a heightened frequency that'll disintegrate our UCL. I mean there has been guys who made a career off a good curveball, like Zito maybe. Granted, Barry isn't going to break the sound barrier with his arm speed. So that should create a little less torque than a Strasburg, thus this would increase the odds of maintaining a healthy UCL?

  2. Brent Pourciau on September 2nd, 2010 9:44 pm

    I am not speaking out against curveballs but I am saying that if you are throwing the ball as hard as Strasburg you better make sure that you are throwing your breaking stuff correctly. When I dropped my curveball post surgery I learned a three finger slider. It is a slower slider than a two finger but it still gave me a breaking ball to work with. The fact is that flexing the wrist during pitch release at high velocities is very hard on the flexor tendon and the ucl. Just ask Ben Sheets and Stephen Strasburg.

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