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We’ve proven that whereas pitchers (502 injured listing stints in 2023) get damage extra usually than hitters (355 instances on the IL), additionally they get damage worse. Hitters spent 13,142 days on the injured listing final 12 months. Pitchers misplaced 32,107 days. Pitchers obtained damage 41% extra usually however spent 144% extra days rehabbing. Put one other manner, pitchers accounted for 59% of injured listing stints however 71% of days spent on the IL.
That’s per John Wholestaff’s Valentine’s Day article on pitcher accidents. (Sure, he’s an actual pitcher. Sure, that’s a pseudonym, clearly. No, we don’t know who he’s, don’t ask.) His level was that pitchers get damage rather a lot primarily as a result of, in his phrases, “The act of pitching is insanely traumatic on the physique, and anybody who performs it for any vital period of time is certain to get damage in a roundabout way.” That’s a ringing endorsement for the vocation, huh?
He goes on to dispel the straightforward explanations some folks cite for the uptick in pitcher accidents: Pitchers not utilizing their legs sufficient, throwing too arduous, and so forth. You need to learn the article in the event you haven’t already. The hyperlink’s within the prior paragraph. He lays out a persuasive case.
Essentially the most controversial assertion within the article, although, is that this one:
Now, if I had been in control of making choices at Main League Baseball, and I had been conscious of the truth that pitching may be very traumatic and that muscular tissues don’t work fairly so effectively after they don’t have sufficient time to get well, I’d most actually put a pitch clock in place. That’s, after all, if I had been being bribed closely by Massive Orthopedic Surgical procedure. It isn’t but clear how a lot this explicit piece of the puzzle is contributing to the upper damage fee this 12 months, however it’s actually contributing.
We are able to’t actually check this. We are able to’t replay the 2023 season with no pitch clock and see if the damage counts are completely different, or if the accidents are much less extreme. We are able to solely have a look at what occurred in 2023 and evaluate it to prior years (whereas admitting that one season isn’t sufficient of a pattern). If accidents are up—or down—we are able to’t definitively level to the pitch clock. Correlation isn’t causation, as they are saying.
