The Elbow

If you follow sports then you no doubt heard about the Shohei Ohtani phenomenon.  Ohtani received a TON of hype before making his MLB debut this season.  Why?  Ohtani can both hit and pitch.  The Japanese Babe Ruth, he has been called.

Ohtani was dazzling early this season, both on the mound and at the plate.  He hit a TON of home runs.  He pitched SO WELL.  OMG.  It was awesome.

Ohtani is so handsome.  “So handsome” is a scientific term.  And, to top it off, his translator’s hair is amazing.  Dreamy.

 

The Shohei Ohtani dream was going great.  Then, it turned into a nightmare.

The Angels started the season 13-3.  Mike Trout was playing well.  So was Albert Pujols.  And The Big Kahuna aka Mike Scioscia was large and in charge, as always.

But Ohtani was The Story.  That story was going great.  Team doing great.  Ohtani doing great.

Then, The Intelligentsia did what they always do.  They got WEAK!

There is en epidemic of WEAKNESS, in this day and age.

The Angels were worried that Ohtani would hurt his elbow.  So, they skipped one of his starts.  And, if you take a look at his game log, you will see that there was an unusual number of days between his starts.

They messed with Ohtani’s rhythm.  They messed with his vibe.  They messed with his flow.

Don’t mess with Shohei Ohtani’s flow.  EVER.

Nobody puts Shohei Ohtani in the corner.  Nobody puts The Big Kahuna aka Mike Scioscia in the corner.  EVER.

Maybe, just maybe, Ohtani wouldn’t have injured his elbow if he had been starting every fifth game all season?  Maybe, just maybe, so many pitchers wouldn’t be having Tommy John surgery if they were allowed to start every fifth day, without innings limits, without pitch counts, Old School Baseball FTW.

Maybe.  Just maybe.

Or maybe, just maybe, Tommy John surgery is being overprescribed.  Maybe, just maybe, a sprained ligament will heal without surgery.  I’m not a doctor.  But it is my understanding that a sprained ligament will heal without surgery.

When the news broke about Ohtani’s sprained UCL, The Intelligentsia was breathless.

“Put him under the knife!” they screamed like a pack of hysterical hysterics.

Do they not understand that surgery is a big deal?  There is an idea these days amongst The Intelligentsia, that Tommy John surgery is no big deal.  Are they joking?  Any surgery that requires 12-14 months of recovery time is a big deal.  Surgery should always be the last resort.

Duh.  M.D.  OG.

Ohtani was out for a few weeks.  He’s back now.  He just did this last night.

James Shields is handsome.  But can he hit the ball 500 feet?  NO.

Shohei Ohtani is a better player than James Shields.

 

Clearly, Ohtani’s elbow is ok.  He just hit the ball 500 feet last night.

But The Intelligentsia is worried.  “If we pitch him, then he could hurt his elbow I’m weak I’m a weakling!” is what The Intelligentsia is saying.

They must have missed the Masahiro Tanaka Story.  Masahiro Tanaka was Shohei Ohtani before Shohei Ohtani was Shohei Ohtani.  Then again, Tanaka can’t hit the ball 500 feet.  He can’t hit the ball 5 feet.  He can’t hit the ball at all.  He pulled both hamstrings simultaneously running the bases a few weeks back.  For real.  Meanwhile, Ohtani does this.  Then again, Ohtani is playing in a place called Anaheim in front of a bunch of rich people from Orange County who are too busy worrying about beach weather to care about baseball.  Tanaka, meanwhile, is pitching under The Bright Lights in The Big City.  New York.  New York.

Masahiro Tanaka suffered a minor UCL injury in 2014.  The Intelligentsia screamed “Tear him open and put him on the shelf!”

Tanaka was back out on the mound in a few weeks.  The next season he made 24 starts.  He had an ERA of 3.51 and he won 12 games.  Wins Matter.

The next season he made 31 starts.  He won 14 games and posted an ERA of 3.07.  ERA Matters.

The next season he made 30 starts.  He posted an ERA of 4.74, but he won 13 –

Stop it right there.  13.  Alex Rodriguez.

The Yankees are ripe for collapse.  They will collapse this season.

 

Where was I?  Right.  Tanaka.  He pitched tremendously in the second half last season for the Yankees.  And he pitched tremendously for them in the Postseason.

He has a 4.09 ERA to this point in the season this year, and he just threw a complete game shutout the other night against Tampa Bay.

Clearly, The Intelligentsia was wrong that Tommy John was necessary for Tanaka.

Was it necessary for Corey Seager?  How many pitchers who are having Tommy John surgery really need it?  Would many of them, if not most of them, be ok after a few months rest like Tanaka was after his minor UCL injury in 2014?

MRI technology is relatively new.  Are more pitchers injuring their elbows these days?  OR are those injuries being discovered more easily due to technology and stuff?  Whereas back in the day if a pitcher had a sore elbow his manager would say “put some ice on it and you’ll be back out there for another nine innings tomorrow don’t be weak don’t be weak don’t be weak ever no weakness allowed ever John Wayne.”

 

Jordan Montgomery is a pitcher for the New York Yankees.  He got off to a great start last year in his rookie year.  He wasn’t a big prospect.  Just a AAA guy who got a shot at the MLB level to start the year and ran with it.  All year, as he flourished, all The Intelligentsia could say was “innings limit!  Innings limit!  I’m weak!  I’m weak and can’t escape from the box in which we The Intelligentsia find ourselves in due to groupthink, weakness, and our whack culture.”

Poor intelligentsia.

 

The Yankees messed with Montgomery like the Angels messed with Ohtani.  They skipped starts.  They put him on a pitch count.  They moved him to the bullpen.

What happened then?

He got hurt anyway.  Just like Ohtani got hurt despite the Angels abundance of caution.

Maybe, just maybe, if pitchers were allowed to pitch on a regular basis and go all out – “go all out” is a scientific term – they would be less likely to be injured.  Maybe, just maybe, The Intelligentsia’s abundance of caution is the reason for the large number of UCL injuries in this day and age?  Maybe, just maybe, many if not most of the pitchers having Tommy John surgery today would be ok after a few months rest like Tanaka?

Maybe, just maybe, the problem isn’t the elbow.  Maybe, just maybe, the problem is The Intelligentsia.