Hold My Cutter
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Hold My Cutter
The Impact of Velocity, Pitcher Injuries, and Player Development
What if the pursuit of more powerful pitches is actually harming pitchers' careers? Join us as we tackle the ongoing dilemma of rising pitcher injuries in Major League Baseball. We'll guide you through the latest MLB report that highlights the role of increased velocity and the relentless quest for strikeouts as culprits behind the surge in injuries. Despite advancements in technology and health practices, the inability to curb this trend calls for a deeper analysis of player development. We reflect on how the focus has shifted, raising critical questions about the future of the game.
Listen in as we weigh in on the age-old debate between traditional wisdom and modern training techniques in arm care. Legendary pitchers like Nolan Ryan thrived without major surgeries, sparking intriguing comparisons to today's injury-laden players. By exploring how current training methods might restrict natural adaptation, we consider whether pitchers should be allowed to push their boundaries to cultivate long, healthy careers. We discuss the potential impacts of stringent inning limits and early injuries on young players, emphasizing the balance needed between technological advancements and time-honored practices.
Finally, we're diving into the world of minor league development, examining the challenges young athletes face as they transition to the majors. With insights from experts like Kyle Boddy from Driveline, we uncover the disparity between minor and major league experiences and how the trend of protecting prospects might affect their readiness. Reflecting on personal experiences, we highlight the importance of resilience and practical experience in overcoming physical thresholds. Along the way, expect some light-hearted moments as we engage with these complex dynamics and share the growth journey of our podcast.
ARTICLE REFERENCE:
https://metsmerizedonline.com/arms-in-danger-finds-mlb-report/
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so we're sitting here, rocky patel burned by rocky patel on the north side, kind of a little north side banter special edition g brownie points and a little forward focus which we do on occasion, especially for those that like and subscribe to hold my cutter, we do it often, but just off air our producer director, engineer Leonard Lee, behind the glass, len, what do you got for us? Anything tonight? Just a quick question. I mean?
Speaker 2:what's your guys' thoughts on the pitcher injuries from the MLB report?
Speaker 1:Yeah, mlb did a study that came out very comprehensive.
Speaker 2:Written by.
Speaker 1:Downey Sponsored Written. I don't know. It came out recently Charmin the injury. So this report I don't know how much of a chance you got to read it for it, but for me I don't know that it revealed a whole heck of a lot. So it says there are three main factors contributing to the rise in pitcher injuries Pitchers trying to throw with more velocity. Pitchers chasing nastier stuff. Emphasis on max effort in training and in games. That's this new MLB report on pitcher injuries, surveyed more than 200 experts to the report. I mean, is there anything really earth-shattering with that that you didn't know already?
Speaker 2:No, and I think it's a disservice that they don't go into more detail. Right, because when was a guy not chasing velocity? When was he not chasing a better pitch? Right, we have more technology, we have more information, we have better ways to keep guys healthier than ever before, yet more guys are getting hurt. They need to answer that question, because there wasn't a mark pro when I played.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it came out you know, probably years into my career, there wasn't a game ready. There wasn't a lot of things that are. It came out probably years into my career. There wasn't a game ready. There wasn't a lot of things that are available now. I mean, they have blood flow therapy, they have how much you should be sleeping, they have blood tests, they have peptides. They have so much more stuff now than they ever have before. I think there is a chase right now because velocity gets you seen right and then from there you can learn how to pitch. Where before you had to learn how to pitch and you kind of gained velocity as you went. That development's kind of died and I think it's going to come back around at some point. But Brownie, you've been around the game longer than I have. You've seen so much. Yeah, just a little bit.
Speaker 1:Four times as much, to be exact.
Speaker 2:Times 12. But it it's all about perspective.
Speaker 1:What do you see? I love what Jim Leland says. All the time the Hall of Fame manager says I may be old, but I'm not old school and he brings up a lot. So anytime we poo-poo these studies, rule changes, whatever might be happening in the modern times of baseball, we're sounding like the old man get off my lawn type deal, and I don't think that's the case here. I don't think that it's anything that is earth shattering, as I said earlier, revealing about these injuries. I mean it's pretty common. It makes common sense that if you're trying to throw max effort all the time and I think I could be wrong, but I think that starters now have a mentality that I don't have to go long, I just need to get maybe two times through the order, starting in the minor leagues.
Speaker 2:Now you really think there's guys that feel that way.
Speaker 1:It's like a reliever's mentality for starters.
Speaker 2:I think they've kind of conditioned him that way. I don't think there's a guy out there that doesn't want to go five or six innings and have a true quality start. I think they're building him that way, maybe not even on purpose. I think it's not by design. I think they think they're doing what's right but they're not blending the old and the new. I mean Brown I was just with Doug Drabeck, teague, tichelvie just incredible human beings and guys that pitched a ton in their career. They threw 200 innings. Teague, I think, is third all-time in appearances. If I'm not mistaken, he may be second. Sorry if I got that wrong.
Speaker 1:He's first in all-time games pitched, so as a reliever obviously.
Speaker 2:There should be some merit to want to do that, but they're not chasing that anymore.
Speaker 1:They're not being rewarded. They're not being rewarded for wins. Wins don't matter anymore. Now say it again.
Speaker 2:They're not being rewarded For anything they're being rewarded for velocity, they're being rewarded for strikeouts.
Speaker 1:Well, they're being rewarded by getting big contracts.
Speaker 2:And how do you do that? What do you get paid for in arbitration? What used to be? Wins and ERA generally, but now it's beyond that. Now you can quantify both those things.
Speaker 1:Break down all these numbers. Yeah, now, what we do here on an episode like this, we like to go through social media. So Kyle Budde, who was a pitching coach for a while, in the big leagues, you know him.
Speaker 2:He runs Driveline yeah.
Speaker 1:Driveline guy. So he tweeted out. Actually, I do have something to add, which the MLB study echoed as an industry, we are babying minor league pitchers far too much, to the point of workload under exposure, and he cites an interview that he did three years ago.
Speaker 2:I completely agree. I mean, think about this, brownie. I'm going to use myself as an example. Yeah, I never played as a backup until I got to the big leagues. Yeah, the wear and tear and the strain on my body compared to playing every day is completely different. I don't care what anybody says.
Speaker 2:It can be harder at times because I'm getting up in the seventh inning trying to get ready for a pinch hit. I'm going down to the bullpen to try to stay loose in case something happens. There's a lot more that goes into it, but they don't give you a shot sheet of how to do that. You have to figure that out on your own and that takes failing. But if I got an opportunity, which I did I get to go back down to the minor leagues by design and try to figure it out. I played every couple days and I got a lot better and and I got a lot better and I had my best year in 2014 after my knee surgery. But I made that choice that I wanted to be great as a backup. And then I got to the point and I talked to John Wainer about this last week at Fantasy.
Speaker 2:Camp, you almost get to the point where you feel more comfortable not playing every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that comes after a while.
Speaker 2:You learn who you are.
Speaker 1:It comes after a while.
Speaker 2:But as a minor leaguer you're trying so hard to get to the big leagues and stay there. You don't have time to adapt and fail at the big league level. As a reliever you may have been a starter all the way up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're not thinking about that, and now you're a reliever, although, yeah.
Speaker 2:You've never gone three ups and pitched four games.
Speaker 1:So Baseball America tweets out. This is an incredible released to teams today this was in the last week found that 36 pitchers threw 95 or harder at Perfect Games National in 2024. Ten years ago, only five did it in 2014.
Speaker 2:36 did it this year, but that shouldn't matter, that shouldn't matter.
Speaker 1:Some of you guys are throwing that hard.
Speaker 2:No, I just think we're looking at a major league study, right yeah?
Speaker 1:And we're talking about league study.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, and we're talking about what Perfect game.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Go all the way down and study it all the way through.
Speaker 1:Okay, how many innings are?
Speaker 2:they throwing. What is the rest?
Speaker 1:time that they're having.
Speaker 2:What are they doing in the offseason All the way up to that point, because you can't had some play. And they're not talking about that. They're talking about once they get to the big leagues. When you get to the big leagues, what do you try to do? You try to win, you try to stay and that's it. But at perfect game, you try to show off.
Speaker 1:Those guys are trying to throw hard. I've heard some people suggest that the big leagues is becoming almost a perfect game. Big leagues, now it's showcases.
Speaker 2:No, because if you don't win, you're out. There's not many guys that have a 5-6 ERA that stick around too long. If you're not getting outs or if you're not getting swing and miss, you're going to be sent back down. But when they get sent, back down.
Speaker 1:I guess I'm talking about the game itself.
Speaker 2:Showcases, yeah, but when they get sent back down and you know that this guy's going to be a reliever Browning right.
Speaker 1:So Scout U College Recruiting tweeted out the number of pitchers throwing 95 or harder at the Perfect Games National Showcase has increased 600% since 2017.
Speaker 2:It should, 600%. It should, though you realize that it should. They all have personal trainers, they all have pitching coaches. They have more studies than we even know what to do with. But trainers, they all have pitching coaches, they have more studies than we even know what to do with. But the problem is we're not looking at the actual human being. Yeah, is he getting out? Does he need the 96? Well, no matter what, when you go to those things, you have to have the 96 or you're not being seen yeah you know, you're not.
Speaker 2:You're not saying oh man, that guy's delivery so smooth. It's 91, 92. He could easily throw 95, 96, but he doesn't have to at those things he's got to because that's what the scouts are saying ooh and ah to instead of he just walked through six batters in a row at 91-92. You know, I think we have to reevaluate one as an industry and say what are we looking for? Yes, it's easier to grade a guy that's throwing 96. You can't miss that. I guess in 100, it's not hard to miss Right.
Speaker 1:Right right.
Speaker 2:I've played with more guys that threw 100 that never made it, than guys that got outs from the very beginning and continued to get outs all the way through. Those guys seem to be able to adapt accordingly, and if they gain velocity, that's great.
Speaker 1:But it's all about velocity.
Speaker 2:That's the game.
Speaker 1:That's it. So JJ Cooper, who's an editor-in-chief at Baseball America, tweets out If you're training, as a 12-year-old pitcher, to light up a radar gun, please stop. I mean, then take the radar guns away. We've talked about this, I think who suggested it Was it.
Speaker 2:Bob.
Speaker 1:Walker yeah, what an idea that is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, if you don't want it to be a problem.
Speaker 2:take it away, Take it away everywhere, Especially until you get 16, 17 years old. If they want it to really matter and they care about those kids, take it away. Take away the radar gun, Just an eye test. I mean I was throwing 86 as a 12-year-old. I've never had it, besides a slap tear in my labrum from getting hit. I never had an arm injury, but I threw more than most of these guys. When's the last time Brownie and I had this conversation and I get to it with Teek and Doug Drabeck and Spanky and these guys who are at Fantasy Camp Touch and feel.
Speaker 1:Touch, and feel, yeah.
Speaker 2:When's the last time you saw, a touch and feel?
Speaker 1:I don't know. I don't go around the minor leagues and hear pitching coaches talk. I don't know if they're doing that or not. I don't know if it's being discussed.
Speaker 2:I assume it's not just yeah so a touch and feel you can turn off the track man, you can turn off the rap soto and you can close your eyes and kind of feel what's happening. These guys don't have that ability because from an early age they are chasing, maybe horizontal movement, vertical movement. They're chasing to be as good as the next guy. They're chasing just a fraction to be a little bit better.
Speaker 1:So how big a deal do you think the study is For? Jeff Passon says I've spent more than 12 years searching for answers to keep arms healthy. Mlb's report on the matter broke little new ground, but it was a necessary first step to address an issue that's been ignored for far too long. Is Jeff Passon right that maybe this is a first step, the fact that the study's been done? So maybe it's going to take years. Of course, maybe they're on the right track.
Speaker 2:At least they're doing this. No, I don't think it's ever going to work until you talk to the people that were older, like why did Nolan Ryan take Bear? And he's fine Right. Remember the old commercials with Bear? Yeah, did Nolan Ryan ever have a Tommy John?
Speaker 1:Never, no, no, did Bob.
Speaker 2:Walk, did he pitch through it? Yes, he did. Bob Walk pitched through what Cole not have, tommy John.
Speaker 1:Because he decided not to have it.
Speaker 2:So what I'm saying is we have to take a collective, he can pitch through it. Yeah, I mean AJ Burnett's a great example. He needed Tommy John. He did not have it until after he was done. I believe he had it after.
Speaker 1:I think he had it early in his career, but I'm saying like when he tore it.
Speaker 2:Now he lost velocity but he's more effective. He had his best year and what I'm saying is we don't give that opportunity to guys very often. You have to be a mainstay, you have to be a guy under contract to even think about doing that. And then two we're not training guys to be a drive-across country type player anymore. We're caring more about short spurts because you're replaceable.
Speaker 1:So if you are Johan Alveado of the Pittsburgh Pirates two years ago and you're trying to establish yourself, you're finally in a starting rotation. You traded over from the Cardinals, getting a chance to pitch every day. You want to finish the season strong. You're winding down, you're throwing. I don't know how many innings he threw before he got hurt, but he tried to and he did. He pitched through the season before at the end of the year they found out he was hurt and needed. Tommy John missed a whole year. If you're him and you're the Pirates, what do you do?
Speaker 2:I think that goes back to the beginning. There's been guys where we protect, there's guys that we don't protect. This is not right, wrong or indifferent with the Pirates, but Oviedo we didn't protect he. He never started in the major leagues, so he was in uncharted territory. Yeah, but there's nothing. But I'm saying let him go. They're a thoroughbred. You do not know until you know.
Speaker 1:Each individual body is different. There's the other thing Everybody's different, so let them go, let them pitch, let them go.
Speaker 2:It's the same concept as you ever heard. Have you ever seen a lion in the zoo? You know why they don't release them back in the wild. No, they forget how to hunt they're what they get.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So what I'm saying?
Speaker 2:is take the arm in the same equation. If you put a restraint on an arm, it forgets how to adapt and I don't think we ever get to a threshold. We have ending limits all the way down to 11? U right yeah we, we had the same thing, but that same kid will be catching the next day where he doesn't know. A difference which I didn't.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, I had a partial tear when I was a little kid because I wasn't fully developed and I think a lot of this stems from way back in the youth. You have a partial tear and then eight, nine years down the road, that's when it goes. And I think we have to look at it from the old school and the new school, because there's a lot of guys that pitched for a long time, that threw very hard, that never got hurt and they even pitched winter bowl. Now we have guys take off for a month and a half, get ramped back up. But as soon as they get ramped up Brownie, I just watched this.
Speaker 1:Each body is different. Each body is different. Everybody is different. Did I tell you the story about my gosh? Sorry, that's a hot topic for me because a lot of guys lose a lot of time. This had to be 25 years ago. There was a manager. I went into his office and the team had drafted a first-round pitcher and he was just. I think it was his first or second professional outing in the organization low minors. Back then, no internet. You got the reports days down the road. But I was curious. So I asked the manager how did this pitcher perform? He said you know, got a couple of outs, two-thirds of an inning. I said whoa, whoa, whoa, two-thirds of an inning, whoa, whoa, whoa, uh-oh, what happened? Nothing. How many? He only threw like 20 pitches, 20?. Did he get hurt? No, but he's not getting hurt. He's not getting hurt on my watch was the answer. Well, down the road he got hurt, had Tommy John surgery. See back to the point about babying. It is unpredictable and you can't baby them.
Speaker 2:There's things that you can do, but I think the self-awareness starts with the actual guy throwing the ball. He has to have self-awareness. Ronnie, I do the USA event every year. Right, some of the best players don't get picked because they have a restriction on how much they can throw. They already have a restriction on how much they can throw. They can't throw every four days, so they get three to four days off. But the fact is, I could throw three innings during the USA event. Do you think that kid went? No, is he one of the best pitchers in the country going into next year? Absolutely. But that's the thing. He doesn't have a threshold because he's doing all these events. He maybe threw 15 innings over the summer, where other kids are throwing 30. Yeah, he's throwing 100. He's fresh. But what happens when he gets that minor league? He gets to 50 innings, 60 innings, 90 innings, right, that's what you want to know. Is that where you start to fall? And that's where they should pay attention to it?
Speaker 1:because everyone is different. It all goes back to the thing about my old gripe about 100 pitches.
Speaker 2:But what if you started training guys like that? What if you started?
Speaker 1:training. We've been talking about that forever. They're not going to do that.
Speaker 2:But what I'm saying is they're writing these articles and they're coming out with this evidence. I'm sorry, but no crap. So well they're throwing bullpens now, and they're throwing full-fledged.
Speaker 1:It's.
Speaker 2:December Fledge. It's December. That wasn't a thing. When I played, you were playing or you were doing touch and feels. You know what I mean. It's just different. It's a different world. The thought of down and away that made the brave staff, the staff that I looked up to, growing up the Smolts.
Speaker 1:Avery, that was more important than anything else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but what does that do? That gets you moving properly, full extension. Now they're thinking about going up top. What does that do? It leads with that elbow a lot of times and then they're trying to break you off after that. They've never gotten full extension, so they've never had their body moving properly. But they're chasing an outcome that they know will eventually give them dollar bills or a better opportunity but how long? Who cares? Because they can have surgery.
Speaker 1:I get there, that's right. That's the other thing too. They know well, they believe that I'm going to go ahead and take this chance and I'm just going to go full throttle, because if I get hurt, I get hurt and I'll just have Tommy.
Speaker 2:John and I'll be back. But that leads me to the greatest point of them all.
Speaker 1:And it's not 100%. Why, then why?
Speaker 2:are you putting constraints on guys and how much they can throw If you know odds are Yep.
Speaker 1:Right, let them go. Just let them go Right, because the earlier the better. Yep Right, yeah, get it done. Get it done, agreed, and maybe they don't need it and you just found a diamond in the rough. Wouldn't that be something? If some organization said, just let them go, all of our pitchers let them go, Wouldn't that be amazing? I mean, nobody knows the answer. I know it's not been done.
Speaker 2:That would be so great Well that would be one thing that hasn't been done right.
Speaker 1:What do you think, Len? Have we covered the topic?
Speaker 2:I definitely agree that you guys covered the topic. I'm kind of trying to figure out, like are you saying that we need to be more battle-tested in the younger ages? Or Well, think about how you learn anything, lynn, in life. You don't learn it by not doing it Right. How'd you learn that something was hot? You touch the stove Right about that. I know I can't touch the stove no more, right? And a lot of times these guys never get to a threshold and the biggest threshold they get to is in college.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right. But now you have the NIL and you have the portal, where guys lose their ability to be under an eye. That's either going to be a really good thing for some guys or a really bad thing, because some guys are going to take ownership and they have great pitching guys that are like, hey, you look good, everything's fine, jumping out of your hand, maybe lost one, two mile an hour, god forbid. Somebody say dead arm, right, but like guys never get to the dead arm, so they never get over that threshold. But like guys never get to the dead arm, so they never get over that threshold. So it's just a different world.
Speaker 2:I remember Brownie, when I first went into college. After about a week of practice I couldn't pick up my arm. Think about this my first couple years in pro ball and in college, every day we took infield outfield, every day we threw to bases, every day I caught a bullpen. That doesn't ever happen anymore. But once again, I'm not saying I have the greatest arm. I played 24 innings. I watched Jack Wilson pitch. I watched Matt Capps pitch during fantasy camp. We're good Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think it's because we know the limits.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know your body.
Speaker 2:We went to a place. Yeah, I knew if I went too much harder I was probably gonna blow. So I can pull back a little bit, give my 90. And I have a theory about baseball and weightlifting, everything else 90. If you know you're 90 in the weight room, you know you're 90 on the field. There's never a day you can't say yes if you can say 90 year round, right, because soldier I use soldiers a lot of times the soldier can't say no, he's going to battle, yeah. So if he's 80 ready, that's a problem. If he's 90 ready assuming his training was better, that's better than most guys 100. So why not train to be 90 instead of always thriving to be 100?
Speaker 2:because 100 baseball is rare yeah those are the days I didn't want to play because it felt too good. And how many times have you heard that from?
Speaker 1:guys, oh a lot.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:If you feel like you're getting all the calls right. Usually, man, I was too enthusiastic that day. Something's going on Right. Sorry, that's a pain point for me, because I watched a lot of guys blow and it wasn't because of what they're saying. They were not chasing velocity.
Speaker 1:By the way, when you're catching, during the course of a season, no-transcript, and you're starting to see something that just is not right. And so now, during the game, you may say something, but in the back of your mind are you thinking, no, this guy, this guy's going to be going down. And if you did that, what was the percentage where you were right? Or were you overly protective? Or did you actually see something? And then did you wonder? You know, somebody should have gone to them, to that guy, and said shut it down for a couple of weeks, or something.
Speaker 1:I don't know, whatever it might be.
Speaker 2:Do you know where I feel like most arm injuries come from Somewhere else, so I'll use a buddy of mine. Recently, someone forgot to put a clip on the barbell, so he's doing back squats. Okay, yeah, put a clip on the barbell, so he's doing back squats Okay yeah, the weights slide off. While he's doing it, he tweaks his back. Teeter-tottered, went into spring training pitching with that back. Didn't want to say anything, just signed a contract.
Speaker 1:He's like I'm good, yeah, but would you know that, as a catcher, absolutely, you could see it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Right away 99% 100 and 99% 100%. Wow, Like Charlie Morton tore both labrums, had Tommy drawn right after he got the second one fixed, but did you see that of Charlie? The mechanics were the problem with Charlie when he was here, because he was here and he's always late.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And guys that are inconsistent have a knack to put more strain on their arm. So a lot of the Latin guys that come over and their mechanics are a little out of whack, they're going to put more strain on their arm, especially if they can't repeat. So the only way to fix that is what?
Speaker 1:Pitch. Because you can do everything right in the bullpen You've got to pitch through it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you could chase numbers on a track man and the mechanics be completely crappy and you're like, oh, I got it. And, yeah, you got it, you got the best slider you've ever thrown in your life. But three weeks later you blow Because you're chasing a number that your body's not ready for and you're doing it improperly. And I know they have pitching gurus. They're really good at kind of balancing this out. But you're a human being when you see something. If I had a ball 490, I want to do it again. If I throw a kershaw curveball, I want to do it again, because I know you're only human. Yeah, like stephen broad has has a great story. They told me he needed to throw 93, 94 and he'd be an elite pitcher because he had some things in his in his numbers that showed two, three miles an hour was going to make him a different animal. Well, he blew his lat and he blew his rotator cuff and he blew everything else out in the back of his arm. That two to three mile an hour.
Speaker 1:It's funny you say that, because there are some guys that they lose that two or three and they become different pitchers, and I think Ronson Contreras, what happened to that? Two or three miles an hour? Now you know you get released by the Angels this offseason.
Speaker 2:But instead of chasing to find the two to three miles an hour he can't find, instead of doing that, go somewhere else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly Right. Right, Learn how to pitch.
Speaker 2:Don't worry about the velocity. Yeah, yeah, yeah Right, he's still throwing 94, 95.
Speaker 1:He's just not throwing 97, 98. Become a different pitcher, essentially, or progress.
Speaker 2:And I think he did. At times he pitched off his slider.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that made him better. And when he went to the extension and that's what Jones and Strider and certain guys their entire rapport is off the extension they have. If they don't have it that day, how are you going to pitch?
Speaker 1:The bottom line for you in this study. I think we're in agreement. I hate to say this that it's meaningless, but it's not meaningless because they did work on it and MLB's trying to figure this out, so you give them credit for that, but nothing has been revealed that anyone wouldn't have already. You didn't have to go through the study.
Speaker 2:We kind of knew this.
Speaker 1:But if there's a solution, I know that there is, but you would suggest, as would I, it's individual. You can't, it's not, there's nothing universal that they're going to figure it out and let these guys, as soon as they get into pro ball, see what you got.
Speaker 2:There's not enough information for me to even think about it, because all right, guy took off a month, guy took off two months. Some guy ramped up. Everybody's different, you know Like you have to take that in consideration. Some guys like crushing the weights.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And they never get hurt. I mean, kyle Farnsworth ate barbells. He never got hurt. Is that a reason? I'm sure it is, but there's certain guys that probably couldn't handle that load that they actually get the hurt.
Speaker 1:I have to look this up now when you say Farnsworth.
Speaker 2:He did have Tommy John. Yeah, he had Tommy John. At least one, if not two, he could have.
Speaker 1:But the bottom line in all of it is let them pitch see what you got, because they're going to get hurt anyway.
Speaker 2:My whole thing is this.
Speaker 1:And if they're going to get hurt, get hurt in the minor leagues, Right. But like think, about runners right. Yep.
Speaker 2:Long-distance runners. You walk a mile, then you jog a mile, then you try to sprint a mile, then you go to mile two, then you go to mile three and you try to withhold that time. We don't do that anymore. Why can't we be the same guy in the sixth inning as we were the first? That should be the focus, and if we're not, let's focus on why. But there's not enough time. If you're not tracking this from, maybe you know, maybe even high school on, they're not given the time to do that. As soon as they get to the big leagues, you better go compete and you may get up three days in a row and not pitch and then pitch on that fourth day. Has he ever done that before?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:No, why not?
Speaker 1:Has been asked.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's not doing the minor leagues. So I think the greatest thing from that article is what Kyle Bode said, and they've done a ton of research is the strain in the minor leagues isn't anything like it used to be. Prospects got protected, everybody else didn't. A lot of times it was guys that didn't get protected or the guys pitching later in seasons and they end up having a huge career because they're able to pitch.
Speaker 1:Well, let us know your thoughts. First of all, like and subscribe.
Speaker 2:That was really Michael's tangent, that was Michael's tangent.
Speaker 1:If you like Michael's tangent, let us know. The only way we'll keep doing this is if you like Michael's tangents.
Speaker 2:Oh, don't worry, We'll get you going.
Speaker 1:Mike and the Maniac. He's a maniac, but we appreciate you listening, watching any format. Hold my Cutters has become a top 25% listener response podcast around the country. It's pretty incredible. Thanks to you, Thanks to Leonard Lee.
Speaker 2:What about that first topic? That's a good one, Len.
Speaker 1:And keep watching, because we're going to pop these up now and again. These are pop-up podcasts, we call them. Hold my Cutter.
