» “Designer” Pitches, Horizontal Motion, and the Pitching Damage Epidemic

“Designer” Pitches, Horizontal Motion, and the Pitching Damage Epidemic

Written on April 30, 2024 at 12:04 pm, by Eric Cressey

Only a few weeks in the past, Texas Rangers staff physician and famend orthopedic surgeon Dr. Keith Meister gave a implausible interview in regards to the present state of arm accidents in baseball. He made quite a lot of good factors, however one which significantly intrigued me was his commentary on how “designer pitches” have been responsible for among the challenges we’re going through in at the moment’s sport. In case you missed the interview, tune in beginning across the 2:00 mark to get his take.

Certain sufficient, when you look at Main League Baseball injured lists proper now, you’ll see quite a lot of gamers who not too long ago added quite a lot of horizontal motion on injured lists. Particularly, the sweeper (a more moderen designation for a slider with appreciable horizontal motion) appears to at the least have a free affiliation with elevated injured threat to the bare eye. In Dr. Meister’s phrases, “to create horizontal ball motion, you’ve acquired to grip the crap out of the baseball, after which it’s important to minimize it. Both pronate it arduous, or supinate it arduous with a really, very agency grip. And it’s inflicting this eccentric load on the muscle groups on the interior facet of the elbow after which all over the place up the kinetic chain.”

To reframe this, new motion patterns are stressors. Go do 5 units of ten reps on stiff-leg deadlifts, and let me know the way your hamstrings really feel 36 hours later. Attempt to do it once more – or dash at full velocity – within the days that comply with, and it’s in all probability not going to work out effectively for you. Eccentric stress includes quite a lot of muscle injury, and that stress is magnified once you layer novelty and the stress of competitors within the single quickest movement in all of sports activities (pitching) on prime of it.

In a real-world instance that may resonate a bit extra, take a look at this NY Occasions article about Lance Armstrong’s first marathon in 2006: In Beneath Three Hours, Armstrong Learns Anew About Ache and Racing. Right here’s a key excerpt:

Exhausted and almost strolling, Armstrong crossed the end line in 2 hours 59 minutes 36 seconds. He was 869th, with a tempo of 6:51 a mile.

“I can inform you, 20 years of professional sports activities, endurance sports activities, from triathlons to biking, all the Excursions — even the worst days on the Excursions — nothing was as arduous as that, and nothing left me feeling the best way I really feel now, when it comes to simply sheer fatigue and soreness,” he stated, wanting spent, at a information convention.

The marathon was Armstrong’s first main athletic endeavor since retiring from biking in 2005, and he stated he had not ready for the race as he ought to have.

In lower than a yr, arguably probably the most achieved bicycle owner of all time had turn out to be an absolute damage threat in a special athletic endeavor: working. He was in a position to intestine his manner via it with psychological fortitude and (possible) the truth that his cardio base caught round rather well. Nevertheless, localized muscular endurance and tissue resilience was what faltered first.

Do you suppose an 18-year-old school freshman studying a sweeper on Twitter after which throwing it in a aggressive sport at a 40% utilization clip the subsequent day is any completely different? I do – as a result of it’s really far worse.

Excessive velocity pitching with dozens of safeguards – pitch counts, meticulous arm care applications, handbook remedy, shut technological scrutinization of mechanics – remains to be very excessive threat. However the threat profile turns into astronomically larger when you possibly can study a brand new pitch/method rapidly and roll it out in video games on the highest ranges of competitors earlier than you’ve had an opportunity to construct up adequate tissue energy and extensibility – and skill-specific work capability.

I’ve had numerous conversations with Max Scherzer through the years about how he developed his curveball. It was a yr of conversations with teammates about their grips; experimenting with grips; and taking part in catch with it earlier than it appeared in bullpens and, in flip, video games. He adjusted his coaching to include a bit extra direct eccentric biceps work to account for the marginally completely different motion sample. His utilization through the years:

2012: 3%
2013: 6%
2014: 10%
2015: 8%
2016: 8%
2017: 8%
2018: 8%
2019: 9%
2020: 9%
2021: 10%
2022: 9%
2023: 13%

It was a gradual, calculated course of to find out not solely how his physique responded, however how its inclusion impacted the remainder of his pitching arsenal. To this present day, he’s by no means thrown greater than 23 curveballs in a sport. The method needed to be gradual, partly, as a result of there wasn’t know-how obtainable to accelerated the training curve.

In distinction, due to superior fashionable know-how (particularly ball monitoring gadgets like Trackman and Rapsodo; high-speed cameras; and elevated entry to biomechanical evaluation), pitchers can now choose up new pitches extraordinarily rapidly.

And, groups can higher consider simply how nasty these pitches are of their pitch grading fashions. Because of this, when a staff identifies an outlier pitch, they’re going to need gamers to roll them out far more continuously. This creates an ideal storm: pitchers throwing model new pitches at excessive utilization charges on the highest degree of competitors.

Typically, nevertheless, these should not massive changes. If the mentality of the pitch is identical context as an present pitch, however with a refined seam adjustment, I’ve much less concern:

“Simply consider attending to the entrance of the baseball precisely like you have got along with your long-time curveball.”

“Simply offset the grip right here and throw it precisely like your fastball.”

Nevertheless, when you’re giving somebody a model new grip and inspiring them to “grip it and rip it” in a manner that’s international to them, that’s a recipe for damage. These dramatic adjustments require longer timelines and extra calculated approaches to getting ready the affected tissues. Moreover, gamers may have a gradual onboarding from a utilization standpoint, and elevated restoration between “pitch design” bouts.

I don’t suppose “designer pitches” involving elevated horizontal motion are the satan – however I do suppose the best way that pitch design is going down industry-wide is flawed. As I’ve written earlier than,

You’ll be able to’t really consider a technique or gadget with out contemplating its utility. Click on To Tweet

The issue is exacerbated by numerous points (and this isn’t an exhaustive checklist, by any means):

1. Early sports activities specialization and excessive velocity pitching in adolescents is resulting in a technology of damaged arms getting into professional ball

2. Increased velocity (which is, to me, the one greatest contributing issue)

3. An more and more specialised sport (shorter outings with larger velocity and outlier pitches going down at excessive usages)

4. Grip considerations (“tack” on a slippery baseball)

5. Decreased restoration time (pitch clock considerations)

6. Shorter, extra specialised offseasons (extra pitchers persevering with to throw when the season ends – and initiating bullpens/dwell BPs earlier)

It goes with out saying that the trendy period of pitching accidents is uncontrolled, and we are able to’t overlook Dr. Meister’s observations that it is a severe element of the challenges we face. In the event you’re seeking to dig in just a little deeper on the subject, right here’s a podcast – How Pitching Accidents Happen – that I recorded on the subject:

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