So, yeah. Bottom line: Elbow injuries, 2038.
I should also say that I’m going to split this one up into multiple posts under this thread, mostly because then I can release things a bit more quickly, and also because I think it’ll be a bit more readable. This top post, for example, is going to be a look at the ubiquitous “inflammation,” for example.
With that, let’s get going, shall we?
In 2038, thirty-one pitchers suffered lost-time elbow injuries while throwing in BBA games. Here is the breakdown of the injury type:
Elbow Injury Type | Count |
---|---|
Inflammation | 10 |
Strain | 6 |
Tendonitis | 3 |
Fractured | 1 |
Bone Chip Removal | 1 |
Torn flexor tendon | 1 |
Ruptured UCL | 3 |
Ligament Reconstruction Surgery | 2 |
Partially torn UCL | 1 |
Torn UCL | 1 |
Ulnar nerve entrapment | 1 |
Radial nerve decompression surgery | 1 |
ELBOW INFLAMMATION:
I mean. What is elbow inflammation, right? It’s a good question, really. In 2038, for example, the players who had inflammation were out for between 1 week and 3 months with the problem. Hellfire, man, that’s a pretty big range. What does it mean, then? Who were these ten pitchers? When were they hurt? What happened to them?
Let’s start with the easy one first: who were they and when did they get hurt?
Here are the ten, sorted by month:
Year | Month | Day | POS | Team | Player | Injury | # | Duration |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2038 | 5 | 28 | RP | BRK | Alfonso Navarro | Inflammation | 1 | week |
2038 | 8 | 17 | RP | YS9 | Rodrigo Lugo | Inflammation | 2 | weeks |
2038 | 7 | 25 | RP | BNAS | Paul Jones | Inflammation | 2-3 | weeks |
2038 | 6 | 18 | RP | NO | Sébastien Mercier | Inflammation | 4 | weeks |
2038 | 5 | 20 | SP | MAD | José Cavazos | Inflammation | 4 | weeks |
2038 | 4 | 2 | RP | VAN | Belmiro Maanico | Inflammation | 4 | weeks |
2038 | 5 | 10 | SP | OMA | Carson Stoller | Inflammation | 2-3 | months |
2038 | 9 | 1 | SP | MAD | José Cavazos | Inflammation | 3 | months |
2038 | 8 | 1 | RP | PHX | Alejandro López | Inflammation | 3 | months |
2038 | 3 | 12 | SP | DM | Sergio Franco | Inflammation | 3 | months |
Of the ten we see four are starting pitchers. Not sure that this means anything. I do note that three of the four starters who suffered inflammation were out for the longest time.
Only one—Des Moines Sergio Franco—incurred the issue in spring training.
Of particular note might be José Cavazos, who shows up on the list twice, once in May and again in September.
Let’s take a look at these guys and see what happened, shall we?
Alfonso Navarro: Navarro had only a two season career in the BBA. He’s in the UMEBA now. His 2038 elbow injury did not hurt his ratings, and in fact he picked up a point of control that following off-season.
Rodrigo Lugo: Came over to YS9 in a low-grade trade, and as a walking injury factory. His inflammation did not seem to affect his ratings, but he has had subsequent bouts with elbow issues. That said, he’s also had bouts with about every other kind of issue there is.
Pual Jones: Currently with Charlotte, Jones has been an effective pitcher for several years. In 2038 he was 27 years old, and in his second year. He lost both stuff and movement in the update after the injury, but it’s hard to know causation. The injury has not recurred.
Sébastien Mercier: Mercier was 26 at the time of this injury. It was the most severe of three he suffered in 2038, and his track record is full of small bumps and bruises. No further elbow issues seem to be a part of that record, though. His ratings did take a hit in the following off-season, though, again, Mercier did have three issues going on. He’s pitching effectively in Beruit today.
José Cavazos : Here’s a name a lot of folks are familiar with. In 2038, he was 38 years old, and at the end of a long career. As noted above, he was on the inflammation list twice, losing 4-weeks this time, then 3 months later. This effectively ended his career. I note that his injury history included a torn flexor tendon in hie elbow three years earlier, and a round of back issues a couple years prior to that. Otherwise he was fairly healthy.
Belmiro Maanico: Maanico is know to say that elbow inflammation ruined his career, but a check into Snopes suggests the bigger problem was an inflated ERA. That said, Maanico did have the injury, and it may have ticked a bit of his control away. Or not. Bottom line, he was 25 and pitching for Vancouver when the injury happened, and a year later he was 26 and selling laundry machines.
Carson Stoller : We know the Stoller story by now. Hot kid destroyed by injuries. He did have his share, but here’s the thing—the elbow problem is a steady thread in his life, starting at age 14 ( yes, that 14 is right) when he had radial nerve decompression surgery. He had a sore elbow two years later, then his second radial nerve surgery at age 17. He had chips removed from his elbow a couple years later, then a trail of years in which he complained of pain. His 2038 inflammation cost him three months. Other injuries also began to group around him, but in 2041 another bout of severe inflammation shut him down for six weeks. Bottom line: Carson Stoller is still pitching down in the Omaha farm system at age 29, but he has the elbow of a 50 year old.
You could argue that his pitch counts were too high, and that was probably true, but the bottom line here is that Stoller’s injuries were a major part of his timeline even when he was drafted.
José Cavazos : We talked about Cavazos earlier…
Alejandro López: Lopez was 21 years old when he threw 14 innings for Phoenix in 2038. Those were his last 14 big league innings. His inflammation was diagnosed in August, and shut him down for the year. He lost a tick of stuff that following off-season, but still looked serviceable until an early April injury in AAA sent him to the table for radial nerve decompression surgery. He never recovered.
Sergio Franco: Franco had a workmanlike, but respectable 8 seasons in the BBA before moving on to the middle east, where he’s pitching in Cairo’s minor leagues. His inflammation hit in spring training, and all I can say for sure is that his ratings took a nose-dive in the next off-season update. He’d endured a torn labrum the year before (age 27), but had been otherwise fairly healthy. Bottom line: if you attribute all ratings issues to these injuries, it’s fair to say that the Labrum injury ripped out most of his effectiveness, and the inflammation did the rest.
Should we be afraid when one of our guys has to sit with inflammation? Does that portend bad things in the future? Well, I don’t know. Ten data points, you know? But I’m inclined to squint and say I’m not at all concerned with short-term inflammation at all, and maybe not even mid-grade inflammation, but if a guy loses three or more months with it, there’s a yellow flag waving, especially if (a) the guy has a history, or (b) he’s getting older.