Friday’s News & Notes

25 Commments

1. word on the Twitters is that Bennett had TJ surgery.

   1. Yes, I read that too. It’ll be another year plus before we read his name again.

   2. I was perplexed with the Nats’ handling of Bennett at the time, and in retrospect it’s even stranger. His 2 month absence was originally ascribed to limiting his innings, then it was acknowledged he was dealing with “a minor arm issue” and then 7 innings of horrible play later he’s shut down and undergoes TJ. Was that “minor arm issue” elbow trouble? And did his ill-fated return make the issue significantly worse?

      I know TJ is becoming increasingly common, but it’s becoming literally the standard for Nats draft picks. Rather than listing which pitchers have had TJ, a better question is which haven’t. Cole Henry springs to mind, since he’s “only” had Thoracic Outlet Surgery. I think Jackson Rutledge still has an in tact elbow. And without researching, I’d guess at one of the Saenz/Alvarez/Knowles group haven’t had it either. But it took going through like 8+ others to arrive at these.

      1. Here we go again . . . and again . . . and again. Sigh. And we always wonder if these guys already had some known arm issues that the Nats ignored, or if they were thought to be healthy arms and it’s just bad luck. Giolito, Romero, Denaburg, and Henry (among others) were known to have arm health issues when drafted.

         1. Along these lines, I sighed when I saw that Alvarez was the organizational pitcher of the year, not because he didn’t deserve it, but because the Nats really needed substantial progression from guys who are better. They lost Cavalli before the season started, but then there’s Henry, Bennett, Susana, Lara — the guys thought to have legit MLB starter talent. Not much progress, and in several cases injury regression. Rutledge has finally crawled into the majors but so far looks more like a back-of-rotation guy or swingman more than the ace he once was proclaimed to be.

            One quirky note about Alvarez: I thought he might have benefited from pitching in the cavernous park at Wilmington, but the reverse is actually true:

            Home: 3.52 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 60 hits, 7 HR, 64 IP
            Away: 2.48 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 48 hits, 2 HR, 65.1 IP

         2. while the Nats clearly took chances on TJ cases like Gioliti, Fedde and Denaburg (among others) this practice has seemed to have stopped. Bennett is just another casualty to the injury that affects EVERY organization

            1. It hasn’t completely stopped. Henry had arm issues in high school and college.

2. And a shout-out to Matt “Big City” Adams, who turned 35 three weeks ago. He must either love the game or have no idea what else he wants to do. He has 856 MLB games to his credit but hasn’t been in the majors since 2021, hasn’t played semi-regularly since hitting 20 homers for the championship Nats in 2019 (although his role was so diminished by the end that he only came to the plate four times in the playoffs). He’s made $14.2 million over the years, more than half of that from the Nats. One suspects that last night may be one of his last moments of glory on a ball field.

   1. awfully cynical this morning, no offense intended.

      of course he loves the game, waking up every day withe the chance to play baseball at or near the highest level has to be one of the greatest thrills in life. the fact that he’s made money permits him to do it. I feel for the kids that can no longer pursue their dream because they need to go earn a living.

      1. No cynicism intended. You just don’t see many guys who have played that much in the majors keep grinding for another chance. As we’ve discussed, it’s not an easy life for a 23-year-old, much less a 35-year-old.

   2. Matt Adams played independant ball last year so this year was a big step up for him. Still living the dream.

3. I called it before the season started that I fully expected to have one of our top arms require TJ .

   Hate to say I told you so….but I told you so.

   This org is totally incompetent when it comes to developing pitchers and keeping them healthy.

   It’s not just a couple of guys here and there – it’s been literally almost all our pitchers drafted in the first three rounds over the past ten years.

   Not only should they should fire the entire training staff, but they should revamp their entire pitching development staff as well.

   (I was gonna say the same for the scouting department but it seems changes are already happening)

   1. Arm injuries happen with every organization.

      If all MLB execs were polled and asked to rank the best organizations to develop talent, the Tampa Rays would probably be #1 by a landslide, and by any measure, would at least be top 3. They are always in the bottom 5 in payroll, they never have a top 10 pick in the MLB draft, they don’t spend the most in international signings, yet they are always among the top teams in the game. Its all about being the best at finding and developing talent before that talent moves on to another organization.

      Even so, no team has lost more pitchers to arm injuries than the Rays. It happens.

      The idea that Nats are to blame for arm injuries to their pitchers is insane. In all organizations, pitchers have never thrown fewer innings, teams have never devoted more time to arm care, and all teams invest in video analysis and strength and conditioning to protect pitchers. Despite these efforts, pitchers continue to go down at an acclerated rate. The increased rate of injuries has precisely coincided with the uptick in velocity among pitchers in the game.

      Baseball is a competitive business, and pitchers that throw harder generally get outs a better rate. It’s that simple. Essentially, the determination has been made that the benefit of the increase in velo outweighs the loss of innings from pitchers due to injury.

      So, the pitcher injuries is not a Nats organization issue; it’s a baseball issue.

      1. Disagree. Yes, all orgs have players with arm issues as well – but the sheer number the Nats have had over the past decade is above the norm.

         Strasbourg, Bennett, Cavalli, Henry, Denanburg, Gîolito, Romero, Dunning, Fedde, Purke, Powell, Solis, Zimmerman,

         It’s one thing to lose lower talent pitchers, but to lose almost all your top picks of the past decade is another

         Then we wonder why we have no pitching

         1. Stras?
            Zimmerman?
            Solis?
            Those arm injuries go back more than decade ago.

            Here the list of Rays pitchers with arm injuries since 2020:

            Shane McClanahan

            Jeffrey Springs

            Drew Rasmussen

            Shane Baz

            Tyler Glasnow

            Brendan McKay

            Jalen Beeks

            Yonny Chirinos

            Colin Poche

            Andrew Kittredge

            Nick Anderson (did not get TJ but did tear his UCL)

            We could do a similar list for the Dodgers or any other team that you want to name.

            1. Come on man. Rasmussen, Baz, Beeks Glasgow, and Springs, weren’t even drafted by them

               I’m talking about a team’s own drafted and developed pitchers and all i know is that most of ours have all had arm surgeries. ( I even forgot to include Dyson in my list and I excluded Luzardo as he was already under the knife when drafted)

               The point is there is a pattern here and whether you agree or not we can’t just keep going on like this. Something needs to change

      2. Who is to say how much influence Adams has on other guys like Frankie Tostado whose year has been decent for two levels
         Not earth shattering but good for a fellow Aries 3-31 guy

4. Nats announce their 2023 Minor League Players of the Year Awards:

   Hitter – James Wood
   Pitcher – Andrew Alvarez
   Defense – Trey Lipscomb
   Baserunner – Johnathan Thomas
   Nats Way – Jacob Young

5. AFL rosters were just announced. Nats named 8 players:
   Israel Pineda
   Trey Lipscomb
   Robert Hassell
   DJ Herz
   Holden Powell
   Orlando Ribalta
   Jack Sinclair
   Thad Ward

   I must admit I was surprised to see Ribalta repeat from last year, which is why I hadn’t considered him. I’m also surprised to see Thad Ward, who was pitching in the majors just two days ago. The rest were pretty predictable. In fact, I called 3 of them.

   1. I guess the thinking with Ward is to get him more innings to stretch him out as a potential starter. He still has three option years so could be good starter depth for a long time.

      Obviously everyone will be watching to see if Hassell can figure things out. It’s also an opportunity for Lipscomb to show whether he’s a legit prospect. Same with Herz. If some coach there can give him a tweak to help cut his walk rate, he’d take a significant step forward.

6. I have seen articles about how there has been a surge in TJ surgeries in baseball the last few years. As others have noted, EVERY organization in MLB deals with this. As Nats fan, we notice it – we FEEL the disappointment – when it happens to Nats pitchers. Other organizations not so much. A momentary “oh, hm” and it’s gone from the memory. Suffice it to say that, until someone actually does a comprehensive study reviewing the data from all 30 MLB teams that shows the Nats have a unique TJ problem, as opposed to being a part of a pattern of TJ surgeries across MLB, I just nod my head, say “OK” and move on.

   1. Which would have to control for their penchant for drafting guys with known injury problems, and good luck getting that information reliably or accurately. My biggest complaint is that, aside from *maybe* Giolito, they haven’t gotten a payout for taking that risk.

      1. OK

7. Also a general reminder: “I can’t think of a reason for [x]” =/= “there is no reason for [x].”

   With regard to handling pitcher injuries, the fact that someone sitting on a sofa someplace can’t understand why an organization makes certain choices in handling pitchers does not mean that the organization, which has access to the player’s medicals, medical history, and literally hires people to analyze how to handle various injuries, does not have a perfectly rational basis for the decisions that they make. I’m not saying that they always do, or that they’re always right. But I’m less inclined to assume that they’re all mindless incompetent idiots. YMMV.

8. Kids certainly are throwing harder when younger now, and often throwing more, with nearly year-round play in some areas. Also, with the increasing one-sport emphasis, their muscles aren’t getting “cross-trained” with throwing a football, shooting a basketball, etc.

   The game has changed as well. There’s a reason that seven of the top 10 all-time leaders in strikeouts per nine innings are still active* (with Stras included among those). (Incidentally, three of the top 16 were Nat draft picks: Robbie Ray [#2], Stras [#7], and Giolito [#16].) On the flip side, for those who do the Immaculate Grid, it’s surprising at how many HOF pitchers never had 200 Ks in a season despite starting many more games. Jim Palmer’s high was 199 in a season, one in which he pitched 305 innings.

   I say this mostly to note that it is, and will continue to be, increasingly difficult to judge the underlying arm health of even seemingly healthy arms that are being drafted. Perhaps it also means that more skepticism also might be warranted of kids whose arms are already hurting.

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