A nice little Discussion on TJ and how it may be avoided

[Vlad27Trout27]

This is a video about Richards in 2016 and it looks like he has the same issue. ( Check small clips around 2:20 and you'll see his back heel landing before front toes. i would ignored the rest of the video.

Same with Skaggs and his arm looks off as well, than again this is from 2016 he may have changed something about it ; Around 4 mins is when it's shown.

And finally we have good old Weaver. he actually does a really good job landing on the front toes and his arms are pretty square;

 

[BackUpTheTruck]

I like the way Al Leiter thinks.

[UndertheHalo]

The more guys like Al Leiter swear up and down that Ohtani can’t do it, the more I think being an ace SP eventually and a great hitter is exactly what he’s going to do.  Ohtani hasn’t done anything but prove the doubters wrong. 

The injury is a bump in the road. 

[BackUpTheTruck]

If the heel-to-toe thing is the problem, that is a fairly easy fix. The front (left) foot needs to be a few inches higher when the leg drive is complete.

[Dick B Back]

Pitching underhand should aleviate the TJS issue. It helped Wilt shoot freethrows.

[Angelsjunky]

Here's more rare footage of Jered Weaver hitting:

 

[gurn67]

I think not pitching anywhere in the Angels' organization is the #1 way to avoid Tommy John surgery.

[disarcina]

actually -- wasn't there a debate (I seem to remember a Sports Illustrated story about this not that long ago) about TJ surgery that was along the lines of:  MLB punishes players for taking any type of performance enhancing substance -- but TJ surgery - which arguably strengthens the arm, sort of makes a bionic arm (increasing arm strength) for the pitcher is fully acceptable and arguably is also 'performance enhancing'

ban TJ? Seems like it's actually helped pitcher's careers -- there's a list of MLB pitchers and the number of wins they have AFTER TJ surgery.

Tommy John is exhibit A -- he won just short of 300 games in his (long) MLB career -- I think his final win total was 285.  About half (or more) of those wins were earned post- TJ surgery.

[disarcina]

The HOF veteran's committee should seriously consider enshrining Tommy John into MLB's HOF.

His name may be far more recognizable to fans of mult-generations than other players/ pitchers -- mainly because of TJ surgery being named after him

285 wins -- he was on the cover of SI way back when with the Chicago White Sox rotation (about 1965 ?) and then went on to be successful with the NY Yankees and LA Dodgers over subsequent years (including a stint with the Angels and others).

285 wins and being the guinea pig for innovative surgery that literally has impacted (if not changed) the game for pitchers IMO is HOF worthy. Especially when I see the Vets committee putting in some pitchers with lengthy careers and cumulative career stats among the leaders but who - it is argued -- are among the leaders only because they played so long and arguably were not dominating at any point during their career (just the opposite of a Sandy Koufax who had a very short career, not very impressive career stats, but FOUR No Hitters, season record numbers for strike outs (until Nolan Ryan came along -- and both of them had season K numbers the likes of that won't likely be seen again) and was dominating over a five/ six year period of time.

Now there's a Tommy John line of underwear -- which I'm fairly certain has no connection to Tommy John, the pitcher.

The underwear line marketing folks might want to get Jim Palmer to model the product for them -- perhaps an ad with Jim Palmer where THE Tommy John enters the scene -- perhaps drinking an Arnold Palmer........

 

[Inside Pitch]

Any video depicting Jered Weaver's mechanics as "good" is pretty suspect.  Dude threw across his body his entire career -- it's a minor miracle he didn't break down.  He also showed the inverted W, but that's been written off as a non factor in recent years and studies.

And as far as TJ goes -- of the 14 pitchers ranked in Baseball America's Top 30 preseason prospect list, 7 of them broke down with a serious injury -- 6 of them with Tommy John surgery.   It's not just the Angels, people.

Edited September 9, 2018 by Inside Pitch

[Stradling]

11 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

Any video depicting Jered Weaver's mechanics as "good" is pretty suspect.  Dude threw across his body his entire career -- it's a minor miracle he didn't break down.  He also showed the inverted W, but that's been written off as a non factor in recent years and studies.

And as far as TJ goes -- of the 14 pitchers ranked in Baseball America's Top 30 preseason prospect list, 7 of them broke down with a serious injury -- 6 of them with Tommy John surgery.   It's not just the Angels, people.

I realize you just gave us this nice breakdown, but have you considered this opposing argument: Scioscia.  

I’ll take your answer off the air.