Ever take a long break from golf or another sport, only to find your first time back is your best in a long time (and better than proceeding rounds/games)? This is because your mind is clear of negative or mechanical thoughts, and you have had a chance to eliminate bad habits. You ever notice how lots of guys play extremely well in their first few major league games then regress back to the norm? Recent Astros examples include Alvarez, Mayfield, Corbin, Stubbs, Straw, and also Tyler White's first few pro games. This is also seen in other sports, IE Austin Rivers and Deshaun Watson. This is a common occurence because of a thing called adrenaline. Adrenaline creates a host of conditions in the body that enhance performance, including quicker reaction times and added power. These are certainly handy attributes when facing major league pitching. It's easy to see how playing your first major league game could create a huge adrenaline surge. But also, playing your first game in a long time would create a moderate amount of adrenaline. For example George Springer's 2 HR game last night. Now let's look at the argument FOR a rehab assigment... Gives time to "get back in rhythm" or "work out the kinks." Sounds logical, but I believe the benefits I explained in the first/second paragraph of this post outweigh those benefits. You could also argue that some guys need to rebuild confidence against easier minor-league pitching before rejoining the majors. May be true in rare cases, but not with veterans like Springer and Altuve. TLDR version: after a stint on the Injured List, it's better to go straight back to the majors to utilize the adrenaline and clear mindedness created by a long break from playing. What do you think?
I disagree. Players need time to adjust to pitching/batting and such. Also and maybe the main thing is, can they play back to back games before going to the Majors. How does player feel after play a game and back-to-back games.
You’re trying to find out how they feel with in-game experience and recovery from said experience. You can’t replicate that in rehab and practice. Guys like Springer and Altuve are far better than worrying about a small sample size like their production right out of the gate.
You could make the same argument about spring training. Even ignoring the rust factor, I think you'd see a ton more new injuries and re-injuries going from 0-to-100% without any ramp up period.
Just not a good take. The rehab assignment is about testing to see if the body is right, not production.
It’s unlikely you would see more re-injuries without rehab The biggest thing is roster construction, you don’t really know if a guy is ready till he plays in games, you don’t want to send a guy down to activate someone then find out he isn’t ready, have to start a new 10 days and bring someone else up. Was even a bigger deal when it was 15 days
if rehab assignments were detrimental, or if your hypothesis were correct, then teams wouldn't do rehab stints.
Please don't suppress open-minded discussion with irrelevant opinions. That's an irresponsible assumption.
Sure you would, because you wouldn't baby people as much if you're using them in the majors. Rehabbing pitchers often just go a few innings to build up arm strength. Players will often DH or only play half-games or take days off to see how the body responds. They will use the rehab to test themselves, while in real MLB games, they are likely to push themselves more. It's no different than spring training. To be fair, teams have historically done all sort of stupid things because "that's the way it was always done". Moneyball, the launch angle revolution, shifts, one-inning relievers, etc all could have been done long before they were.
Players can hit well in their first handful of games because the league has not adjusted yet. They return to the norm or worse when the pitchers figure out how to pitch them or the hitters figure out a hot new pitcher.
Seems logical if you're coming back from a long term stint on the IL to get acclimated to the speed of the game against lesser competition. I'm for it.
I think, particularly with this team, it's all about health. They've tried keeping these guys out for a few games and bringing them back, and they get injured again. At that point, you've got to switch to a very controlled comeback. Rehab starts are just a final laboratory to carefully test how they've healed up. They've got to play some baseball to see if they're feeling okay with all the specific physical motion it takes, and it's better to do that in a way that doesn't have any direct consequences if they need more time. With pitchers, it's a little more obvious: pitchers have to pitch. And they've got to work much more slowly back to where they were beforehand. Also, adrenaline isn't always the greatest thing. It took one foul ball and and a low-percentage, awkward slide to try to catch it to sit George properly on the IL in his first game back many weeks ago.
I think the OP premise has some merit on psychological ground, but rehab is primarily about ones physical condition.
Are you nuts? Stating an opinion does not suppress open-minded discussion. Its literally participating. How about you recognize this is america and people can say what they want to?
When you have a system that allows for it, it obviously helps. Of course you have other sports (basketball, football) where guys do not go on "rehab assignments".... but you can also ease them into games via minute restrictions, which you can't really do in baseball.
Baseball isn't an adrenaline sport, it's about concentration, timing and form. Trying harder not only won't help, it's usually detrimental. The ability to control the circumstances in which they play and get back in form far outweighs any possible benefits of being amped up.
