I moved him to the DL in my fantasy league, he's got one week to get back on the field for my playoffs. Unfortunately I have Kershaw DL banked as well.
When they won't even announce what the actual injury is... don't expect them to be upfront or prompt with any daily/weekly updates until there's something positive to report. The best you can surmise is that he hasn't required surgery (yet)... so it is an injury that has the ability to heal itself (but doesn't mean it will).
Probably need to just shut him down. The not an injury, injuries, are usually the most dangerous kind. Nothing worse than a nondescript "discomfort"
at what point do they decide to try him as a reliever? is it too early for that discussion? seems like he's having trouble keeping up with a starter's workload. he and giles would make a pretty strong 8/9 relief duo. yeah starting pitching takes a hit but that's pretty high on the list WITH or WITHOUT mccullers right?
Guys like Smoltz and Wainwright are on record saying that reliving (especially closing) is no less of a strain/injury-risk than being a regular starter. The constant warming up/sitting down, the inconsistent work, and throwing all-out for their one inning all adds up. Now, they may need to limit his innings/pitch-count significantly once he starts throwing again... but even that isn't a guarantee.
I know that's what they've said. Not sure they can judge the strain their arm felt 2 years prior with what they're feeling over the course of a long current season accurately at all. Especially when one element came later in their career than the other. Not that I think there's better info available right now on the subject. Just don't think I can take that info and assume they're even slightly accurate.
Smoltz & Wainwright aren't experts and they wanted to be starters. TJS definitely seems to be needed far more often for starters than relievers.
There's got to be data on TJS/inning pitched by starters vs relievers. In pure volume, starters are going have TJS more often because they pitch 3-4x as many innings per year and you're going to hear about them more because most people don't know all the random bullpen people on other teams.
Is it, though? If you're talking about turning someone into a reliever to save their arm, but they still are going to give you 200 innings before having TMJ, are you any better off if those 200 innings are as a starter in 1 year or as a reliever over 3 years? You didn't actually get more out of the pitcher in that case - you just let him help your team less each year so you had him for more years.
They should go tandem Game 1: Keuchel 6 innings, Hoyt 1 Game 2: McCullers 4 innings, Devenski 3+ Game 3: McHugh 6, Hoyt 1 Game 4: Musgrove 5, Feliz 2+ Game 5: TBD ace (Archer) 6, TBD RP (Gustave, Jankowski, etc.) With Sipp, Harris, Gregerson, and Giles in the bullpen for the 8th and 9th innings. They'd almost always have either Devenski or Feliz available if they ran into extra innings.
Different arguments. We all know starter has more value than reliever, but does being a reliever make you more likely to healthy? And FWIW, most likely a pitcher would be more effective in one inning bursts, which allows them to make up for some of that value. In some cases, it can be a huge enough improvement that they are actually more valuable as a reliever.
They also significantly limited him if I remember correctly... I have a hard time believing that, even from Smoltz. I don't mean to say there is nothing hard or grinding about it but from the bullpen going 1 or 2 innings every other game might not push his elbow into the depths of unspecific soreness like a 7 inning grind every 5th game would. It's been my understanding that they've used him sparingly the last two seasons for fear of this very situation. 22 starts last year, 14 this year. That's a part time player any way you slice it. I mean that's 10-15 starts missed 2 years straight so, clearly workload is a concern. I don't think it's an unreasonable train of thought.
http://www.fangraphs.com/community/velocity-and-the-likelihood-of-tommy-john-surgery/ Regarding TMJ, it looks like RP are getting hurt more often on a per inning basis than starters. This is including that the starters throwing 95+ have to have TMJ at least once in their career 45% of the time (small sample size caveat).
LMJ made 28 starts last year and threw 164 innings (you can't ignore the minor leagues and postseason). Yes, the team rested him a little, as all teams do with young pitchers when they are still building them up to 200IP. It has only been this year where his arm hasn't held up, and really I don't know if the shoulder issue in Spring training should count.
Fair enough, I looked at regular season. Still, they've made an effort to limit him in hopes of keeping him healthy and now he's got injury issues despite that. Not a good "start" on that front.
