Is Stephen Strasburg really the next Nolan Ryan?

Originally posted by znk916:
tommy john surgery inc, at least he'll be back by 2012

he'll be back by next year

How sad.

pretty sad indeed

the prior comparisons will continue

Sucks, but people come off of Tommy John better than they were before, now-a-days.

Originally posted by StOnEy333:
Sucks, but people come off of Tommy John better than they were before, now-a-days.

Even if he does come back, he'd better be making adjustments to his mechanics. I mean to go from a shoulder soreness to elbow ligament damage in such a short period of time means he's literally tearing up his arm.

Originally posted by StOnEy333:
Sucks, but people come off of Tommy John better than they were before, now-a-days.

I agree. Very tough break for the kid but I would think he will come back strong. I watched Liriano pitch last night and he was dealing like never before and he is a couple of years removed from Tommy John surgery. Jordan Zimmerman pitched for Washington last night almost 1 year to the date from his TJ surgery.

The title of the thread should be renamed:

Is Stephen Strasburg really the next Tommy John?

damn this sucks.

Originally posted by DarthNiner:
The title of the thread should be renamed:

Is Stephen Strasburg really the next Tommy John?

Well... hopefully he is since Tommy John won 164 games after his surgery.

Originally posted by Ninerjohn:

Originally posted by DarthNiner:
The title of the thread should be renamed:

Is Stephen Strasburg really the next Tommy John?

Well... hopefully he is since Tommy John won 164 games after his surgery.

John Smoltz pitched well after his TJ surgery too.

Tommy John surgery will address the elbow issue, but what about the shoulder injury he suffered before the elbow? His elbow might come back better than ever, but he's going to have to change something otherwise his injury list might look something like this:

Quote:
Injuries
Date Injury Time Inactive

September 2002


Strained hamstring while running the bases


Rest of season

Midseason 2003


Shoulder after on-field collision with former Atlanta Braves second baseman Marcus Giles.


3 Starts

Preseason 2004


Achilles tendon injury


2 months

Preseason 2005


Elbow strain


15 days

May 27, 2005


Throwing elbow - comeback line drive off the bat of Brad Hawpe


1 month

Preseason 2006


Strained shoulder


3 Months

July 14, 2006


Strained left oblique in batting practice


2 starts

August 14, 2006


Shoulder tendinitis


Rest of 2006 Season

Spring Training 2007


Shoulder surgery


Entire 2007 Season

March 26, 2008


Shoulder surgery recovery


First part of 2008 season (60 day DL)

May 16, 2008


A tear in the capsule of his pitching shoulder; shoulder surgery


Out for another six to eight weeks (60 day DL); out for the entire season

These are Mark Prior's by the way.

For every Mark Prior there are many MORE guys who have come back better than ever from TJ surgery. Mariano Rivera, John Smoltz, Liriano, Ryan Dempster, Tim Hudson, Billy Wagner, Chris Carpenter, Josh Johnson, Rafael Soriano... all elite pitchers at some point after their surgery and at least 2 Hall of Famers.

There are just WAY more examples of guys who came back strong compared to the one big name (Prior) who didnt.

Still sucks that the kid has to go through this already. I hope he makes a good comeback.

TJ for him already? Sucks for him.

Originally posted by Ninerjohn:
For every Mark Prior there are many MORE guys who have come back better than ever from TJ surgery. Mariano Rivera, John Smoltz, Liriano, Ryan Dempster, Tim Hudson, Billy Wagner, Chris Carpenter, Josh Johnson, Rafael Soriano... all elite pitchers at some point after their surgery and at least 2 Hall of Famers.

There are just WAY more examples of guys who came back strong compared to the one big name (Prior) who didnt.

But Mark Prior never had Tommy John surgery. His shoulder was what gave him problems throughout his career. One of the big reasons why people compare Strasburg to Prior is because they both had the "inverted W" mechanics, creating more load on the shoulder.

Quote:

For Strasburg to have any chance of pitching more than 5 years he's got to change his arm action and get rid of the Inverted W. He also needs to ditch the slider because that is an absolute killer of the elbows. Changing his arm action may knock 5 or so MPH off of his velocity, but that's what it's going to take to reduce the load on his arm.

http://www.chrisoleary.com/projects/baseball/pitching/professionalpitcheranalyses/StephenStrasburg.html

Obviously, it's big news that someone as young and dynamic as Strasburg is having TJ surgery at such an early stage of his career, but I don't think the shoulder strain he suffered earlier this season should be taken lightly. My point is, even if Strasburg's elbow comes back better than ever, something's got to be done about the shoulder issue.