NewsHurlers finding more peril off the mound
Injuries on the rise for pitchers in the box and on the basepaths
By Tom Singer / MLB.com
08/15/09 2:00 AM ET
Most pitchers may not drag a bat to the plate often enough to have their own walk-up music in baseball's juke box, so perhaps we can suggest a universal musical escort. The theme from "Jaws." Ta-dum ... ta-dum ... ta-dum ... boom! Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the batter's box ... Participating in routines that have nothing to do with their day jobs has always posed an element of danger to pitchers. Why, for instance, do you think they are taught to run for cover on popups hit directly over the mound and to let the professional popup catchers handle it? Still, this 2009 season has taken a particularly harsh toll on pitchers stepping out of character. The list of casualties has been magnified by so many of them being marquee guys. A quick sampling: • Randy Johnson strains his left shoulder checking his swing on a Roy Oswalt pitch on July 5 and lands on the disabled list the next day. It is revealed by an MRI three weeks later that he has suffered a tear in his rotator cuff, a potentially inglorious end to a 303-win career. • Carlos Zambrano strains his left hamstring beating out a bunt single on May 3 and winds up on the DL for three weeks. • Jake Peavy tears a tendon behind his right ankle while running the bases on May 22, throwing trade talks involving him into turmoil. He has since been dealt, to the White Sox, but hasn't yet returned to the mound in the Majors. • Scott Downs, the Toronto closer, strains his left big toe running to first base on June 16 and remains on the DL with that issue. • The fairy-tale story of San Diego reliever Walter Silva, a recent dishwasher in a Palm Springs restaurant, takes a horror-story turn on April 13 as he injures his right forearm on a swing. All incidents tend to prompt sad shakes of the head -- even from confirmed National League fans who relish the strategic element of having pitchers bat and delight in their occasional unexpected contributions. To others, long-lasting injuries seem like a steep price to pay for those isolated thrills. When people say that watching pitchers hit is painful, that isn't supposed to be what they mean. Is there an identifiable reason for such injuries? And are they avoidable? No, and not really. When a pitcher suffers an injury while batting or running the bases, flares go off since it occurs while he "moonlights" at something outside his paycheck-drawing responsibilities -- not unlike Jose Canseco getting roasted for blowing out his elbow in a Texas blowout pitching stint against Boston on May 29, 1993, and missing the last three months of that season. However, there is a little support for the theory that doing tasks to which they aren't accustomed -- placing stress on muscles and tendons not trained for them -- exposes pitchers to greater risk of injury. Finely-tuned position players also dislocate shoulders on swings, or rupture tendons checking them, or tear hamstrings running. Having it happen to a pitcher simply stands out more. It is rarer.Oh, the Pain | ||||||
Pitcher | Team | Injury | Date | Record before | Record after | Return |
| Johnson | SF | Shoulder | 7/5 | 44-37 | 18-16 | Uncertain |
| Zambrano | CHC | Hamstring | 5/3 | 55-47 | 4-8 | Weekend |
| Peavy | SD/CWS | Ankle | 5/22 | 27-30 | 22-38 | Aug./Sept. |
| Downs | TOR | Big toe | 6/16 | 35-31 | 20-28 | July 8 |
| Silva | SD | Forearm | 4/13 | 6-2 | 43-66 | June 20 |
As for protecting those not conditioned to play offense by excusing American League pitchers from batting in Interleague Games -- well, Toronto manager Cito Gaston's heated argument for the use of designated hitters is weakened by the evidence that most of the injuries befall NL hurlers.
And save the sympathy, says Zambrano, one of the rare ones who prides himself in playing the complete game. "This is the National League, in the National League you have to be at the plate and have to be able to do everything," said the Cubs' fiery right-hander. After Downs went down in an Interleague Game at Philadelphia -- the closer went to bat in the 10th inning after the Blue Jays had broken open the game with five runs -- Gaston couldn't contain his displeasure. "My guys don't take batting practice every day," the Blue Jays manager said. "They don't run. So things like this are going to happen until somebody wakes up and says, 'Look, let's just play [with] the DH all the time or call it off.' " If anything, Gaston is hotter about the issue now. At the time of Downs' injury, the Jays were 35-31 and in the AL East hunt; they've gone 16-25 since. Ricky Romero, the Toronto starter in the same game, docilely struck out all three times in his first at-bats since high school. "It's pretty tough. ... That's the one thing that they told me before I went up: 'Don't get hurt,' " said Romero. Gaston was picking up on a thread uncoiled last year by Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner after Chien-Ming Wang had ruptured a tendon in his foot on June 15 while running the bases against the Astros in Houston. "I think it's time the National League joined the 21st century," Steinbrenner had said, adding, "Don't give me that traditionalist stuff." Steinbrenner, too, has reason for now being even more hard-headed: Wang was 8-2 in 2008 and 40-15 in 2 1/2 seasons at the time of the injury. He is 1-6 since then. Therein lies another reason for the shock value of offensive injuries to pitchers: recovery is slow and often never complete; some are never again the same. Case in point: Rick Sutcliffe, the hero of the Cubs' 1984 NL East title with his 16-1 record after being acquired from Cleveland, was 5-3 the next season when he strained a hamstring beating out an infield single on May 19 at Atlanta. Sutcliffe, on and off the DL with the injury, went 3-5 the rest of that season and 8-19 until regaining winning form in 1987. Or how about Andy Pettitte, whose welcome to the NL in 2004 consisted of straining an elbow on a checked-swing in his first start for Houston after signing a three-year, $31.5 million contract as a free agent? Pettitte went on and off the DL a couple of times, and was ultimately shut down for surgery in mid-August with a 6-4 record -- missing the Astros' amazing drive into the postseason. And even if Peavy returns in September, as hoped, he will have missed 3 1/2 months with an injury to one of a right-handed pitcher's "foundations." As Padres trainer Todd Hutchison said of the affected area behind Peavy's right ankle, "That muscle basically helps support the arch in everything he does. So when his foot's on the ground, his weight's on it, so that muscle has to be working in order for him to function properly." Pitchers, of course, hurt themselves in a variety of other non-pitching means, perhaps furthering their image as fragile creatures. Earlier this month, Jonathon Niese, the promising Mets rookie left-hander, totally blew out his right hamstring stretching for a throw while covering first base. However, even position players can get hurt making what should be routine plays -- so we can't hold those quirky things against the pitching fraternity. But having them take at-bats seems to carry greater risk of damage, either to the other pitcher -- imagine Francisco Rodriguez's shame at walking Mariano Rivera with the bases loaded -- or to themselves. That walk by Rivera, netting his first career RBI in his 881st career game, provoked smiles in the Yankees dugout during a 4-2 win over the Mets on June 28. The other kind of hurt isn't easy to laugh off. Although 303 wins and 4,869 strikeouts do make it easier. Randy Johnson's reaction to being told he had torn his rotator cuff? "The first thing I thought of was I won't be able to do my instructional hitting video," he said. "That will be on the backburner for a while."Tom Singer is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
