Over the last decade or so, the proliferation of digital media and the integration of high-speed video has allowed us to see this game called baseball in a way that people never would have dreamed of when it was being played in its early stages back in the 18thcentury. From my perspective, this has brought the game to the highest level it has ever been performed. Especially, in terms of being able to develop talent safely and track how players are progressing over the course of their career.
To give you a few examples of what we’re dealing with, we have now come to realize that the act of pitching a baseball with the overhead throwing motion is the fastest human movement in all of sports. We are asking players’ elbows (Ulnar Collateral ligament in particular) to assume 35 N-m of force on every throw. That may not sound like much until you realize the UCL fails at 32 N-m in cadaveric models. This is the equivalent to 40lbs of weight pulling the hand down at Maximal External rotation of the shoulder (diagram below).
Essentially, these highly-paid athletes are asked to perform to failure upwards of 100 times per game in most instances. And that is only considering the elbow, let alone the 7500 deg/second that the humerus is asked to rotate through the glenohumeral joint at in elite pitchers.
When you consider the demands of these players’ bodies to pitch as well as considering that these pitchers might have 30+ starts, throw upwards of 200 game innings and countless bullpen sessions; it becomes imperative that we understand what types of mechanics are deemed healthy, allow for longevity and what types of mechanics put players at a higher risk for injury.
Biomechanics researchers have identified between 8 and 14 significant characteristics of a throwing motion where we can try to see if a player falls into a normative or healthy range. These characteristics are classified with green, yellow or red flags, depending on how far in or out of this range a players’ delivery lies. The recent case of Stephen Strasburg, arguably the most hyped draft prospect ever, exemplifies everything about the need for a predictive model like this.
Because of the abundance of amateur videos on YouTube, Strasburg was able to build an enormous amount of buzz before the draft. The videos of his “smooth” delivery dealing 100 mph fastballs and knee-buckling curve balls to college hitters began enticing scouts and MLB executives across the country. Strasburg was ultimately drafted #1 overall by the Washington Nationals in 2009, and signed for a record $15.1 million before even touching the field as a professional athlete.
However, using this same video footage, others in the baseball community identified a red flag charactertistic Strasburg had called the “Inverted W” arm action. This particular red flag in his delivery occurs when his throwing elbow raises slightly above his shoulder at stride foot contact, which is thought to cause more force to be placed on certain joints. The Nationals deemed this to be a non-factor for them, while other supporters of Strasburg just looked at it as part of the reason why Strasburg was capable of throwing fastballs ranging from 98-100+mph.
Right or wrong, Strasburg was watched carefully and put under restrictive pitch counts by the Nationals in an attempt to play it safe with their prized investment. Even with all of this care, Strasburg still managed to rupture his UCL mid-way through his rookie season.
Now whether or not this “Inverted W” arm action is the cause of the injury (and I do not personally believe that we can identify it as the sole reason), it forces us to go further down the rabbit hole in search of more durable throwing mechanics in efforts at keeping our players on the field and performing at a high level.
With more and more research continuing to be conducted by organizations like the American Sports and Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, and success leaving behind clues like it does, it becomes more apparent that our knowledge and insight into this game is still continuing to evolve over 200 years after its inception.
As some of these advanced protocols for measuring and tracking a players’ health continue to develop, it will be interesting to see if they become available in an open-source environment, or if they are going to become heavily guarded secrets as teams attempt to hold their competitive advantage in keeping game-changing players on the field. In the meantime, as a baseball enthusiast at large, let’s hope the Red Sox are just playing coy and saving their best effort for the home opener against the Yankees on Friday.
