1. Survival of the fittest. Pitcher.
There is no sense of shock, anymore. Forearm tightness leads to elbow discomfort. An MRI leads to Tommy John Surgery. Baseball loses another pitcher for another year. Not only is the fragility of pitchers getting worse, but the frequency with which pitchers are shelved for a full season is becoming so commonplace that it breeds complacency.
Beyond the impact to one’s hometown team – or fantasy team – the constant injuries to pitchers are deadening the sport, itself. Young arms are on ‘pitch counts,’ and collective breaths are held each time a team’s trainer visits the mound.
While numbers and overall statistics are irrelevant in the month of March, every inning tallied by a pitcher is one more than those currently in rehab. Already, Yu Darvish and Marcus Stroeman – albeit, for a leg injury – will miss all of 2015, and Zach Wheeler appears a prime candidate for the same fate.
More than ever, the Spring Training has taken on an entirely different purpose: survive.
