Matt Harvey, Alex Cobb, Phil Hughes - INJURY ANALYSIS

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daweasle
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Posts: 222
Joined: February 27th, 2009, 1:29 am

Matt Harvey, Alex Cobb, Phil Hughes - INJURY ANALYSIS

#1 Post by daweasle »

Ok so I have been seeing Matt Harvey off the boards in the middle rounds of early drafts - and I am trying to save you from yourself - check out this research. (thanks coffee)

the crappy thing about pitchers is they often hurt their UCL's and have tommy john surgery - but the cool thing about that is a lot of them return to be just as dominant - often times even better than before -
But Matt Harvey(and hughes and cobb) had something all together different - thorasic outlet Surgery.

- Do you know the track record of guys who have come back to pitch after that surgery?

Here is a list of all of them I can find at 3am - from 2004 to present:

Noah Lowry - tried to come back - but he retired before he ever made it back to MLB.

Chris Carpenter - Pitched (badly) another 30 innings - after surgery - then retired

Josh Beckett - Pitched (very well sub 3ERA) but only lasted 20 starts - then retired

Shaun Marcum - Pitched (so-so for 35 innings) then retired.

Kip Wells - came back - and ended up pitching over 130 innings - but never got his ERA below 4.66 and never pitched the same - then he retired.

Jeremy Bonderman - came back to pitch for parts of 3 different seasons - but never had an ERA under 4.93 after surgery, then he retired, then he said he was going to try again. Then he retired for real.

Matt Harrison - special case - this dude has a hip replacement and he had rib removal. he has spinal fusion - then he retired. not necessarily in that order - but the dude had a lot of shit go wrong over a few years. final result - he was never the same and didn't really make it but it can be debated with him a bit which one did him in.

Aaron Cook - A decent success....he came back and pitched for parts of 6 different seasons. Never was an ace. But he was Ok. (ERA was always between 3.96 to 5.86) I call this one a PUSH.

Jamie Garcia - THE BIGGEST SUCCESS STORY!! Came back after surgery and pitched pretty well. In fact he threw 100+ innings in yr one and 170 innings in yr 2 - both at equal to or better than before the surgery.

Phil Hughes (TBD) - hasn't pitched - OR - retired (yet)
Alex Cobb (TBD) - hasn't pitched - OR - retired (yet)
Matt Harvey (TBD) - hasn't pitched - OR - retired (yet)

Box Score:
TOS 7
SP 1
Push 1
TBD 3

DISCLAIMER - Matt Harvey - if you are reading this - no disrespect meant homeboy. I wish you the best of luck in your return to the mound and you truly were one bad mofo on the mound a couple years ago. But this is fantasy baseball and the track record for people with similar injuries is making you look undraftable to me. nothing personal.

Alternate Disclaimer - Kenny Rogers also had this surgery. But instead of taking out a rib - they took out his nerves. All of them. So he was 100% immune to fear, pain or emotion. Then they replaced it with 100% awesomeness and he pitched until he was 49 yrs old, when he was still reaching 99mph on some out of calibration radar guns. He only retired from baseball because he had to focus on his primary job, teaching Chuck Norris how to be a badass.

**Research courtesy of COFFEE. Keeping fantasy baseball nerds studying stats until 4am since 1993.

Quote of the day - Alternate Disclaimers are often at least partially true.

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Todd Zola
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Joined: December 25th, 2008, 12:45 pm

Re: Matt Harvey, Alex Cobb, Phil Hughes - INJURY ANALYSIS

#2 Post by Todd Zola »

Cobb had his in 2011, starting over 20 games the next three seasons.

That said, not saying this would have, or should have replaced your caffeinated research, but here's the profile on Harvey:

There's a lot of science in projection theory as well as some art. Then there's a faction of "I have no clue", like Harvey. The history of those recovering from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery is a mixed bag. To this point, all signs are positive. Whether he's the Dark Knight of old remains to be seen, but I'll take the under on that. Even with the discount, I'm looking elsewhere.
Catchers are like prostate exams -- comes a time where you can't put if off any longer, so you may as well get it over with and take it up the butt - The Forum Funklord

I'd rather be wrong for the right reasons than right for the wrong reasons - The Forum Funklord

Always remember, never forget, never say always or never. - The Forum Funklord

You know you have to seek therapy when you see one of your pitchers had a bad night and it takes you 15 minutes to find the team you have him on. - The Forum Funklord

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