Chris Sale and Injury Risk

dabynsky

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Since I brought it up before and not to cherry pick here is an article that disputes some of the injury risk with Sale. Read the whole thing but here is a quote about the inverted W part of his mechanics:
But allowing for that, Fleisig observes, "A bigger pitcher doesn't have any more or less chance of getting hurt. If his bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons are all proportionally bigger, everything should be OK."

What can you do about mechanics? Fleisig strikes a moderate note: "All we can do is take a pitcher with documented talent and try to train him to optimize his chance of pitching well without getting hurt. To pitch with the most efficiency, to avoid getting hurt."

But what about anyone worrying about Sale's mechanics? Keeping it general, Fleisig notes, "With the 'inverted W' -- when I was in elementary school we called it the letter M -- a pitcher has his wrists still lower than his elbows at the time his whose front foot lands."

Is that Sale? A lot of the Chicken Littles who say the sky is falling will point to pictures in which you don't see his feet. If Sale takes a different path to get to the right place to deliver the ball but has his arm in the right place after planting, he might be OK.

"If someone is telling you someone is late or is throwing with an 'inverted W,' don't look at a picture of just his upper body, where you can't see where his feet are," Fleisig recommended, not just about Sale, but about any pitcher. "And don't look at a picture when he's in the middle of his stride. Try to look at him at the instant of front-foot contact, because that's a fair comparison -- we're comparing everyone at the same time. And ask yourself about that guy, 'Is his arm still upside down or not?' And whether it's Chris Sale or the next guy, if he gets to the right position at that time, he's good."
 

brett05

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It's a real risk, but no more of a risk than it is w/ every starting pitcher. For every Doc Holliday, there's 2 Johan Santana's and 4 Mark Priors.

Being a fan of solid baseball moreso than anything else, I'm hoping Sale stays injury-free.
 

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Since I brought it up before and not to cherry pick here is an article that disputes some of the injury risk with Sale. Read the whole thing but here is a quote about the inverted W part of his mechanics:


The guy in the article was great. Thanks for posting that. He is one hundred percent correct about the front foot landing and where the arm is. I think that when you analyze a pitchers motion and therefore his control, you really need to work backwards. I tell pitchers that you can almost always tell what happened in their delivery by where the ball went. And most of that depends on what the guy said about the lead foot and where the arm was when the lead foot landed. Just because Sale takes a different angle toward the plate, doesn't mean his arm will have problems any more than a guy with with so-called standard delivery. When you watch him, he has terrific balance toward the plate. He puts his arm in a slot when he delivers the ball. That means that his shoulder doesn't strain nor his elbow when he delivers.
 

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