ptatc

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 25, 2011 -> 12:41 AM) Nothin wrong with a second opinion. Nobody's perfect, not even medical doctors. Especially not them! There is a reason it's referred to as the practice of medicine and not the science of medicine.

QUOTE (PlaySumFnJurny @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 05:27 PM) Ptac-- Is there a realistic chance that the re-attachment could come apart where, for lack of a better term, it has been "welded" back to the bone. I was under the impression that nobody is absolutely certain about that because we're kind of in unchartered waters. Or are you saying its akin to when a wound is healed with new skin and scar tissue; that once its "healed" there's no real risk it will rip open and bleed again where the separation had been? Thanks The reattachment will not come apart under normal stress. It was for the lack of a better term, tacked down and healed. It may still have the tack holding it down to the bone, depending on if they used a dissolvable one or not. The injury is healed and there is no longer any concern about it coming apart. While I have never seen this in jury in a pitcher, I have seen it in other throwers such as a javelin thrower. These athletes put alot more stress on their shoulders than pitchers do. Their elbow is locked during the throw and all of the force goes through the shoulder. The repair did not come apart in these cases and it won't in Peavy's case. However, back to Peavy, he just needs to v build the strength up in the lat for throwing. This is the unknown factor. As soon as he can throw with near normal velocity he will be fine. Then it will just come down to not dropping down as much to avoid the odd stresses on his shoulder.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 07:00 PM) Nice to see he hates the Sox as much as we do him: After reading that, the pitch I throw to Morneau is a high and tight fastball. I wouldn't hit him but get him thinking what may happen if I did. Not saying this specifically for Crain but any pitcher.

QUOTE (chisoxfan09 @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 09:35 PM) PTATC, have you ever seen an advantage to the pitching motion or arm strength if a lanky or really skinny player bulks up and gains weight and also gains strength in their arm? No. In fact studies show there is no correlation to muscle strength and how hard a person throws. There are so many variables that go into throwing. One of them is length of a lever arm so pitcher with longer arms have a better chance to throw hard but it's not a direct correlation. Intuitively, it makes sense that the stronger you are and the better built you are that you would have a decreased chance of injury but again there is no proof from a study. Mechanics are a different story. The smoother more direct mechanics seem to put less stress on the soft tissue structures of joints. However, hitters can see the ball better this way. The funky mechanics or "hiding the ball" with odd mechanics can give a pitcher an advantage. This is more likely to happen with lanky arms.

QUOTE (sircaffey @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 05:24 PM) I feel that depends a lot on Sale's physical development. I can't imagine the Sox would be comfortable with Sale tossing 200 innings in a year given his current physical configuration. He's not Verlander, Strasburg, Prior, etc. where he's built like a horse straight out of college. That's true to an extent. Look at a guy like Jack McDowell. Some guys are just going to be long and lanky.If they feel he's strong enough they'll let me go.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 04:29 PM) You mean next year as in 2012 right? Because there is no way he pitches 200 innings in 2012, and I still highly doubt he gets there in 2013, but 180+ can be a possibility if they really push him along fast. Like J4L is saying, this is our first legitimate pitching prospect in a while. If we are going to actually stretch him out into a starter, then I A) don't want him in the bullpen in 2011 (which is a battle I already lost), and then B.) I don't want him being rushed back into the rotation and expecting him to take on a normal starters workload right away. If both A and B don't happen, I am going to be very disappointed with this organization. Yes, if he pitches in the pen this year, the Sox would limit his innings in 2012 to around 160-175. In 2013 they would allow him to pitch 200 or above. I trust the Sox to handle him properly as far as development is concerned at the MLB level. As the current team stands he is more valuable in the pen to the 2011 team. If Peavy isn't healthy and Buerhle and Jackson leave next year, it won't matter what the Sox do with Sale because the team will be bad. If Peavy is healthy and either Buerhle or Jackson return, you can pitch Sale as the 5th starter and keep his innings in an acceptable range.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 04:17 PM) A-Rod was once a great defender. He's pretty mediocre now. Pujols' defense hasn't regressed as fast since he's a 1B. Plus, WAR takes positioning into account and A-Rod has a a 1.5 win advantage every season from positioning alone. He had a 2 win advantage as a SS. Yet Pujols still has a higher WAR count in the past 10 seasons. I think that should say something about Albert's offensive and defensive abilities. Puljols is the better hitter. However, from the position stand point the better defense at a more important position would probably win out. I'm referring to the whole career not just as the players are today. As far as the WAR goes, I still think it's an invalid stat. It makes for good discussion and is probably the best attempt to compare players over different eras and comparing the value of pitchers and position players. However, as a way to compare position players to position players in the same timeframe, I'm not a big fan from a statistical point of view.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 04:02 PM) Lol, all 120 innings or so? And then all 150 innings or so in 2013, and then all 180 innings or so in 2014? It won't be (or shouldn't be) until 2014 that Sale actually puts up a good sized workload. The Sox will not hold him back and only increase his innings by 30 per year. Your point is valid for next year and next year only. After that he would be ready for a 200 inning season based on workload. One thing you need to remember is that in out of the bullpen he will throw probably 60-70 innings. However in situations where he warms up and doesn't get into games and extra side sessions for bullpen pitchers he will get in 100 innings worth of throwing. Bullpen pitchers take alot of stress on thier arms compared to a starter. the stress of consecutive days throwing and the getting up and down probably equates to alot more innings than that. It really wouldn't take more than 1/2 a season to get his arm ready to start if they changed their mind right now.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 04:11 PM) Yeah. I should've said since 2001. I would probably agree with that, although i might still put Rodriquez ahead of him.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 04:06 PM) He's definitely been the best player in the past decade. http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=...=2001&ind=0 A-Rod is close and Manny is close offensively, but Pujols bests those guys by a decent margin. Rodriguez is close enough that I'll take his offense with good to great defense SS or 3B as opposed to Puljols at 1B.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 02:48 PM) It's cruel and whatever else to make fun of how much someone lifts, but I curl as much as Juan Pierre. That's pretty neat. That is a pretty magnificent dumbbell set. Well yeah, but you weigh more than 120 lbs.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 03:31 PM) I can't believe those that are dissing Pujols. He's the greatest player of the modern era. He should get paid the maximum amount. 10 years? Probably not. But I've got no problem with the salary. Jason Bay is making almost $20 million, people! I would disagree with that. I would take Alex Rodriguez, KenGriffey Jr. and Barry Bonds before him and that's just position players. There are a number of pitchers i would probably put ahead of him as well. Depending on your definition of modern area Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle and Roberto Clemente were all superior players compared to him.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 03:28 PM) I'm extremely surprised he is cranking it up and spinning breaking balls this soon. The shoulder mechanics for breaking pitches is no different than fastballs so that doesn't matter. The only thing he needs to work on is strengthening so letting him crank it up is the only way it's really going to happen. You can only do rubber band exercises so much before you need to throw. His injury was healed in November at the latest. He has been doing strengthening ever since.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 11:55 AM) I dunno, I'd take a stud CF over a stud reliever any day. I wouldn't. Pitching always trumps hitting. Unless you think you are close to winning a World Series and you have a desperate need, keep pitching. Right now we don't have that desperate need. If we trade Buerhle and move Sale to the rotation the bullpen becomes much weaker and the rotation becomes a big question mark as the Sox don't know what he can do starting.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Feb 24, 2011 -> 01:34 AM) That's what concerns me. The guy has done it with those same mechanics and has had a tremendous amount of success doing it that way his entire career. To tell the guy at 29 that he has to significantly alter those mechanics isn't going to be easy. Hell, he could make a mega effort to change them and then just by force of habit revert back to those prior mechanics and another major injury could occur. Guess what I'm saying is that no matter how Scott Merikiney the White Sox want to be when discussing Peavy, he's going to be high-risk from this point on. I still don't think his normal mechanics are too bad. They aren't perfect but no one model of mechanics takes everything into account. It's his tendency to want to drop down and gain more movement that is worrisome. If he stays with his "normal" mechanics, I think he will be fine. It's when he gets into that drop down mode similar to Conteras, that the Sox need to worry.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Feb 23, 2011 -> 07:41 PM) 582 ft according to Wikipedia. Thanks. Being old it didn't occur to me to look there. I was thinking it was in 1988 as well. I've never seen a ball hit like that before or since.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 23, 2011 -> 03:11 PM) 535? Holy s***. What's the longest ever hit in the majors, since decent measurements began? Can't be much more than that. I saw a Brewers prospect named Joey Meyer hit a 600 foot shot in Denver when the Denver Zephyrs were the AAA team for the Brewers. I didn't think it was ever going to land.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 23, 2011 -> 07:40 AM) Blackwater was heavily involved in the Katrina response, for example. They also appear to have contracts to assist in the "war on drugs", although that's definitely more murky. They also provide private security details for lord knows how many people Most of their work is private security in this manner. A friend of mine is a high ranking person in the "firm."

QUOTE (Elgin Slim @ Feb 22, 2011 -> 08:28 PM) I was referring to Peavy's current shoulder injury, the ankle injury was just a reference to the pitcher he was before he tore the ankle tendon. I was wondering about the fact that Peavy said he altered his mechanics in Sept. 2009 to compensate and had some bad habits that carried over into 2010 may have contributed to this injury. Peavy has not had the same velocity or bite to his pitches that he had in San Diego since he has been a member of the White Sox. I was wondering if the the lat injury or the combination of the two injuries may have permanently changed Peavy's stuff. Thanks. Like I said before. Physically he will be fine. It's the altered mechanics and how he deals with it that will determine if he can be as effective as before the injuries. He got more bite on his pitches by changing the arm angle. The sox are going to discourage this like they tried at the beginning of last year. He didn't care for it much so the early part of the year should be interesting.

QUOTE (Elgin Slim @ Feb 22, 2011 -> 04:39 PM) ptatc, Do you think that Peavy will be the same pitcher he was before the ankle injury, or do you think that he could permanently lose velocity and bite on his breaking balls from this injury? I know that there is no precedent in major league pitchers as has been said many times, but based on the injury, what muscles are affected, and the repair process, would you consider this injury closer to a "typical" shoulder injury for a pitcher, which is usually accompanied by a great loss of "stuff" or would you consider this to be closer to a non pitching muscle tear? I know you have probably gone over this before, but could you refresh my memory? If anyone remembers what ptatc said in July about this issue, please tell me, because I don't remember. Are you referring to his ankle (foot) injury he had when the sox acquired him or his current shoulder injury? If it's the current shoulder problem, the actual injury shouldn't be a long term thing. The lat is not a muscle that really effects the stability of the shoulder like the rotator cuff muscles. It's mostly an accelerator muscle during the throwing phase with a little deceleration activity and the very end of the motion. It's the overall throwing motion changes that he must deal with. Can he be effective with the necessary mechanical changes? He drops down to get more movement on his pitches but it isn't mechanically sound so it will be a big change for him. The foot problem he had is an interesting problem. He had a posterior tibialis tendonosis. This muscle and tendon are largely responsible for maintaining the arch in your foot when you put weight on it. Could he be standing straighter and not following through properly due to a fear of putting full weight on his foot? It's possible. All reports say that he is no longer having problems with it. However, there is always the mental part of injuries. The tendon in reference goes through your tarsal tunnel and can cause problem with your tibial nerve and subsequent plantar nerves. This cause an electric shock through the bottom of the foot. It is extremely painful and makes someone think twice before putting weight on it. An interesting dilemma but probably not the reason for the mechanical flaws of his as I've heard from others that he has always had some odd bits to his motion.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 22, 2011 -> 11:28 AM) I hope they focus on a solid base of long toss before he cranks it up on the mound. Long toss is the standard strengthening program before they hit the mound and in between starts. He's been doing it for a couple of months and continues to do it on the side.

QUOTE (flavum @ Feb 22, 2011 -> 08:47 AM) I agree. It's very surprising that he has a game schedule already. I just hope they are cautious with him, but if he's ready for the April 9th start, that would be great. That's when the Sox will need a 5th starter for the first time. I hope they give him that extra week, and if he gets hurt, he gets hurt. It'll either happen in a Sox uniform or a Charlotte uniform, so they might as well go for it. Remember the injury is healed. There is no longer a problem with the attachment of the lat. It was re-attached and probably still has an anchor there. The only thing he needs to do is build strength. He is starting at a weaker point in the muscles than the other pitchers. So there is no surprise that he is going to pitch soon. In fact to continue to build strength in the muscle they may have him pitch more. The glitch or expected problem that will happen is in strength and soreness from building the muscle not from the muscle re-attachment.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Feb 20, 2011 -> 08:15 PM) You say this all the time. Just because the supposed strength of the team underachieved doesn't mean you can't compensate in other areas. Kotsay was a joke. Everybody knew it before the season. He reinforced that with his pathetic performance. Thing is I'm not mad at him. That was all Ozzie and KW. The team that won the World Series was in the lower half of MLB in OPS and most other offensive stats. They were in 1-4 places in most pitching and fielding stats. Pitching is always more important than offense. A better DH would not have made up the dfference in the 2nd half pitching especially the bullpen. With an unproven pen, it's performance will likely determine the success of this season as well.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 21, 2011 -> 11:27 AM) Then the Cardinals should have traded him a year ago and made it clear exactly what his public demands were. Albert Pujols has every right to demand things both ways. It hurts the Cardinals a lot more than him if he walks. It will only hurt the Cardinals in the short term. It's a very loyal fan base and they know baseball. If someone else it's crazy enough to give him 10 years then most fans will understand in a couple of years.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Feb 17, 2011 -> 01:36 PM) And another pic from Gonzo: The best thing about that picture is where Peavy's hand finishes. His hand is down by his hip is right where you want it. This means he was throwing with his arm in a reasonably high slot.