It is my birthday, and more than anything, I’d like to see some pitchers get healthy!
And if you are lucky enough to have a pitcher who is great and young and you are in a pennant race… go for it!
That and more on the birthday edition of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.
David Price, Miguel Cabrera, Bronson Arroyo, Curtis Granderson, David Ortiz, Ubaldo Jimenez, Emilio Bonifacio and Mike Leake all added to their totals for Who Owns Baseball.
Tommy John has such a pleasant sounding name. And he had a long durable career. But wow, hearing his name is you are a pitcher must be liking hearing the reaper knock on your door.
I had already equated him with the creepy preacher in The Right Stuff.
Now Tommy John’s specter looms over Adam Wainwright and also the entire fate of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Wainwright’s season might be done with.
And with the Reds and Brewers looking strong for 2011, the Cardinals hopes to win the Division might be sliced along with Wainwright’s elbow.
That would mean the Cardinals’ best hope (the 1-2 punch of Wainwright and Carpenter in the rotation) would scrapped.
And with Carpenter at the end of his contract (he has an option and a buyout for 2012), he might be the best available pitcher at the trade deadline. No doubt the Yankees will be willing to pay with top prospects after losing out on Cliff Lee last year. The Red Sox would get into the mix if Beckett, Dice-K or Lackey flop. Maybe the Phillies want FIVE aces.
Either way they will get a key piece for 2012 and beyond.
But what about that beyond?
In case you haven’t heard, Albert Pujols’ contract is up at the end of the year, and all indications are showing he is going to be a free agent.
If the Cardinals have a flop season and wind up dealing Carpenter, would Pujols want to stick around for the rebuilding? Or would he want to reinvent himself and create a new challenge elsewhere. There will be some crazy owner who will shell out $25-$30 million a year for Pujols. He knows it. You know it.
And would you turn that down to rebuild?
Wainwright needs his elbow reconstructed.
When he won his 20th game last September 24th, little did any of us know that it could have been his last with Albert Pujols as a teammate.
Oooh that Tommy John.
If you were a pitcher in the big leagues, there are so many things in Tommy John‘s career I am sure you would wish for.
Pitching in 26 different seasons…
AVERAGING 200 innings a year…
A pair of Cy Young runner up seasons…
Three 20 win seasons…
A 13 win season at age 44…
288 career wins…
Multiple All Star berths…
Pitching on the biggest stage in three different World Series…
Name me a young pitcher today that wouldn’t take a career like that!
Yet when pitchers hear his name, they act like the pilots wives when the creepy preacher showed up in The Right Stuff.
It’s the death knell.
OK, maybe not that bad… but it probably means a lost year.
Now of course pitchers can heal after Tommy John Surgery and make the tendons more strong, basically make the movie Rookie of the Year come true.
But there is a certain amount of insanity here.
The Nationals treated Strasburg with scientifically precise kid gloves and no doubt had each bowel movement weighed.
And the result? Two trips to the disabled list and 2011 probably lost.
GOOD LUCK WITH THE 2011 SEASON TICKETS, WASHINGTON!
Have I missed where the kid glove treatment has resulted in great successes?
I’m not talking about avoiding blowing out pitchers arms (Clay Buchholz and David Price were held back a little early on and are now Cy Young contenders) but this insane bean counting and arbitrary pitch numbers seems to be doing more harm than good.
You can no longer look me in the eye and say that this babying of pitchers works.
How did the Glavine/Maddux/Smoltz of the world combine for 50 some odd years in the big leagues and get only ONE Tommy John Surgery (for Smoltz in 2000 after he was already building his Cooperstown resume) and a Strasburg can’t even last 1/2 a season without 2 trips to the DL?
Are pitchers like Halladay and Sabathia just freaks of nature and we need to keep handling pitchers like Joba Chamberlain until his career is ruined?
I REALLY don’t want to include Strasburg on the list of “Can’t Miss Aces Who Missed“… but so far it DOESN’T look good.
If only those guys could have Tommy John’s career.
Sully Baseball 
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