Baseball Injuries: What to Expect in the Next Few Months
Written on February 7, 2012 at 9:04 pm, by Eric Cressey
With football season now officially over, loads of sports fans are now turning their attention to the fact that pitchers and catchers "reported" this week, signifying the start of spring training and a new Major League Baseball season. Truth be told, most college programs will have already started their seasons - and many high school programs will be playing official games - before the big leaguers start having regular season contests.
Unfortunately, with the start of a new season comes injuries...and lots of them. In fact, according to researchers who examined MLB injury statistics from 2002 through 2008, professional baseball players are 10.6 times more likely to get injured in April than they are in September. In other words, they are far more likely to get hurt because they haven't prepared adequately for specificity than because they've had too much specificity.
Think about that for a second. By the time September rolls around, most MLB players have logged 150 games between spring training and regular season play. On a regular basis, they've fouled balls off their feet, gotten hit by pitches, made 100 slides, attempted dozens of diving catches, and sprinted full-tilt when they aren't warmed-up thoroughly after standing around doing nothing for a few innings. Pitchers have logged hundreds of innings, in some cases, and catchers are sick of squatting for hours on end. Yet, guys are dropping like flies in April, when they're supposed to be the most fresh.
Huh?
There are four legitimate reasons that this is happening.
First, rosters expand in September, so teams can easily keep a guy with a minor injury on the roster without putting him on the disabled list, which would make him "officially" hurt. However, this doesn't explain why August injury rates are still dramatically higher than April's.
Second, the weather is colder - which means it's tougher for guys to stay warm and loose during early season games. This doesn't explain the high injury rates we see in spring training, though, as all games take place in Arizona and Florida.
Third, guys may be ramped up too quickly. Too many swings or throws in a short period of time may be the problem - but this really isn't something that can be changed, as guys need to become game ready, getting their timing, coordination, and mechanics down cold while they've got proper coaching at hand.
Fourth (and this is the main message of this article), guys simply aren't preparing correctly in the off-season with their baseball strength and conditioning programs. They may not be showing up with the right mobility and stability in the right places, or they may simply be waiting too long to start throwing, hitting, or sprinting. This happens all the time at the high school, college, and professional levels.
In the high school ranks, kids may be winter sports athletes, and not pick up a ball until a week or two before tryouts. Or, they may have just lifted weights all winter, but not done enough sprinting or mobility work.
In the college ranks, some athletes will skip throwing and hitting altogether over winter break - and then wind up with issues when they return to campus and ramp up quickly to prepare for the start of the season.
Finally, in the professional ranks, many players simply wait too long to start baseball activities. You can lift all the weights you want, throw medicine balls, sprint, take yoga classes, and participate in any of a number of other general training modalities, but nothing prepares you for being in baseball cleats and hitting, throwing, taking ground balls, or shagging fly balls for hours on end - and doing so every day of the week. It's why I encourage our professional baseball crew to always get started on these things well in advance. Guys might start playing catch as early as Thanksgiving, start hitting off a tee in early December, and start working on defensive drills when January rolls around. And, we'll do movement training - sprinting, change of direction drills, ploys - throughout the off-season. We don't add everything at once; instead, we gradually introduce a more and more baseball-specific stimulus as the off-season progresses so that nobody gets surprised when they show up to spring training; it should feel like a breeze.
So, with anywhere from a few weeks to a few months of your off-season remaining, make sure you're not just getting bogged down in the weight room. Keep in mind that you lift weights to stay healthy on the field and improve performance, not just for the sake of lifting weights. Look for more and more specificity in your programming with increased participation in baseball activities - but not so much that it becomes a "too much, too soon" scenario. And, keep an eye out for the media reporting on loads of hamstrings, hip flexor, adductor, and oblique strains in the months to come, as it's a sign of the season!
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Eric- Another great piece. You have given everyone in the field 5 specific/ objective measurements as players go out at any level. One question, a good program has a pre- training movement screen(and you had a great video inservice posted a few weeks ago0, however is there specific stability/mobility measurements you look at prior to having your guys depart for spring training, go back to college in Janaury, or the high schoolers start up after presidents day? Thanks so much for the outstanding information. It is much appreciated.
As a college baseball ATC, my injury list is already growing due to the reasons mentioned above. Any pearls regarding rehabbing and progressing a right handed catcher with a left internal oblique injury? Most literature focuses on RTP guidelines for pitchers, not field players. Is 6 weeks realistic, or more/less than that??
Eric, one major flaw in that study… With MLB rosters expanding in September, there is no DL! Teams very rarely put players on the DL in September, they don’t need to! The study doesnt talk about that, but that attributes to the huge decrease in September…
Another factor that might be thrown in is the players that are not sound mechanically are weeded out early on. Kind of a survival of the fittest (or most mechanically sound) in this case.
I am a media guy, one who believes baseball of the 2000’s is much different from say the 1960’s or 1970’s. Why? I think many coaches want to “own” their players, and that those players spend more time on baseball (and other sports) than on any other phase of life. If they play one sport all year the risk for injury is greater. So thinks Dr. Jim Andrews, now based in Pensacola,. Fla., and I have interviewed him. I totally believe what he says. We didn’t used to play as many games. Some states do high school baseball better than others, not starting til later in the spring and ending in June or July. I support that. Colleges start WAY too early. BUT, in 1978, Nebraska opened on March 12th and played its 56th and final game on May 13. We need to go with that structure!
February 8th, 2012 at 7:35 am
Eric- Another great piece. You have given everyone in the field 5 specific/ objective measurements as players go out at any level. One question, a good program has a pre- training movement screen(and you had a great video inservice posted a few weeks ago0, however is there specific stability/mobility measurements you look at prior to having your guys depart for spring training, go back to college in Janaury, or the high schoolers start up after presidents day? Thanks so much for the outstanding information. It is much appreciated.
Keenan
February 8th, 2012 at 8:27 am
As a college baseball ATC, my injury list is already growing due to the reasons mentioned above. Any pearls regarding rehabbing and progressing a right handed catcher with a left internal oblique injury? Most literature focuses on RTP guidelines for pitchers, not field players. Is 6 weeks realistic, or more/less than that??
February 9th, 2012 at 1:55 am
Nicely-done, Eric! Loved watching the video as well. Very motivational.
February 11th, 2012 at 2:40 pm
Eric, one major flaw in that study… With MLB rosters expanding in September, there is no DL! Teams very rarely put players on the DL in September, they don’t need to! The study doesnt talk about that, but that attributes to the huge decrease in September…
February 12th, 2012 at 7:24 pm
Mike – excellent point. Still a very significant difference between April and every other month, though.
February 12th, 2013 at 7:00 am
I didn’t see in the abstract, but did the study compare April vs. every other month? Would be great to see that data. Thanks.
February 12th, 2013 at 7:26 am
Mike,
Yes, and you can see it all here (Figure 3): http://ajs.sagepub.com/content/39/8/1676.long
February 12th, 2013 at 5:28 pm
http://WWW.HENRYSBASEBALLCLUB.COM 781 891 0621 LOOKING FOR NEW BASEBALL TALENT!!
February 19th, 2013 at 3:59 pm
Great stuff. Thanks a lot for the link Eric!
February 5th, 2015 at 12:07 pm
Another factor that might be thrown in is the players that are not sound mechanically are weeded out early on. Kind of a survival of the fittest (or most mechanically sound) in this case.
February 5th, 2015 at 7:50 pm
I am a media guy, one who believes baseball of the 2000’s is much different from say the 1960’s or 1970’s. Why? I think many coaches want to “own” their players, and that those players spend more time on baseball (and other sports) than on any other phase of life. If they play one sport all year the risk for injury is greater. So thinks Dr. Jim Andrews, now based in Pensacola,. Fla., and I have interviewed him. I totally believe what he says. We didn’t used to play as many games. Some states do high school baseball better than others, not starting til later in the spring and ending in June or July. I support that. Colleges start WAY too early. BUT, in 1978, Nebraska opened on March 12th and played its 56th and final game on May 13. We need to go with that structure!