Brewer Paradise Lost

Quite a few people have been murmuring about free agent pitcher Ben Sheets and reuniting with the Brewers after a tumultuous offseason that has seen contracts dwindle from astonishing and incredible to downright highway robbery. Free agents who are still in limbo like Sheets, Adam Dunn, Manny Ramirez, and Derek Lowe just aren’t going to come anywhere near what they thought they were going to be swimming in. Even if the economic situation weren’t so dire, and the Brewers had cap room, it would still be shooting themselves in the foot if they were to sign him again.

Everybody knows by now how good Sheets is (career 116ERA+ pitcher, hasn’t pitched a season below 117ERA+ since 2003, had a ridiculous 2004 season with 264K and 32BB in 237 innings), and how much time he spends on the DL (significant time spent there in ’05, ’06, and ’07; with 2008 being a good year but Sheets’ arm still fizzled out in September). Sometimes people think that all of his injuries have just been totally random and unrelated; while a little of that is true (in ’05 he missed significant time because of a viral infection in his inner ear and had extreme dizziness), most of it can be attributed to his pitching mechanics. Let’s hit the way-back machine and check out this post on Big Ben:

The latest injury for Sheets has been coined, “right triceps tightness,” but it might as well include the rotator cuff. In my clinical experience, I have seen very few baseball pitchers present with a pure, isolated “triceps strain”—rather, there is almost always an involvement of the rotator cuff muscles in what is called the “Quadrangular Space.”

Why do these injuries continue to mount for Sheets? The culprit appears to be his high arm slot. Although it’s partly responsible for the large 12-6 curveball, it’s also responsible for taxing the rotator cuff to the max. As a rule of thumb, the higher the arm slot, the harder the rotator cuff and biceps must work to stabilize the head of the humerus. This places stress on the rotator cuff interval, which includes ligaments in the front of the shoulder that also add stability.

The two main injuries I’ve found that have been the kiss of death for pitchers are injuries that irritate the rotator cuff and damage to the UCL (which leads to Tommy John surgery). Sheets has one of these problems already: an torn shoulder muscle in 2005, posterior shoulder strain in the beginning of ’06, shoulder tendinitis in May of ’06, and a triceps strain in ’07. The more recent injury he’s had to deal with smells to me like there might be something wrong with his overall mechanics in his elbow, too: his torn flexor muscle in his elbow might hint at future arm problems because the flexor muscles in his elbow work closely with the UCL and, if he continues to have surgeries and irritations in his elbow as well as his shoulder, I’m not confident he’ll ever hit 200 innings again.

In today’s economy, it’s not hard to argue that signing Sheets to a lowball salary would be a low-risk, high-reward type of contract and definitely something worth taking a risk on. I’m not so sure. His work ethic has been called into question before, and the evidence here is that he takes an abnormally long time to recover from seemingly non-serious injuries. Torn flexor tendons usually need surgery to repair fully, and Sheets hasn’t bothered with it yet, which is just a recipe for disaster to his elbow and hand. No, sir, I don’t think he’ll pitch enough to justify the contract he’s going to get ever again, and I don’t think it’s worth it to sign another risky starting pitcher. Especially when the thing Milwaukee needs most is pitching depth.

In other news, I’m happy that this isn’t there anymore. That was the report on shortstop prospect Alcides Escobar claiming he was a womanizer and bigheaded buffoon. Perhaps the Bleacher Report took it down due to a lack of credibility. Perhaps there is a shred of it in the blogosphere. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

Here’s also a quick youtube to end this post:

The song is Modular Mix, by ambient band Air.

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Brewer stuff, milwaukee brewers, Uncategorized by Cody