8-27-13 GDT: Indians at Braves

[thethe]

Do you know if he's on any type of innings limit this year? Was trying to figure out if he'd be available for us in the playoffs. As it looks right now he's one of our best 3 starters.

He threw 155 last year so I think he should be good for the rest of the year. They might skip a start of his in September just to make sure he is rested.

[Teheran_49]

The Chris Sale comparisons look pretty good now. Like most young players he had a rough beginning in his first few starts but he turned it around rather quickly. It took Minor a while to put it together and get his confidence going but Wood has not looked back since. It's crazy to think Wood was drafted just last June and pitched A ball all of last year and then only pitched 50+ innings in AA with a very brief stint in AAA. It is extremely early in his career but it's hard not to get excited about what this guy is doing. It's not like he's doing this with smoke and mirrors.

[thethe]

He doesn't throw as hard as Sale and doesn't have a wipeout slider. Haven't seen too much of Sale but I think Wood as the better changeup which might make him less susceptible to an injury.

[zitothebrave]

He doesn't throw as hard as Sale and doesn't have a wipeout slider. Haven't seen too much of Sale but I think Wood as the better changeup which might make him less susceptible to an injury.

Wood's mechanics not his repertoire is what puts him at risk. It's hard to tell if he's sound now, and it's even harder to tell if he can keep repeating them to stay sound.

[thethe]

Wood's mechanics not his repertoire is what puts him at risk. It's hard to tell if he's sound now, and it's even harder to tell if he can keep repeating them to stay sound.

He seems to repeat his delivery just fine to me but I don't have the luxury of side by sides in slow motion. I don't see him off balance that often.

[ramadon101]

There's a pretty good discussion going on now over at Primer about a recent Terrance Moore article (ironic that a Terrance Moore article actually ignited a lively intellectual discussion but his troll-like abilities have the effect of inducing vitriol amongst more reasonable individuals) about this very topic.

Pitcher mechanics and long-term health are still very much a gray (if not black) box. There are some physicians and biomechanical experts who believe in myths like the Verducci effect, overall pitch limits, etc. There are others who think it's all bogus and it's largely a lottery ticket. I fall into the latter camp. I'm not saying pitchers should just throw caution to the wind and organizations should implement programs so every single pitcher has to throw Walter Johnson's innings to make it up to the bigs, but there isn't always a correlation regarding # of pitches, workload, velocity, etc. There MAY be a correlation between certain types of pitches (sliders tend to be the biggest target) and elbow/shoulder injuries and I do believe there may be some validity there.. but individual genetics and luck are probably the biggest drivers behind injuries.

I tend to emphasize repeatable mechanics over irregular mechanics -- the latter has a far worse of a damaging effect on a labrum or tendon over time.

So, in short, I'm not overly concerned about Wood's delivery, so long as he's continuing to repeat his same motion time and time again. It's funny how pitchers with funky, jerky deliveries like Wood can pitch for long periods without any sort of incident while pitchers like Harvey who are extolled as having excellent mechanics can end up with injuries (and sometimes, unfortunately, never return to their prior form ala Mark Prior). Much like life, elbows and labrums can be fickle.

[Bama9507]

Oh my