Will Carroll RE: Carpenter

by silent_bob on Apr 6, 2007 4:36 PM EDT Comment 5 comments

Free article on BP:

"The panic seems to have passed in St. Louis, as Chris Carpenter was cleared to begin working towards his next start. The Cardinals have juggled their rotation to cover the start he'll miss this weekend, with the plan being to slot him back in on Tuesday. Most of the descriptions of what's going on with Carpenter, including this one from Matthew Leach, have the anti-inflammatories getting the range of motion back in Carpenter's arm. The symptoms match up well with bone chips, so the worst-case scenario is a recurrence of this type of situation that necessitates surgery. Carpenter has had bone chips removed from this elbow before, so a recurrence is almost expected. The team is doing a bit of ostriching on this in not taking an MRI, but in part that could be because they have a solid diagnosis and plan. Other pitchers, such as Kelvim Escobar and Johan Santana, have come back from this type of problem quickly, and Escobar is probably the best comp here."

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6072

The bone chip analysis does seem to fit in Carp's, in my medical opinion as well. Bone chips occur when stress on the inside of the elbow causes impaction of top of the ulna (lower arm bone)onto the the bottom of the humerus (upper arm bone) at the joint surface, possibly scraping some bone/cartilage away. This cartilage/bone stuff can float around in the joint and occasionally get stuck, causing swelling.

As long as its not the UCL (Tommy John ligament), I'm completely unalarmed. Problem is, Carp could end up needing his elbow scoped out sometime this season, which would likely shelf him for 4-6 weeks.

Carp's bullpen session and next 2 outings will be crucial, IMHO.

0 recs | Comment 5 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

thanks S.B.

here's another question for you: in your opinion, what's the danger that carp will be partway impaired --- ie, he's not hurt so badly that he can't pitch, but there's enough pain / stiffness to prevent carp from snapping off a sharp curveball. at his blog, DanUp wrote that carpenter's curveball looked flat thursday night; the pitch delgado whacked for his double was a hanging curve.

might the movement on his breaking stuff tell us anything about his health?

by lboros on Apr 6, 2007 4:51 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

make that SUNDAY night

i wrote "thursday" night; meant sunday

by lboros on Apr 6, 2007 4:52 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Definitely...good point.

Obviously the curve places more stress on the medial elbow. IMO, there's a strong correlation with the increase in early curveball throwing in little leagues and the concurrent proliferation of Tommy John surgeries.

Carp throws so many pitches so well. But to me, when his curve is on, he's the machine that we need him to be to keep this team a' rolling.

We'll know if Carp isn't right - don't you think? He's been SO good for the last 3 years - if he isn't himself, it's going to stick out like a sore thumb.

I have a feeling though, that astute fans (like alot of VEB'ers) will know right away on Tuesday if there's a cause for serious alarm..

by silent_bob on Apr 6, 2007 5:15 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Wanted to say

that I thought this was interesting, and I've never thought about it before.

Obviously the curve places more stress on the medial elbow. IMO, there's a strong correlation with the increase in early curveball throwing in little leagues and the concurrent proliferation of Tommy John surgeries.

Makes you wonder how much, if any, the changes in pitchers workload and injuries over the last thirty years can be traced back to youngsters becoming more specialized (wrt pitching, and sports and baseball in general) at an earlier age.

by plh903 on Apr 6, 2007 6:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

It's ridiculous

All these kids (and really their parents) strive to make them the best 12 year olds ever. Curves sliders, splitters, forks, true pronation sinkers...almost makes me sick. I can think of 5 kids I played with that were throwing legitimate curves or even worse sliders in 6th-7th grade...1 had TJ in 7th grade, one TJ sophomore year in HS, 2 more turned into mush throwers by freshman year (probably some undiagnosed arm problem), and one made it all the way through high school but lost velocity from the 8th grade on. But man they were fuckin great in 6th grade. I remember that one game where little Billy struck out 9 batters in 4 innings 10 years ago don't you? Waste of talent. Not to mention the 100 pitch counts at age 12.

The best pitcher I will ever know (and probably so will you soon enough) didn't throw anything but a 4-seam and a changeup till a sophomore/junior year slider that he'd throw occasionally. But he really didn't dominate in 6th grade like he should've.

Pujols > God

by joker24 on Apr 6, 2007 7:57 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs