The Dodgers: Worse than cursed

[Ghoulish Delight]

I've come to the conclusion that the baseball gods are flat out f*ing with the Dodgers. Taunting them.

Every team goes through a rough season. A few injuries, a couple bad trades that dont work out. Oh well, write off this season, get your rookies some valauable playing time, try again next season.

But no. Here we have the Dodgers, who have not once had enough healthy players to play with their "true" starting lineup. They suck, and rightfully so, it's a bunch of rookies out there. But do the gods let us poor fans just cut our losses and write the season off? Oh, no, the rest of the division's gotta suck too, keeping the Dodgers tantalizingly close to first place, just enough so that we actually still care about the outcome of the games.

But then they start really screwin' with us. "Oh look, the Dodgers have 2 starting All Stars, the first pair of middle infielders from the same team to do that in forever...haha, now they're both injured!" "Hmm, the Dodgers have a fairly commanding lead late in the game with a chance to move into sole posession of 2nd place and very close to 1st place...ho ho, not so fast. Your relief pitcher just twisted his ankle stepping out of the bleeding bullpen, and HIS replacement gave up a game changing homerun!" WTF?!

Let's look at the injury the rundown:

*Jayson Werth: Hit by pitch in spring training, broken wrist, out for most of the 1st half
*Milton Bradley: Screws up ligament in his hand making contact on a pop fly. Out or God knows how long
*Gagne: Compensating for a knee injury leads to a minor elbow inury which leads to a MAJOR elbow inury, out for the season
*Odalis Perez: Shoulder Tendinitis
*Wilson Alvarez: Shoulder Pain
*Paul Backo: blown knee, out for season
*JD Drew: hit by batted ball, broken wrist
*Jason Grabowski: shoulder pain
*Jose Velntin: Torn ligaments in knee
*Kelly Wunch: Twisted ankle
*Elmer Dessens: can't remember the injury
*Antonio Perez: Hamstring
*Iszturis: Hamstring
*Ricky Ledee: Hamstring
*Jeff Kent: Hamstring

And I'm sure I'm missing some. It's insane. That's 60% of the roster!

Here's what I notice...those last four on my list. Hamstring, hamstring, hamstring, hamstring. Now I know a lot of the injuries were real fluke stuff (hit by pitch, hit by a ball in play, tripped over nothing...), but 4 hamstring injuries? And several pitchers with shoulder/elbow problems? What's going on. Not to malign the Dodger's training staff, but you gotta wonder. Among other things, with wholesale changes at the end of last season and the off season, could it be that the trainers just haven't had the time or resources to integrate all of the new players' training and conditioning needs into the system? Because this volume of injury just doesn't happen at the major league level.

Why won't they just fade out of the standings so we don't care anymore? Why must we be taunted, 1st place so madeningly close to being in their grasp?

[Prudence]

It could be worse -- you could be saddled with the Mariners.

[wendybeth]

Prudence is right. Having the Mariners for a baseball team is eclipsed in suckageness only by having the Seahawks for football.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Yes, but at least you know they suck and have no chance. The Dodgers are still in the race, but every time they get close, someone else gets injured. It's torture.

[Moonliner]

You do know that there is a history in MLB of players getting "injured" with invisible maladies such as hamstrings just before the all-star break? Typically a few days on the beach in Waikiki seems to be just the cure they need.

Right now my Nat's are still out in front but it's only the All-Star break and way too early to get excited. Same goes for the Dodgers, plenty of time to get most of the players back in the hunt.

So give your foam finger a big hug and then take some time off yourself during the All-Star break (perhaps visit a theme park...) and come back firm and strong for the next half of the season.

[scaeagles]

With the exception of pitchers and the occasional fluke injury, I see no reason why baseball players should ever get injured. Really.

Hamstrings? Try stretching. I have coached highschool basketball for 16 years and have never had a player with a hamstring injury, and basketball includes much more running , jumping, strarting, and stopping than baseball ever will. And my players are nowhere near professional in abilities.

It's a non contact sport, with the exception of breaking up a double play or a catcher blocking the plate. Pitchers are the exception. Throwing 100 pitches at 80-95 mph will most certainly lead to repetitive motion injuries.

Again, this is not to discount the fluke injury - like...was it Jason Kendall? - the guy who runs to first and steps on it wrong and has his ankle flopping like fish out of water as he hops past the base.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Actually, I disagree. Yes, basketball has more running and quick movements, but as for starting and stopping, baseball's the worst. To make a play, you're generally starting from a dead stop, either on the bases or in the field. And to make matters worse, you aren't involved in every play, so a player is often standing still for 5 or 10 minutes at a time, plus the significant ammount of downtime in the dugout. Baseball players are in the MOST danger of cooling off of just about any sport.

[scaeagles]

Well, when i watch football and basketball, players are in and out all the time. Unless you're Kobi Bryant or Allen Iverson, you are in and out a bunch and have half times. Punters and kickers in football aren't in that often. Most football players don't play both sides of the ball. Some only play special teams. Hockey teams change their lines every three minutes or so, and those guys sit next to the ice while they're out for six minutes. Those other sports also involve much more contact.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Fine, maybe not the most, but as much. And that's where things like hamstring injuries come from, sudden movemnt from a dead stop. Or an awkward landing on a swing (a major league swing is a HUGE strain on the body, and will leave you in some vulnerable positions, never mind that you then have to immediately regain your balance and accelerate to full speed). Considering the amazing diving play Iszturis makes on a regular basis, mostly starting from a standstill and reacting in an instant, it's a testament to the shape he's in that he hasn't been injured in the past. On top of that, there's the danger of sliding into a base, or making a catch near a wall (either from contatcting the wall, or from the sudden stop and change of direction). The pace of the game makes people think baseball is not physically demanding. That's far from true.

I have coached highschool basketball for 16 years and have never had a player with a hamstring injury...And my players are nowhere near professional in abilities.

Exactly, your players don't go to the physical extremes that professional athletes go to. By your logic, you should be just as surprised at the number of professional basketball hamstring injuries as pro baseball. Afterall, your players don't have any.

These types of stress injuries are going to happen in pro sports. Put an average person in those games and have them attempt to put out the same effort as the pros do, you're pretty much guaranteed a pulled muscle or three. Pro athletes, in all sports, have to maintain top physical condition to avoid those injuries, but even then, it's going to happen. But for some reason, it's happening a lot more often than average for the Dodgers this season.

Normally, you can't blame the freak injuries on conditioning. But when you see a pile of injuries, some freak, some not, like this, you begin to wonder. Afterall, besides reducing the injury risk on "normal" plays in "normal" situations, a well conditioned athlete has better reactions and is better able to absorb impact to avoid injuries in the extraordinary circumstances. So a break down in effective training and conditioning could easily contribute to an increase of "freak" injuries as well.

Edit: Oh, and if you're on the sidelines in basketball or football and feel a little tight, you've got access to trainers to help you loosen up before getting back in the game. When your team's at bat, you're on the bench, but in those minutes between balls batted your way, you're on your own, standing out there. You can get some stretching done between pitches, but it's not exactly sitting on the bench with a massage and a heat pack.

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

your players don't go to the physical extremes that professional athletes go to.

This is true, but they are not nearly as skilled. Less skill in a sport equates to a greater chance of injury. HS players do not have the medical attention or personal trainers that the pros do (with exception - we have a kid being recruited by many DI schools and he works with professional trainers). Also, skills levels vary from player to player far more at the highschool level than at the professional level, and that variance contributes to possible injury as well.

Baseball isn't that physically demanding. This is why they can play 162 games (or whatever it is) in six months. Football players play 16 in four months. This is because of the physical demands of the sport. Basketball you get 82 in 5 months. Playing 3 nights in a row is considered very extreme in professional basketball. Baseball teams go 9 or 10 in a row between days off? And in terms of starting and stopping - I'd say football is more extreme than any other sport. Dead stop to full speed in a few steps (for skill positions), often times coming to a dead stop instantly when running into a 300 lb lineman or a 260 lb linebacker.

Also, changes of direction at speed put far more stress on the muscles, joints, and bones than starting or stopping. There are not a lot of requirements for changes of direction in baseball at a high speed, but in football, basketball, and hockey, they happen all the time.

Now, the coordination and reflexes required in baseball are amazing - more so than any other sport with the exception of perhaps tennis. But the physical demands? I don't buy it.