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Post by Ashitaka on Nov 17, 2021 8:03:39 GMT -6
This seemed important enough for it's own thread: www.astrosfuture.com/2021/11/forrest-whitley-talks-injuries-tommy-john-surgery-rehab-and-more/"Fast forward to the Spring of 2021 and Whitley found out he was going to have Tommy John Surgery, which he stated 'I totally knew I needed'. I asked him about getting that news and he actually said he was relieved. 'I was so happy that I could finally have a healthy elbow again to pitch in games with. It had honestly been bothering me from the beginning of the 2019 season but I thought it was something that every thrower dealt with. It could have been torn for a lot longer than I realized', Whitley added."Emphasis is mine. If you look at his numbers, 2019 is when the real problems started. Through the 2018 season he was looking good at all levels, made it to AA even. Then 2019 he just falls apart out of nowhere. It's also shocking to me to look at how many guys he was still striking out in 2019 despite being at least somewhat hurt/bothered. Kid's stuff is just excellent. All that to say that we shouldn't count him out yet. Injuries + COVID can derail anyone. Not saying he's a sure-fire thing but his stuff is still better than almost anyone in the organization, majors or minors. |
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Post by Saint on Nov 17, 2021 11:48:53 GMT -6
Someone dropped the ball with this. If this is accurate, how do you let a prized prospect go this long with an injury.
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Post by unionstation82 on Nov 17, 2021 12:54:57 GMT -6
Someone dropped the ball with this. If this is accurate, how do you let a prized prospect go this long with an injury. Seeing as how they batted Bregman 3rd while knowing he had a hurt wrist, it’s not that surprising. |
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Post by Ashitaka on Nov 17, 2021 13:43:11 GMT -6
Someone dropped the ball with this. If this is accurate, how do you let a prized prospect go this long with an injury. If a player doesn't say, usually it's impossible to know. Command problems caused by injury can be assumed to be from any number of things. If the velo was still there and he didn't say anything, or actively insisted he was fine, they wouldn't know. |
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Post by Saint on Nov 17, 2021 15:21:19 GMT -6
Someone dropped the ball with this. If this is accurate, how do you let a prized prospect go this long with an injury. If a player doesn't say, usually it's impossible to know. Command problems caused by injury can be assumed to be from any number of things. If the velo was still there and he didn't say anything, or actively insisted he was fine, they wouldn't know. But all of the money that they invest in a player's development, and nobody could pick up on it or ask him? |
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Post by Saint on Nov 17, 2021 15:21:55 GMT -6
Someone dropped the ball with this. If this is accurate, how do you let a prized prospect go this long with an injury. Seeing as how they batted Bregman 3rd while knowing he had a hurt wrist, it’s not that surprising. I think that was more of a choice: A. Bregman at 60% B. Diaz |
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Post by Ashitaka on Nov 17, 2021 15:56:39 GMT -6
If a player doesn't say, usually it's impossible to know. Command problems caused by injury can be assumed to be from any number of things. If the velo was still there and he didn't say anything, or actively insisted he was fine, they wouldn't know. But all of the money that they invest in a player's development, and nobody could pick up on it or ask him? Not really. I mean you can ask him, but he can lie. And an injury won't be visually obvious if the guy is still working out and pitching the same, and it's not forcing him to noticeably modify his mechanics. Plus they were modifying his mechanics on purpose at the time so any weirdness in that respect would have just looked like a guy struggling to find consistency with new mechanics. |
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Post by Saint on Nov 17, 2021 16:10:53 GMT -6
But all of the money that they invest in a player's development, and nobody could pick up on it or ask him? Not really. I mean you can ask him, but he can lie. And an injury won't be visually obvious if the guy is still working out and pitching the same, and it's not forcing him to noticeably modify his mechanics. Plus they were modifying his mechanics on purpose at the time so any weirdness in that respect would have just looked like a guy struggling to find consistency with new mechanics. Eh, I'm going to have to disagree with you on this. Somebody should have been able to figure this out way sooner. It's not like this was some 20th round pick. This was a highly rated top-level pick and a top-10 prospect that, you said so yourself, went from pretty damn good to utterly derailed. |
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Post by Ashitaka on Nov 17, 2021 17:46:23 GMT -6
Not really. I mean you can ask him, but he can lie. And an injury won't be visually obvious if the guy is still working out and pitching the same, and it's not forcing him to noticeably modify his mechanics. Plus they were modifying his mechanics on purpose at the time so any weirdness in that respect would have just looked like a guy struggling to find consistency with new mechanics. Eh, I'm going to have to disagree with you on this. Somebody should have been able to figure this out way sooner. It's not like this was some 20th round pick. This was a highly rated top-level pick and a top-10 prospect that, you said so yourself, went from pretty damn good to utterly derailed. Honestly it happens all the time though. Prospects struggle and bust, especially pitchers, especially high school pitchers. You'd have to throw every single guy that has command struggles into an MRI machine in order to catch it if the player is trying to hide it. |
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dafish
T-baller
Will Rogers never met f'n Dusty Baker or Jim Crane
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Post by dafish on Nov 18, 2021 7:07:50 GMT -6
IMO... Time we realized we got a living breathing Nuke LaLoosh, who apparently didn't get the Crash treatment in our organization. He'll be 25 after next season, and probably is still no where near being MLB ready.
I think we got to cut our losses at some point.
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Post by thomasj13 on Nov 18, 2021 7:26:56 GMT -6
IMO... Time we realized we got a living breathing Nuke LaLoosh, who apparently didn't get the Crash treatment in our organization. He'll be 25 after next season, and probably is still no where near being MLB ready. I think we got to cut our losses at some point. Make him a closer? |
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dafish
T-baller
Will Rogers never met f'n Dusty Baker or Jim Crane
Posts: 461
Likes: 142
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Post by dafish on Nov 18, 2021 7:29:09 GMT -6
IMO... Time we realized we got a living breathing Nuke LaLoosh, who apparently didn't get the Crash treatment in our organization. He'll be 25 after next season, and probably is still no where near being MLB ready. I think we got to cut our losses at some point. Make him a closer? You mean Ken Giles meets Brad Lidge? (I know you were kidding) |
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Post by unionstation82 on Nov 18, 2021 8:41:25 GMT -6
The final test is seeing how he does after TJS. Then, you can cut bait if he still struggles.
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dafish
T-baller
Will Rogers never met f'n Dusty Baker or Jim Crane
Posts: 461
Likes: 142
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Post by dafish on Nov 18, 2021 8:56:33 GMT -6
The final test is seeing how he does after TJS. Then, you can cut bait if he still struggles. No argument there, but realize pre-injury, he really wasn't setting the world on fire, even at AA. I'll be happy to eat crow, even ecstatic. But if I had to bet on FW's chances to even make to MLB, I'd say they are at best 1 in 4. |
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Post by Hunter McCormick on Nov 18, 2021 9:29:17 GMT -6
IMO... Time we realized we got a living breathing Nuke LaLoosh, who apparently didn't get the Crash treatment in our organization. He'll be 25 after next season, and probably is still no where near being MLB ready. I think we got to cut our losses at some point. I dunno about the million-dollar arm but he does seem to have a five-cent head. lol The final test is seeing how he does after TJS. Then, you can cut bait if he still struggles. ^ this ^ |
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