Archive for Injuries

For several seasons I’ve attempted to collect the hitters who have played through an injury. These banged-up guys underperformed their projection by ~20 points of OPS the next season. That works out to a 5% drop in production. What I need is help trying to collect all the possible batters while this season is still fresh in everyone’s mind. Here are the names I have so far:

Does anyone know of any others and I’d love to have a link to verify? I’ll assemble a complete list with the links in a future article. Thanks.

MLB.com has a unique news section where each team updates their injuries and transactions. I’ve found this information useful but it’s unique. Each team’s webpage (not an article) is in flux with information constantly appearing and disappearing. I plan to check for updates (each blurb is dated) and report any information. I’ll quote the page to preserve the information. The information disappears into the abyss so quoting the source is the only way to keep it.

I won’t report headline news but will try to dig a little deeper. Additionally, I want this article to be a quick reference so don’t expect a certain word count. I’ll provide the useful info and then fantasy managers can figure out how best to utilize it.

Enjoy and please give me any suggestions. Read the rest of this entry »

With two prominent players, Mike Trout and J.T. Realmuto, just needing meniscus surgery, I examined hitter production before and after surgery. With a limited sample, some struggles should be expected. Read the rest of this entry »

The Injured List Debate episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Injured List Debate

• A full in-depth debate about the pros and cons of playing with an injured list in fantasy baseball.

Twitter/X Comments

• Your Twitter/X comments on the pros and cons of playing with an injured list in fantasy baseball.

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The Pre-Season Injury episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Strategy Section

• Important medical terminology for injuries
  • Ligaments, tendons, etc.
  • Strains vs. sprains
• Long-term injuries
  • Shoulder vs. Elbow for pitchers
  • Hitter injuries

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

Injured Players

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With Jacob deGrom and Walker Buehler coming back from their second Tommy John surgery (TJS), I wanted to go back and look at how pitchers performed after going under the knife a second time. While I had high hopes this study would find some useful adjustments, the results were mixed and probably point to the pitcher being more of the same. Read the rest of this entry »

Since both Shohei Ohtani and Drew Rasmussen got an internal brace in their elbow instead of the full Tommy John surgery, I decided to see how other pitchers who got the brace performed … and the study didn’t take long. With fewer than a dozen samples, there is no study.

Using Jon Roegele’s Tommy John surgery database, the following five major league pitchers got the surgery and returned to the majors. The surgery failed with Matt Bush and he eventually needed a full Tommy John surgery.

Again, with a sample size of just five, I’m not going to draw zero conclusions from the list.

Additionally, these four guys got the brace and never returned to the majors.

No analysis from me but the information is here if anyone wants to break out their Jump-to-Conclusions mat.

Tommy John surgery week continues with the hitter edition. With both Riley Greene and Jasson Domínguez (Shohei Ohtani got the brace procedure) getting a Tommy John surgery, I wanted to know how their performance changed from when they were healthy, to hurt, to fixed.

Note: I’m pushing my limits on what I’d like with a sample was 26 hitters. Sometime the matched seasons doesn’t lineup thereby pushing the number even further down. I understand if someone feels the sample is too small and blows off the results.

I found the change by using a weighted change from season to season. The hitters who had the most matched plate appearance got the most weight. Read the rest of this entry »

With the season over, it’s to find out how hitters performed who didn’t let an injury heal and played through the pain. Whether these hitters cause permanent damage to their bodies or pick up bad habits, they continue to underperform their projections. Besides collecting the names myself, I’ve asked for some help (article and Twitter) for this past season’s list.

I first determined the decline in an article covering 2017 to 2019 and have continued collecting names and results (2020, 2021, and 2022). Read the rest of this entry »

For the last half dozen or so seasons I’ve attempted to collect the hitters who have played through an injury this season. These banged-up guys underperformed their projection by ~20 points of OPS the next season. That works out to a 5% drop in production. What I need is help trying to collect all the possible batters while this season is still fresh in everyone’s mind. Here are the names I have so far: Read the rest of this entry »