Injured athletes are better than ever

SOURCE: www.rantsports.com

Have you ever wondered what happens to the value of an athlete after they suffer a horrible injury? Through the article “Rate of Return to Pitching and Performance After Tommy John Surgery in Major League Baseball Pitchers”, posted on the American Journal of Sports Medicine, I was able to learn the answer to this question. After reading this article I would argue that after a pitcher gets Tommy John surgery they perform better.

 In the article it listed many good statistics and argued that more than not, a pitcher will come back to the league and be able to perform at a better level than before their injury.  The article stated that “a total of 179 pitchers with UCL tears who underwent reconstruction met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed. Of these, 148 pitchers (83%) were able to RTP in the MLB, and 174 pitchers were able to RTP in the MLB and minor league combined (97.2%), while only 5 pitchers (2.8%) were never able to RTP in either the MLB or minor league.”  This statistic shows that after surveying a great amount of pitchers who received what should be a career ending injury, nearly all of them returned to the league and played.

The article also talked strongly about the performance level the pitcher played at after suffering a UCL injury.  The article states that “performance declined before surgery and improved after surgery.”  The pitchers performances who unfortunately are diagnosed with this injury go down hill greatly because their arms can not handle all of the pressure and motion they are putting on their arms.  This is why you see guys just shut their arms down, or stop throwing baseball, when feel hurt.  To an MLB team who is paying a pitcher multiple millions of dollars, they want their pitcher to be throwing, so when the pitcher is not throwing his value is basically worthless to the team.  Once the player gets the surgery and comes back throwing better, he becomes just as valuable or more valuable than he was when he was healthy before.

This brings me to my last point, the article also talked about the performance of a pitcher after undergoing the surgery.  The article states that “after surgery, pitchers showed significantly improved performance versus before surgery (fewer losses, a lower losing percentage, lower earned run average [ERA], threw fewer walks, and allowed fewer hits, runs, and home runs.”  This is an amazing thing to think about when looking at the value of an athlete after a serious injury.  If the athlete is able to come back and perform at a higher level than before the injury, their value shoots way up.  To sum this argument up, I agree with what the author of this article is pointing out because it shows that an MLB pitchers value goes up after getting arm surgery.

Future Question:  How does an ACL tear effect the value of a football player? Are they able to come back after such an injury?