Early Injury Recovery Success Stories

FREE Fantasy Baseball Guide

For Email Marketing you can trust

Follow FantasyPros911 Here

Our Most Popular Articles

Other Articles You Might Like

Apr

2009

Early Injury Recovery Success Stories

PDF

| Print |

E-mail

Behind The Plate Blog

Written by John Dorhauer

There were a lot of major lingering injury questions surrounding some of the game’s biggest players heading into the 2009 season. Somewhat surprisingly (but also fortunately), most of those players who have seen playing time thus far have come back strong. Granted, the very small sample sizes will undoubtedly distort the present impact and future outlook for these players, but here is list of guys who appear to have put their past injury issues behind them:

Josh Beckett Beckett was hampered by injuries last year (back, pitching elbow, oblique), but he appears to be healthy thus far. His FIP of 2.13 and K/9 rate of 10.38 are promising signs of a return to form. Perhaps the better indicator, though, is that his average fastball so far has clocked in at 94.1 mph, which matches his career average exactly. He was roughed up a bit in his second start, and he would benefit from a heavier diet of change ups (only 3.6% thus far, compared to a career average of 12.7%), but he’s at least looking healthy again.

Erik Bedard There is no way he can keep up his pace after two games (1.48 FIP, 15 K/BB ratio), but Bedard certainly looks to have put all lingering shoulder questions to rest. The best news for Bedard is that his curveball seems to be working well for him – in his first two starts he’s induced swings on 27.4% of pitches out of the zone, but hitters have only made contact 39.1% of the time.

Travis Hafner After getting burned by Pronk for drafting him in ’08, I’m not ready to jump back on the bandwagon just yet. However, early returns are very positive for ’09, as he’s been mashing the gravy out of the ball. After missing much of last year with shoulder problems, Pronk’s busted out for three homers (out of only seven fly balls, mind you) with an average standard distance of 414.3’. Yeah, he’s struck out a lot, but the power looks promising thus far.

Josh Johnson: Many were skeptical of Johnson’s health after only making 14 starts in ’08 due to Tommy John surgery the previous year, but he couldn’t have asked for a better start to ’09. In two starts Johnson has dominated (much like Bedard, a 1.56 FIP and a 15 K/BB ratio), but he has also gone well over 100 pitches in each of those starts. His fastball has averaged an extra 2.2 mph over his career mark, although he would benefit from reducing the speed of his change up, which has also seen a rise of 2.2 mph.

Chipper Jones This entry comes with a major caveat, as we all know what kind of a player Chipper is. When he is healthy, which he has been to start the year, he obliterates opposing pitchers. A .471 wOBA and a .250 ISO thus far can vouch for that. However, injuries of some sort are inevitable for Chipper, and for now it’s just a waiting game.

Ian Kinsler: He has had big injuries in each of the past couple seasons, but he’s started off healthy so far. Very healthy. I’m talking .513 wOBA and .450 ISO healthy. He has been hitting a healthy dose of fly balls, as well, which is a good recipe for success in Texas. The scary thing is that he still has room for improvement if he can temper his increased swing percentage on pitches out of the zone, which is up over 30% thus far.

Victor Martinez: Elbow problems derailed V-Mart’s 2008 season, but those issues seem to be behind him. He’s posted a .447 wOBA in seven games so far, and nearly a quarter of his batted balls have been line drives. Probably the best news, though, is that he will be playing mostly first base and batting DH this year. While playing catcher is not as big of a strain on one’s elbow, it does make for greater injury risk overall.

Carlos Quentin: Wrist injuries are particularly troubling for power hitters, and many were highly skeptical of Quentin’s prospects heading into this season. Those skeptics appeared to be right after Quentin’s slow start, but he has heated up significantly since the KC series. Even after just one hit in his first three games, he has managed to post a wOBA of .526 and an ISO of .542. His two-homer effort in Detroit looked particularly promising, as he did so in 30 degree and misty weather.

Troy Tulowitzki: Tulo was able to have a pretty good finish to his injury-plagued ’08 season, but there were still some concerns about him going forward. It looks like he will have no problem getting back to his stellar rookie season form with an early wOBA of .451 and an ISO of .500. And don’t be deterred by that average – he is only hitting .227, but he has an unbelievably unlucky BABIP of .133 (!) despite having a LD% of 22.2%.

Chase Utley: For someone who wasn’t even supposed to start the season with the team after an off-season hip surgery, I would take his 2009 start as a very promising sign. Sure, he has only hit one home run so far, but he also hasn’t really had a Spring Training. He is seeing the ball well – his O-Swing% is slightly below his career average, while his Contact% is slightly above career average – which should serve as a positive indication of what’s to come. And on one final and somewhat depressing note (especially for a Cardinals fan such as myself), I was hoping to include Chris Carpenter on this list after his phenomenal first start of the season. However, he was taken out after three innings of his second start because of a ribcage strain. We can only hope for the best, but Carp’s injury past doesn’t leave much room for optimism.Who on this list do you expect to continue their success for 2009? Who do you think will still suffer from injuries?