Our Weekly Roster Reports have taken a bit of a hiatus the past couple of weeks as I’ve been preparing my courses for this fall semester, but we are back and ready to provide you with some great insights as the MLB season enters this exciting final push!
This is also an interesting point in the season where managers and general managers may decide to “shut guys down” if the team is way out of the playoff hunt and/or if the player is not performing up to standard, potentially due to nagging injury.
Take for instance Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Spencer Strider. Coming off internal brace surgery and then a hamstring injury early in the season, we knew it was unlikely he’d be at 100% right away, especially after so much time off. But from mid-June to the end of July, he notched multiple nice starts in a row as he was working on getting his signature fastball velocity back. But his last three starts have been pretty tough, giving up 19 hits in 11.2 IP, including 7 homers.
While it is hard to say from an outsider’s point of view what the exact physical cause may be for the recent string of poor performances, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility to assume it could be reasonably attributable to a less-than-100% arm that is getting fatigued as the IP add up.
For players who are in similar situations to Strider (Boston’s Walker Buehler is comparable), don’t be surprised to see them placed on the 60 day in the coming weeks to help them get a jump start on rehab this winter.
RJ SPORTS ANALYTICS 