Hunter Harvey explains his various 2021 injuries

[Frobby]

Excepts from Roch’s interview:

The left oblique strain in spring training happened on one pitch to his first batter and cost him three months, with his season debut coming June 4. The lat strain happened on his final warmup toss in the bullpen in Houston. The triceps strain kept him off the mound after his fourth game with Norfolk on Sept. 1 and away from the Orioles since June 28.

***
The oblique:“The spring training thing, I’m about positive it had to do with a weight room thing. We tried a new core exercise, and then two days later, I blew my oblique out. So, it happened to be something that worked the oblique and I think it all adds up together, going from how I’ve never done that exercise to two days later I have a Grade 3 oblique strain.”

***

The lat, which happened on his last warm up pitch before he was supposed to enter a June game with the Astros:  

Harvey was supposed to enter the Astros game after that final warmup pitch, but instead slammed the ball in disgust and forced manager Brandon Hyde to rush another reliever and request that the umpiring crew stall.

“I don’t know where all it could have been coming from, but the more I think about it, coming back from the oblique stuff, I really pushed trying to throw the slider more,” Harvey said. “I was getting heavy on the slider stuff and I think just from not throwing it much in the spring to having the oblique and having three months off and coming back and trying something new with that slider, I think it just kind of aggravated it more than anything.

“I was throwing a slider in the bullpen when I felt that little grab in my armpit, and then kind of the same thing when I was coming back from the lat thing and the triceps started barking a little bit, it only really bothered me throwing the slider. So, I think just from pushing that slider so hard trying to make it work, because I think it will help my arsenal, I think I just wasn’t used to it. I hadn’t been throwing the slider for 10 or 12 years like I have the other stuff. So, I think it was just not being used to it.”

*** 

The triceps, in September (paragraphs reorganized): 

“I threw some live BPs in Florida,” Harvey said. “I threw one live BP down there and I was 94-97 (mph) on a back field, and then I threw a game in Charlotte and I was 96-99, so everything was feeling great. I threw another one in Charlotte and it (triceps) kind of came up. It wasn’t super painful, but it felt like something was kind of nagging a little bit.

“I went in and got it worked on just to try to see if we could get it out of there. I pitched with it and it kind of stayed, wouldn’t go away. My velo, I wouldn’t say it really dropped, but instead of being 96-99, I was 94-97, so it maybe affected it a little bit. And it wasn’t as much that the stuff was getting affected as I thought about it more and it’s like I would lose focus a little bit.”

“I was just throwing,” he said. “It was never anything super painful. I told them, ‘I can pitch with it. It doesn’t feel great, but I think I can pitch with it.’ I said, ‘I might not be pitching at 100 percent, but I think I can pitch at 90 percent.’ And when I told them that, they said, ‘No, it’s not worth it.’

“At that point, they were getting to those last three weeks and they pretty much got to the conclusion of, why even push it now, since we’re not in a playoff race or anything like that. It just kind of came out of nowhere, just like everything else in every other year.”

https://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2021/10/three-more-injuries-ruin-another-season-for-hunter-harvey.html

Sounds like a hot mess.  Lots of other stuff in the article about how Hunter is dealing with all the setbacks.  

[HowAboutThat]

A good coach never forces, only guides and suggests and monitors. 
I don’t remember whether Arietta was forced to throw a particular pitch or was denied the use of a pitch, but restrictive coaching was also a problem for him.

Its difficult to identify specific problems because a given pitcher has different needs, but stories like this indicate that there is no underlying philosophy of guidance: rather there is one of dogmatism and forcing square into round and “I know you better than you know you.”

In my field, even experienced colleagues tend to suffer from this odd arrogance, and I have often wondered if the coaching staff needs to change their concepts of how best to coach.

[Ohfan67]

Tony started another thread on the same topic (basically the same topic). I'm sure Harvey is relieved that his injuries and rehabilitation are not interfering with deer hunting season. Hopefully he wears a safety harness when he's in the deer stand. 

[Ohfan67]

1 minute ago, Philip said:

A good coach never forces, only guides and suggests and monitors. 
I don’t remember whether Arietta was forced to throw a particular pitch or was denied the use of a pitch, but restrictive coaching was also a problem for him.

Its difficult to identify specific problems because a given pitcher has different needs, but stories like this indicate that there is no underlying philosophy of guidance: rather there is one of dogmatism and forcing square into round and “I know you better than you know you.”

In my field, even experienced colleagues tend to suffer from this odd arrogance, and I have often wondered if the coaching staff needs to change their concepts of how best to coach.

Where is there any indication in that interview that Harvey was forced to throw a pitch? And the pitch in question was a slider, not a split-fingered fastball or screwball or some other pitch often associated with injuries. Harvey has been hurt almost every year since 2014. Harvey was hurt before and after Elias became GM/VP. The regime changed. The pitching coaches have changed. Harvey getting injured, unfortunately, has not changed. 

[HowAboutThat]

15 minutes ago, Ohfan67 said:

Where is there any indication in that interview that Harvey was forced to throw a pitch? And the pitch in question was a slider, not a split-fingered fastball or screwball or some other pitch often associated with injuries. Harvey has been hurt almost every year since 2014. Harvey was hurt before and after Elias became GM/VP. The regime changed. The pitching coaches have changed. Harvey getting injured, unfortunately, has not changed. 

I’m sorry I wasn’t clear I wasn’t, or at least I did not intend to suggest that he was forced to throw a pitch or not, that was in reference to Arrieta. Rather I was talking about being coached to do some thing that wasn’t necessarily good for him.

Instead of a coach saying, this is my regimen we will now do it, the coach should say, what do you need, let’s figure out a way to give you what you need.

Harvey’s comments indicate a disconnect between what he needed and what he was given.

[Ruzious]

21 minutes ago, Philip said:

A good coach never forces, only guides and suggests and monitors. 
I don’t remember whether Arietta was forced to throw a particular pitch or was denied the use of a pitch, but restrictive coaching was also a problem for him.

Its difficult to identify specific problems because a given pitcher has different needs, but stories like this indicate that there is no underlying philosophy of guidance: rather there is one of dogmatism and forcing square into round and “I know you better than you know you.”

In my field, even experienced colleagues tend to suffer from this odd arrogance, and I have often wondered if the coaching staff needs to change their concepts of how best to coach.

I mean... your general observation might make some sense, but it seems you're jumping to conclusions about the Orioles' situation.  Comparing Arietta's situation to Harvey's doesn't make any sense to me.  

[Frobby]

27 minutes ago, Ohfan67 said:

Tony started another thread on the same topic (basically the same topic). I'm sure Harvey is relieved that his injuries and rehabilitation are not interfering with deer hunting season. Hopefully he wears a safety harness when he's in the deer stand. 

Yeah, Tony posted his thread while I was in the middle of writing mine so I didn’t see his until after I’d posted mine.   They both refer to the same article, but Tony was making a specific point about one of the injuries where mine was a broader discussion of how all the injuries arose, so I decided to leave mine separate.   Happy to have them merged if Tony prefers.   

[HowAboutThat]

25 minutes ago, Ohfan67 said:

Where is there any indication in that interview that Harvey was forced to throw a pitch? And the pitch in question was a slider, not a split-fingered fastball or screwball or some other pitch often associated with injuries. Harvey has been hurt almost every year since 2014. Harvey was hurt before and after Elias became GM/VP. The regime changed. The pitching coaches have changed. Harvey getting injured, unfortunately, has not changed. 

I just reread Harveys comments, and I misunderstood one thing he said which was that he was pushing himself to throw the slider as opposed to being pushed to throw the slider, so I inferred incorrectly.

My comments about type of coaching needed remain valid, but they don’t necessarily apply to this specific instance.

[HowAboutThat]

14 minutes ago, Ruzious said:

I mean... your general observation might make some sense, but it seems you're jumping to conclusions about the Orioles' situation.  Comparing Arietta's situation to Harvey's doesn't make any sense to me.  

You are correct. I misread one of Harvey’s comments.

[bobmc]

1 hour ago, Ohfan67 said:

Tony started another thread on the same topic (basically the same topic). I'm sure Harvey is relieved that his injuries and rehabilitation are not interfering with deer hunting season. Hopefully he wears a safety harness when he's in the deer stand. 

As this gentleman thankfully did .....

[Ruzious]

6 minutes ago, bobmc said:

As this gentleman thankfully did .....

Otherwise, that'd leave a mark.  What's he doing up there - trimming the branches?  trying to save a cat?  

[Ruzious]

Probably trying to get a good angle to videotape Hunter Harvey's mechanics.  

[bobmc]

2 hours ago, Ruzious said:

Probably trying to get a good angle to videotape Hunter Harvey's mechanics.  

Rays scout getting a leg up for when we release him.    His leg got tangled up however.

[Just Regular]

So...what is trend today for ongoing 40-man roster spot possession this offseason?

Only completely guessing of course, but imagine the root of that regimen was maybe something like, "your release point wobbles all over the place, which makes it harder to keep your fastball and curveball in the same tunnel and confuse batters, and more core strength might help with that".

Or however Elias' hirelings would try to sell Hunter Harvey on yoga.

Maybe Jake Arrieta could make a promotional Pilates video for the club, or take a tough bargaining position and only offer Sarasota in-person testimonials.

Growth mindset isn't as much fun as a quadraphonic blaupunkt.