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Injuries happen


Frobby

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Tampa 2011

Lobaton 43

Jaso 33

Longoria 26

Ruggiano 20

Cobb 50

Niemann 40

Davis 10

Howell 44

Cruz 14

Totals - Offense 123, Starters 100, Relievers 58

That is ridiculously low, especially when you look at who got hurt. Lobaton and Cobb are not exactly key cogs in the Tampa machine. Second year in a row that Tampa has had a ridiculously low number of injuries.

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Toronto 2011

R. Davis 58

Tallet 32

Lind 24

Nix 22

Rasmus 21

Hill 16

Litsch 53

Villanueva 26

Morrow 19

Rauch 37

Janssen 28

Francisco 17

Total - Offense 173, Starting Pitchers 98, Relievers 82

I did not include Dustin McGowan, who hadn't pitched since 2008, but technically was on the 60-day DL for 141 games this year.

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Summary of AL East injuries in 2011:

Red Sox 804 days lost (202/245/357 for offense, starting pitching, bullpen); Daiskuke Matsusaka 121 days, Booby Jenks 115 days, Rich Hill 106 days, Clay Buchholz 94 days, Junichi Tazawa 77 days, J.D. Drew 63 days

Yankees 650 days lost (218/110/328); Joba Chamberlain 103 days, Phil Hughes 74 days, Sergio Mitre 72 days, Eric Chavez 71 days, Rafael Soriano 68 days, Jeff Marquez 56 days

Orioles 569 days lost (396/126/47); Cesar Izturis 123 days, Brian Roberts 122 days, Luke Scott 80 days, Jake Arrieta 57 days, Brian Matusz 54 days

Blue Jays 353 days lost (173/98/82); Rajai Davis 58 days, Jesse Litsch 53 days

Rays 271 days lost (123/100/58); Alex Cobb 50 days

For the second year in a row, the Red Sox got hit by far the hardest with injuries, and the Rays easily got off lightest. Over the last two years, the Sox have lost 1581 days to injuries, Tampa has lost 481. That is enormous. So is it just luck? Or is the fact that Tampa is the youngest team in the division make them less injury prone?

The Orioles were in the middle of the pack, but their offense got hit the hardest, even if you discount Izturis. The Orioles' pitching wasn't hit that hard, which makes their performance all the more inexcusable.

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All teams have injuries, as you've pointed out. Good teams overcome them. Teams with little talent and no depth do not.

I don't disagree with what you are saying here, but I think the results show that injuries can have a major impact on a team's season. I'm not feeling a lot of sympathy for Boston, but I think it's pretty clear that if their injury history and Tampa's were reversed the last two seasons, it would be Tampa on the outside looking in. As to the Orioles, I think it's pretty clear they would have had a losing record in 2011 even if they had much better luck with injuries.

If you look at the three times Tampa has made the playoffs:

2008 - Tampa's top 5 starters made 153 starts

2010 - Tampa's top 5 starters made 154 starts

2011 - Tampa's top 5 starters made 148 starts

They weren't bad in 2009 either; their top 5 made 138 starts, and the only reason they didn't make more is that Kazmir got traded in August.

That is an incredible run of good fortune with the starting pitchers' health. The fact that the staff is extremely young probably helps to minimize injuries.

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For the second year in a row, the Red Sox got hit by far the hardest with injuries, and the Rays easily got off lightest. Over the last two years, the Sox have lost 1581 days to injuries, Tampa has lost 481. That is enormous. So is it just luck? Or is the fact that Tampa is the youngest team in the division make them less injury prone?

Back when Will Carroll did the injury stuff for BP, he'd do an annual end-of-the-year award for MLB medical/training staff, and Tampa always got very high marks.

Tampa's success is probably a combination of luck, training staff skills, and maybe some ability to identify players who're less injury prone.

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Back when Will Carroll did the injury stuff for BP, he'd do an annual end-of-the-year award for MLB medical/training staff, and Tampa always got very high marks.

Tampa's success is probably a combination of luck, training staff skills, and maybe some ability to identify players who're less injury prone.

I've done the math. This is worth, roughly, 22.235 trillion dollars.

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Back when Will Carroll did the injury stuff for BP, he'd do an annual end-of-the-year award for MLB medical/training staff, and Tampa always got very high marks.

Tampa's success is probably a combination of luck, training staff skills, and maybe some ability to identify players who're less injury prone.

At this point you at least have to look at what TB is doing and see if there is anything there you can duplicate, on the pitching side especially. They got 91% of their starts from 5 guys (last year they got 95%), compared to 78% for Boston. We got 69% this year, though a large part of that stat for us was ineffectiveness, not injury.

The guy to watch is going to be Shields. He now has 5 straight 200+ inning seasons and is coming up on the first of three team options at reasonable rates. He will be 30 in 2012. Do they trade him, and whether or not they do, does he remain healthy? I think both of these questions may say a lot about what they're doing in Tampa in terms of whether what they're doing is injury prevention or injury risk avoidance.

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  • 7 months later...

This seems like a good time to look at the injuries suffered in the AL East so far this year:

Baltimore

Roberts, Britton, Wada*, Teagarden have missed 54 games

Reimold has missed 31 games

Chavez missed 19 games

Reynolds missed 16 games

Lindstrom has missed 22 games

Pomeranz has missed 8 games

Markakis has missed 4 games

Total - 178 position players, 108 starters (incl. Wada), 30 relievers = 316 games missed

Boston

Matsusaka, Lackey, Bailey, Jenks, Carpenter, Crawford and Kalish have missed 54 games

Hill missed 19 games

Ellsbury has missed 47 games

Repko has missed 41 games

Youkilis missed 22 games

Miller missed 26 games

Cook has missed 28 games

McDonald has missed 22 games

Sweeney missed 7 games (concussion DL)

Ross has missed 15 games

Total - 262 position players, 108 starters, 235 relievers = 605 games missed

New York

Pineda, Chamberlain, Aardsma, Romine, Meyers* and Cabral* have missed 53 games

Gardner has missed 43 games

Chavez missed 7 games (concussion DL)

Rivera has missed 32 games

Robertson has missed 22 games

Total - 103 position players, 106 starters (including Meyers), 213 relievers (including Cabral) = 422 games missed

Tampa

Farnsworth, Fuld and Chirinos have missed 54 games

Upton missed 13 games

Longoria has missed 31 games

Allen has missed 23 games

Jennings has missed 21 games

Niemann has missed 18 games

Guyer has missed 20 games

Keppinger has missed 14 games

Lobaton missed 42 games

Total - 264 position players, 18 starters, 54 relievers = 336 games missed

Toronto

McGowan, Litsch and Farina* have missed 54 games

Santos has missed 41 games

Francisco has missed 12 games

Total - 12 position players, 108 starters, 95 relievers (including Farina) = 215 games missed

Players marked with an * are on the major league DL but have never played a game in the major leagues.

Obviously, not all injured players are equal, and you could debate which team has been hit hardest with injuries despite the numbers. What seems clear, though, is that the Orioles are hardly unique with the number of injuries they've suffered. 4 of the 5 AL East teams have taken their lumps, while Toronto has been pretty lucky to date.

Edited by Frobby
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Yet another case of Frobby thinking about something and then doing his homework... it's the incarnation of Bill James spirit on the homefront... thanks for all that...

ps: You're the one doing all the work, so I don't wanna push this much... but I think The Rickster has a point about adjusting the SP's numbers somehow... saying BOS lost more than 250 SP-games in one season is kinda weird despite knowing how you got it...

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I'd argue in terms of impact players missing time:

Orioles: Markakis, Reimold, Roberts, Wada, Britton, Reynolds = 6

Red Sox: Matsusaka, Bailey, Crawford, Ellsbury, Youkilis = 5

Yankees: Pineda, Chamberlain, Gardner, Rivera, Robertson = 5

Tampa: Longoria, Farnsworth, Jennings, Niemann, Fukd = 5

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I'd argue in terms of impact players missing time:

Orioles: Markakis, Reimold, Roberts, Wada, Britton, Reynolds = 6

Red Sox: Matsusaka, Bailey, Crawford, Ellsbury, Youkilis = 5

Yankees: Pineda, Chamberlain, Gardner, Rivera, Robertson = 5

Tampa: Longoria, Farnsworth, Jennings, Niemann, Fukd = 5

You can't really lump Wada in with the rest of the players listed. He is a complete unknown and he could have completely crapped the bed.

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Yet another case of Frobby thinking about something and then doing his homework... it's the incarnation of Bill James spirit on the homefront... thanks for all that...

ps: You're the one doing all the work, so I don't wanna push this much... but I think The Rickster has a point about adjusting the SP's numbers somehow... saying BOS lost more than 250 SP-games in one season is kinda weird despite knowing how you got it...

The reason I break it down between the position players, starters and relievers is so that people can decide for themselves how they want to weigh it. My personal view is that having a starting pitcher out for 54 games is just as important as having a position player out that long (sometimes, more important), even if the starting pitcher might only have made 10-11 starts in that amount of time.

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