Effectively Wild Episode 2491: How Not to Get Hurt
6/13/20262 hr 19 min
Tarik Skubal is the latest athlete to return to play faster than anticipated thanks to a new surgical technique or technology. But there’s something even better than coming back more quickly from an injury: avoiding an injury in the first place. Can injury prevention be improved as much as injury treatment? In this themed episode, Ben Lindbergh talks to four guests about three potential ways to keep players healthy. First (5:14), Mariners biomechanist Cedric Attias joins to discuss how pitching mechanics affect elbow stress, whether injuries stem more from nature or nurture, and whether MLB teams are prioritizing injury research. Second (49:23), Daryl and Adam Moreau, the father-and-son inventors of FlexProGrip, explain how forearm weakness endangers the UCL, how they designed and validated their training tool, and how the device has been adopted in the game. Third (1:41:18), Steve Rowson, director of the Helmet Lab at Virginia Tech, shares how helmets have improved across sports, why dangerous impacts are different in football and baseball, and why catcher’s masks may need an overhaul to minimize concussions.
Audio intro: Ian Phillips, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio interstitial 1: Luke Lillard, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio interstitial 2: Xavier LeBlanc, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Grant Brisbee, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Link to NanoNeedle AP piece
Link to NanoNeedle Athletic piece
Link to Ben on protecting pitchers
Link to Ben on pitcher roster limits
Link to McGregor/ElAttrache article
Link to MLB/ElAttrache article
Link to article on Altuve’s return
Link to article on Alvarez’s return
Link to internal brace info
Link to article on Tatum’s return
Link to article on Mahomes’s return
Link to article on Kittle’s return
Link to summary of Cedric’s research
Link to Cedric’s research paper
Link to other research on lower arm slots
Link to pulldowns explainer
Link to Ben on team secrets
Link to Rieekan quote
Link to lower-arm-slots trend
Link to video clip about the trend
Link to Crizer on arm slots
Link to Misiorowski game
Link to FlexProGrip site
Link to FlexProGrip article 1
Link to FlexProGrip article 2
Link to FlexProGrip article 3
Link to FlexProGrip article 4
Link to FlexProGrip white papers
Link to Driveline research
Link to The Layback Podcast
Link to The Island of Doctor Moreau
Link to Edward Scissorhands
Link to Helmet Lab concussions research
Link to helmet ratings site
Link to Rowson’s faculty page
Link to CNN Helmet Lab story
Link to Ben on catcher concussions
Link to Carlin baseball vs. football bit
Link to risk compensation wiki
Link to Helmet Lab testing footage
Link to Marvin the Martian wiki
Link to Great Gazoo wiki
Link to Dark Helmet wiki
Link to Torres protective cap article 1
Link to Torres protective cap article 2
Link to Torres cap footage
Link to pitcher cap inserts info 1
Link to pitcher cap inserts info 2
Link to pitcher cap inserts info 3
Link to softball pitcher mask article
Link to softball fielder mask article
Link to softball fielder mask research
Link to The Athletic on catcher nut shots
Link to SIS on catcher nut shots
Link to Knoxville incident
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 0· Soundbite0:00
Gimme, gimme, gimme Effectively Wild. Gimme, gimme, gimme Effectively Wild. Gimme, gimme, gimme Effectively Wild. This is Effectively Wild.
Ben Lindbergh· Host0:08
Hello, and welcome to episode 2491 of Effectively Wild, the baseball podcast from FanGraphs, presented by our Patreon supporters. I am Ben Lindbergh of The Ringer, not joined today by Meg Rowley of FanGraphs. She has the episode off, which means, of course, that I will be devoting this episode to an in-depth, comprehensive, exhaustive College World Series preview. Yes, this is the college baseball blowout you've been waiting for. No. No, it's not. I'm not doing that. I'm not mocking it, it's just not quite my baseball beat. However, we will be talking about a blowout of sorts, the elbow variety. This episode of Effectively Wild is about how not to get hurt, not emotionally, but physically, and in some specific baseball-centric ways. So this weekend, Saturday to be precise, Tarik Skubal is returning to the mound for the Detroit Tigers, where he will attempt to pitch the Tigers back to contention and simultaneously audition for other potential employers. And as we've discussed, Skubal was something of a test subject by big league standards. He underwent a procedure to remove loose bodies, or as we learned, a loose body that had chipped off of Skubal's elbow, and he underwent this procedure on May 6th, 38 days before he will be returning to the mound, which is incredible, because his return was expected to take two to three months, or it would have been had he had the regular arthroscopic procedure. Instead, he was treated with the Nano Needle scope 2.0,