Tommy John手術的解決之道

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EVERY PITCHER no matter his age, generates enough force on each pitch to
rupture the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow. It's a scary thought, for
sure, but also an easy one to forget in the idyllic, emerald-grass setting
that is Viera, Fla. Though Washington Nationals spring training has only just
begun, a healthy crowd has turned out to watch fireballer Stephen Strasburg
throw today's bullpen. It's been 18 months since the Nationals star underwent
Tommy John surgery -- the reconstruction of that oh-so-delicate UCL -- at the
age of 22; note the four-inch scar on the inside of his right elbow.
Strasburg, who's known for touching 100 mph, doesn't disappoint. The fans,
with their noses pressed through the chain-link fence, are thrilled. The
Nationals, with their $15 million starter back on the mound after a year on
the disabled list, couldn't be happier. He looks exactly the same as he did
before his elbow blew up.

所有的投手，不管年紀大小，都能使出足夠的力量弄斷自己的手肘韌帶。這想來很可怕，
但在綠草如茵的佛州球場上卻也很容易被忘記。國民的春訓才剛開始，但已有不少觀眾
要來看小史的牛棚練投。自他手術以來已經過了18個月 - 來重建那超~脆弱的韌帶 -
在22歲那年。這在她他右手肘內側留下一道4吋的傷疤。能噴出100mph的小史沒讓大家失
望。緊貼著護欄的球迷也高潮了。看到投資了15M的小史成功歸隊，國民比誰都更加高興
。他看起來就像受傷前一樣。


And therein lies the problem.

但這就是問題所在。


Thirty-seven baseball seasons have passed since orthopedic surgeon Frank Jobe
performed the first UCL reconstruction on Dodgers southpaw Tommy John, whose
name would become synonymous with the procedure. At the time, John was 31
years old with 124 wins and 11 seasons under his belt. He never threw heat
like Strasburg, instead relying on a bottom-out sinker that forced ground
balls. But the two pitchers -- as well as many others who have undergone UCL
reconstruction -- have one thing in common: a mechanical flaw in the timing
of their deliveries that causes the arm to lag behind the rest of the body,
putting extra stress on the shoulder and elbow.

自Frank Jobe幫Tommy John動手術以來已經過了37個球季。當年，John是31歲已經投了
11季拿下124勝的投手。他不像小史一樣火，而是靠伸卡來製造滾地球。但這兩人 -
和其他動韌帶重建手術的投手 - 有一點相同: 在投球時出手時間差的問題使手臂落在
身體之後，讓肩膀和手肘承受更多壓力。


John wasn't told any of that in 1974, but he did learn the UCL connects the
ulna in the forearm to the humerus in the upper arm and acts as the elbow's
primary stabilizer. He also knew from fellow Dodger Sandy Koufax, who had
retired in 1966 at age 30 after a short but brilliant career, that a damaged
UCL meant you were done. What Jobe proposed to John sounded both crazy and
simple: replacing his torn left UCL with a tendon graft from his right wrist.
Though the physician gave him only a one-in-100 chance of returning to
baseball, John liked the slim odds better than the idea of working at his
buddy's car dealership back home in Terre Haute, Ind. So the surgeon sliced
through the muscle on the inside of the pitcher's left elbow to expose his
shredded UCL, drilled holes in the ulna and humerus and threaded the graft
from John's opposite wrist through them in a figure-8 pattern. Then he
sutured the remnants of John's original UCL to the graft for added strength,
whispered a few words of encouragement and closed up.

John在1974時不知道這些。但他知道UCL連結前臂的尺骨到上臂的肱骨並且是手肘的主要
穩定者。他也從前輩Koufax短暫的生涯中了解到，UCL受傷代表生涯終結。Jobe向John提
出的方案挺起來簡單又瘋狂: 把他左手肘的UCL用右手腕的肌腱替換掉。雖然醫師只開給
他百分之一重回球界的機率，但他喜歡這個機率多過在他朋友的售車中心工作。所以醫生
把他的左手肘切開，露出受傷的韌帶在尺骨和肱骨上打洞，然後用新肌腱以八字形方式穿
過。接著他縫合John剩餘的UCL到肌腱上來增加強度，說上幾句鼓勵的話然後縫合。


Eighteen months later, John defied the odds and returned to baseball. Jobe's
procedure soon proved so successful that it became the norm. Today, about 50
active major league pitchers have undergone Tommy John surgery -- around one
in seven.

18個月後，John戰勝機率重回球場。Jobe的手術成功到成了例行公事。今天，約有50位
現役大聯盟投手動過TJ手術 - 七分之一的比例。


Despite the inevitable yearlong stint on the DL that rehab from the surgery
requires, teams and pitchers seem to barely flinch at the diagnosis of a
compromised UCL. "It's become an accepted side effect of the job," says
George Paletta, the Cardinals' head team physician and orthopedic surgeon.
That's because the surgery works; 92 percent of elite pitchers with
reconstructed UCLs return to their prior level of competition for at least a
year.

儘管有一年無法避免的復健期，球隊和球員似乎不太害怕聽到UCL受傷的診斷。
"這成了工作時可接受的副作用" 紅雀隊醫George Paletta表示。這是因為手術有效 -
92%的優秀投手回到受傷前的狀態至少一年。


As miraculous as that sounds, it masks a loaded situation. To understand the
epidemic of UCL injuries, The Mag interviewed dozens of biomechanics experts,
pitching coaches, coaches for hire, pitchers and front office personnel.
(Only a handful of major league pitching coaches accepted our interview
requests.) The picture that emerges is of baseball at war with itself over
the health of its arms. In one corner stands a cottage industry of scientists
and biomechanics-promoting coaches who study motion for a living and have
determined, through high-speed video analysis, that the sport's ignorance of
arm-saving science is a shameful oversight. In the other is major league
baseball, which, with rare and fleeting exceptions, clings to a deep-rooted
tradition: If it ain't broke -- or can be fixed after a year on the DL --
don't fix it.

雖然聽起來如此神奇，但它模糊了一個重點。為了瞭解UCL受傷的流行，ESPN雜誌訪問了
數位生物力學專家、投手教練、投手、和制服組成員。 (只有少數大聯盟投教接受訪問)
結果顯示了棒球和手臂健康間的戰爭。一邊是一群科學家和科學化的教練，以高速攝影機
，分析出球界對手臂健康科學的忽視。另一邊則是奉行傳統的大聯盟 - 如果它還沒壞掉
--- 或是可以用一年的DL來修補 --- 那就不要動它。


"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting different results." -- multiple biomechanics experts interviewed
for this story

"瘋狂的定義就是重複做同樣的事情卻期待不同的結果" - 數位受訪的生物力學家


To throw a baseball properly, a pitcher must get into the right position at
the right time with the right succession of movements, like dominoes falling.
Disruptions in this kinetic chain, as experts call it, cause problems at the
weakest link, most often the elbow or shoulder.

要適當投出球，投手必須要連續在對的時間做出對的動作，像骨牌倒塌一樣。當連續
動作被打亂，就會在最脆弱的連結產生問題，常常是在手肘或是肩膀。


Problems usually begin below the waist. The most telling moment in a
pitcher's delivery, for instance, is the foot strike. When the foot makes
contact with the mound, the pitching arm must be up and ready to throw. A
righthanded pitcher should be showing the baseball to the shortstop, a lefty
to the second baseman. (Among active hurlers, Cliff Lee is a good example.)
But if a pitcher's elbows come higher than his wrists and shoulders, with the
ball pointing down, he's demonstrating an "inverted W" -- a sign that his
sequence is off and he's fighting his own body. Such poor timing leads to arm
lag, evident when the throwing elbow trails the shoulder once the shoulders
square to home plate. Strasburg exhibits both problems, forcing him and
others like him to rely more on the arm's relatively small muscles instead of
the more massive ones in the legs and torso. Throw after throw, the shoulder
and elbow are under extra stress. The higher the pitch's velocity and the
worse the flaw, the more the arm suffers. And the more a pitcher throws, the
worse it gets.

問題通常發生在腰部以下。舉例來說，最顯著的時機，是在跨步。當腳接觸到地面時，
手臂就要抬高並準備好要出手。右投手要將球面向游擊手，左投則面向二壘手。
但如果投手的手肘高於肩膀和手腕時，就是所謂的"倒W"，這就是一個順序錯亂的訊號。
這樣不佳的時間掌握使手臂落在肩膀之後。小使這兩個問題都有，使他和其他類似的投手
要更加依賴手臂的小肌肉而非腿和身體的大肌肉。長此以往，肩膀和手肘要承受更多的
壓力。球速愈快或缺陷愈大，則手臂承受的壓力愈多。而投得愈多，情況愈糟。


Arm lag and improper sequencing were likely to blame for Strasburg's UCL
tear, as well as for those of almost everyone else knocked out by the injury.
"The timing is subtle," says the American Sports Medicine Institute's Glenn
Fleisig, who has analyzed more than 2,000 pitchers and is one of the world's
foremost authorities on pitching biomechanics. "It's the difference between
good and great and healthy and injury-waiting-to-happen."

手臂延遲和不良的時間掌握很可能是小史和其他手肘受傷的投手的原因。"timimg是關鍵"
研究超過兩千位投手的投球力學權威Glenn Fleisig表示。 "這是健康和未爆彈的差別"


Strasburg was probably in trouble from the get-go. He didn't rupture his UCL
on one pitch with the Nationals -- even if a pitcher feels a pop on a
particular pitch, his UCL was anything but pristine before the incident. Like
a rope, Strasburg's UCL probably started to fray the moment he began pitching
off a mound, the extra height of which can compound the stress of each pitch.
It likely got worse not only because of his mechanics. Kids who throw the
hardest pitch the most: They get hitters out. Famed orthopedic surgeon James
Andrews, who founded ASMI in 1987, says he has seen a five- to sevenfold
increase in high schoolers requiring UCL reconstruction since 2000.

小史也許一開始就惹上麻煩了。他並不是在國民時投的某一球弄換了他的UCL -- 即使
投手感覺某球讓手臂發生了什麼事，他的UCL其實和事件發生前一樣。就像一條繩子一般
，小史的UCL也許在他上丘投球時就開始受損了，投手丘的高度加重了投球的壓力。使情
況惡化的不只是投球機制。愈快的小孩投得愈多。知名外科醫生James Andrews表示，他
觀察到從2000來動手術的高中生約有5-7倍的增加。


"The No. 1 risk factor for UCL injuries is poor mechanics," he says. "The No.
2 factor is overuse. And if you overuse with poor mechanics, you're doomed."

"一號原因是不良的機制" 他說 "二號原因則是過度使用。而當你動作不良又過度使用時，
那就掰了"


God-given genetic superiority and freakish athletic ability often help those
with less-than-ideal pitching mechanics make it to the majors, which is why
you will find shockingly few exemplars of pitching mechanics on Sunday Night
Baseball. "Everyone knows smoking is bad for you, yet people still smoke,"
says Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild. "It's the same with pitching.
I've seen guys who don't have great mechanics pitch for a long time. The body
adjusts."

天分常常會幫助那些動作不太優良的投手上到大聯盟，這是為什麼在周日晚間棒球中很少
看到模範機制。 "大家都知道抽菸不好，但人們還是一抽再抽" 洋基投教
Larry Rothschild說 "投球也是一樣。我看過機制不好的投手有長久的生涯。身體會適應"


Until it doesn't.

直到沒辦法為止


"You have to be open-minded. Closed minds don't make progress." -- Rangers
president Nolan Ryan

"你必須要保持開闊的心胸。保守的思想不會造成進步" - Nolan Ryan


To anybody involved with the biomechanical analysis of pitching, it's
difficult to imagine a world without it. To anybody even half interested in
baseball, it's also difficult to understand why it's not more accepted at the
sport's highest levels.

對研究投球生物力學的人來說，很難想像一個沒有生物力學存在的世界。而對棒球有些
興趣的球迷來說，也很難理解為什麼這些研究沒在最高殿堂更被廣泛接受。


For more than a hundred years, pitching mechanics have been evaluated at 32
frames per second -- the best the human eye provides. A pitcher's delivery,
from first movement to ball release, can take as little as 1.4 seconds. In
that tiny window, coaches, scouts and fathers try to assess dozens of
variables, such as "hip and shoulder separation" and "pitching arm external
and internal rotation." It's a tall order, if not an impossible one. "What
the eyes see and what actually takes place are two different things," says
Tom House, a former big-leaguer-turned-pitching-coach who now heads the Rod
Dedeaux Research and Baseball Institute at the University of Southern
California. "You see reality when you see what happens at 1,000 frames per
second. It's a humbling experience."

一百多年來，投球機制一直被以每秒32格的解析度來分析 - 最佳的目測。投手從啟動
到出手的時間可以短到只有1.4秒。在這麼短的時間內，球探和老爸們試著要評估許多
變因，像是"腰轉"和"手臂內外旋轉"。這幾乎是不可能的任務。"眼見不一定為憑"
知名投教Tom House表示 "在每秒1000格你看見事實。這是讓人謙卑的經驗。"


The baseball community that makes a living off analyzing that reality is a
quirky lot. Some are mechanical or biomedical engineers, like Fleisig. Some
are retired pro pitchers, like House and Cy Young winner Mike Marshall, who
has a Ph.D. in exercise physiology. Some are kinesiologists. Some are even
self-taught, like coach-for-hire Alan Jaeger, who helps clients "merge the
mechanics of the Western athlete with the insight of the Far Eastern mind."
Their approaches vary, but they all believe that by addressing a pitcher's
biomechanics and physics, they can improve performance and decrease injury.
Not that they always agree. For example, Marshall advocates an ultrahigh arm
slot. Jaeger is an advocate of long toss to build arm strength and stretches
pitchers out as far as 380 feet. They find each other's untraditional
approaches controversial and often fail to present a completely united front.
While the small particulars they disagree on nearly bring them to fisticuffs,
all agree that any flaw that disrupts the timing of a pitcher's kinematic
sequence is problematic.

研究(投球機制)的是群奇怪的組成。有西式生醫工程師，例如Fleisig。有些是退休職業
投手，向House和前賽揚得主Mike Marshall，後者有運動醫學博士學位。有些是人體動力
學家。有些甚至是自學，像教導學員"融合西方體能和東方神秘力量(?)"的Alan Jaeger
教練。方式各異，但都相信藉由調整投手的機制可以達到提升表現和降低傷病的目標。
他們意見不一定一致。舉例來說，Marshall提倡超高出手點，Jaeger提倡長傳來建立手臂
強度，距離可長達380呎。他們發現各自的非傳統建議互相衝突而無法達成一致的共識。
雖然這些爭議點讓他們差點大打出手，他們都同意干涉timing的缺陷是個問題。


Collectively, their research can be as persuasive as it is cutting edge. A
total of 2,000 pitchers -- including six future Cy Young winners -- have
visited Andrews and Fleisig at ASMI's lab. Using a camera-and-computer system
that three-dimensionally tracks data from reflective markers affixed to a
pitcher's body as he throws, ASMI takes 41 measurements; think of it as an
MRI of the pitching delivery. Afterward, Fleisig compiles a detailed report
called a Biomechanics Evaluation about the pitcher that diagnoses problems
with annotated video stills and recommends solutions. "When pitchers are
young, they're receptive and willing to fix problem areas," says Reds minor
league pitching coordinator Mark Riggins, who made several trips to ASMI
while working with the Cubs. Crucially, the packet compares the pitcher to
the exemplars in ASMI's database who threw the hardest without injury.

總的來說，他們的研究既有說服力又走在尖端。2000位投手 - 包括六位後來的賽揚得主
- 曾來到Andrews和Fleisig的ASMI實驗室。用3D攝影/電腦系統，ASMI從每位投手身上取
41個測量數據。把它想像成是台投球動作的MRI吧。之後，Fleisig整理出一份詳細的投手
分析報告，上附檢測出的問題和建議解決方式。"當投手年輕時，他們會願意改進問題"
紅人小聯盟投球指導Mark Riggins表示。他在小熊工作時曾數次來到ASMI。最重要的，
報告會進行投手和ASMI數據庫中的模範健康火球投手的比較。


And yet despite the stature of Andrews and Fleisig, only about one-tenth of
ASMI's clients played pro ball at any level. When pros do visit, they often
find the screening advantageous. Braves pitcher Tim Hudson spent the early
part of his career in Oakland, where pitching coach Rick Peterson, a
biomechanics guru, took him to ASMI for mapping. "I think it's a great test,"
says Hudson. "You can do it when you're pitching really well, and then, if
you struggle or have pain" -- Hudson himself later had Tommy John surgery,
from overuse -- "do it again. Instead of trying to eyeball it with regular
video, you can actually use the science to compare the two." Fleisig also
recalls CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee visiting in the early 2000s as promising
young Cleveland Indians; he's mum on the details, but they soon became two of
baseball's most dominant pitchers.

但即使是Andrews和Fleisig這般的聲望，只有十分之一的客戶是職業選手。當職業選手
拜訪時，他們常常發現這樣的檢測很有幫助。Tim Hudson早年在運動家隊時，投教Rick
Peterson就帶他前往ASMI。"我想這是很好的測試" "你可以在投得很好的時候來做，然後
當低潮或受傷時" -- Hudson後來因過度使用動TJ手術 -- "再做一次。和看一般的影片相
比，這裡可以使用科學來比較"。Fleisig回憶起當年CC Sabathia和Cliff Lee還是印地安
人新銳時也曾到過這裡。他沒透露細節，但後來這兩人成了球界中最好的投手。


Such an analysis reveals, for example, an issue late in the delivery -- such
as a tilted head position -- that biomechanics-minded coaches address much
earlier in the pitching motion, just as an engineer would need to right a
listing skyscraper at its foundation rather than at the 15th floor. The
pitching coach also creates a full program of mechanical drills tailored to
correct nearly all woes, even a habit like arm lag. "With an approach that
includes strength training and mechanics, there's not much you can't fix,"
says independent pitching coach and former scout Paul Reddick.

這樣的分析讓生物力學系統的教練可及早修正投球機制上的問題，就像工程師居要在地基
就排好摩天大樓的骨架而不是到15樓才排。投手教練也可建立一套可以調整幾乎所有缺陷
的訓練系統，包括向手臂延遲這樣的習慣。 "當融合了重訓和投球機制，幾乎沒有不能修
改的部分" 獨立投教Paul Reddick說。


"I'm not going to let new-school ways get in the way of my old-school
thinking. I don't need biomechanics. I have experience. I have my eyes. I
just watch and look." -- White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper

"我不會讓新方式干擾我的舊思維。我不需要生物力學。我有經驗。我有眼睛。我只需要
看和觀察" - 白襪投教Don Cooper


Baseball, it's been said, is the only thing besides the paper clip that
hasn't changed. And in the case of MLB pitching mechanics, the status quo is
stickier than pine tar. Whether you're a pitcher, scout, coach or GM, the
goal is to keep your job and win baseball games -- not shift paradigms.

有人說，棒球是唯一除了迴紋針之外沒有改變過的東西。而在大聯盟的投球機制中，
現狀比松焦油還黏。不管你是投手、球探、教練或GM，目標就是保住工作和贏球 --
不是改變範例。


Take major league pitching coaches. They're paid to get outs. They spend
hours looking at pitch charts, spray charts and video of opposing hitters.
They develop a plan of attack for each batter and help their pitchers execute
that game plan. They work with trainers on a throwing program, preside over
bullpen sessions and manage workloads. Occasionally, they'll make adjustments
to a delivery or change the mechanics of a certain pitch to make it better or
more deceptive, but their main priority never changes: Send the man at the
plate back to the dugout.

以投教來說，他們是要讓打者出局。他們花時間在分析對手打者的弱點和幫助投手執行
比賽策略。他們和訓練員建立投球課程，主持牛棚練投和調節工作量。有時，他們會幫
助修正姿勢或改變特定球路的機制使其更好。但他們的主題一直不變: 送打者回去休息
室。


As such, they're more equipped to assess an opposing lineup's tendency to
chase the low-and-away fastball than to address the effects of vectors and
valgus stress on their pitchers. The vast majority of MLB pitching coaches,
who don't have scientific backgrounds, don't speak biomechanics -- and it
doesn't speak to them.

比起調整投手的姿勢，他們被訓練為更適合去研究對手打線的特性。大多數MLB的投教
，沒有科學背景，不會談生物力學 -- 也不被其所說服。


According to Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, the president of the Rangers, MLB
pitching coaches can find the new scientific knowledge threatening. "Maybe
they don't know how to approach it," he says. "So they just don't." When Ryan
began pitching for the Rangers at age 42, House was his pitching coach; the
aging ace quickly became a biomechanics believer and worked with the coach,
whom he later thanked in his Cooperstown induction speech, to constantly
refine his mechanics. "I had to because of age and because of new info," Ryan
says. "If I thought it would help, I'd put it in my routine."

根據遊騎兵老闆Nolan Ryan指出，MLB投教發現科學知識很有威脅性。"也許只是他們不知
道該怎麼面對。所以就說'不'" 。當Ryan以42歲高齡幫遊騎兵投球時，House是他的投教。
這位老王牌很快就成了生物力學的信徒並和投教一起研究。他後來在名人堂入選演說時
特別感謝House那時幫他做的機制調整。"因為年紀和新資訊的關係我必須要這麼做。如果
我覺得這有幫助，我就會把它放進日常訓練中"


It's practically an unwritten law in baseball that the majors are not the
place to make big mechanical changes. The rare times coaches push for them,
it's in the minors. "When you're interviewing pitching coaches," says former
Reds and Nationals general manager Jim Bowden, who's now with ESPN, "if
they're mechanically oriented, you hire them for rookie ball or Low-A ball,
where they can make tweaks before pitchers succeed."

球界的不成文規定是大聯盟不是給投手大改造的地方。少數要大修時地點是在小聯盟。
前紅人和國民GM Jim Bowden表示 "面試投教時，如果他們是機制導向的，就雇用他們
到新人或低階1A聯盟，在那裏他們才能在投手成名前進行修改"


But the more success pitchers have, the less incentive anybody has to correct
their approach. "Once they reach the majors, they're pretty set into their
deliveries," says the Reds' Riggins. "With big leaguers, I don't talk much
about changing mechanics." If a coach risks changing a pitcher's mechanics
and he gets hit or hurt, it's the coach's fault; if he leaves a pitcher alone
and he gets hurt, it's because the pitcher already had a bad arm. If a team
can win in the interim, like the Giants have done with Tim Lincecum and his
radically tilted delivery -- which critics view as a time bomb -- it's
managed to get its money's worth. "That's exactly the theory," concedes
Astros pitching coach Doug Brocail. "It works until it doesn't."

但投手愈成功，修改動作的動機就愈低。Riggins表示 "當上大聯盟後，動作就固定了"
如果教練改動作結果投手廢掉，那是教練的錯。如果讓投手保持原樣而受傷，則是投手
自己的問題。如果球隊下對賭注，像巨人隊的Lincecum和他的暴力姿勢 -- 批評者將其
視為是定時炸彈 -- 球隊就得到他們要的報酬。 "這就是全部的理論" 太空人投教
Doug Brocail承認 "直到不能運行為止"


Experts with biomechanics backgrounds find this approach painfully illogical.
"Baseball is a game of failure coached by negative people in an environment
of misinformation," says House. Not surprisingly, pitching coaches who preach
biomechanics rarely crack the bigs. They say what they think, which is often
that pitchers need to change the mechanics they've been throwing with since
grade school.

生物力學的專家發現這個方法極度缺乏邏輯。"棒球是在錯誤資訊的環境下，失敗者被
負面的人所指導的遊戲" House說。不意外的，鼓吹生物力學的投教很少到達大聯盟。
他們說他們想說的吧，內容常常是要投手改變自小以來的投球動作。


In MLB's defense, the research has yet to reach a level at which it can
predict and prevent every UCL blowout. "There's a lot of data," says a
skeptical Bowden. "But even with all the research that's been done, you still
can't perfectly articulate who will get hurt and when it will happen."

在大聯盟的立場，研究還不能完全防止所有的UCL受傷。"有很多數據沒錯" Bowden懷疑道
"但就算有至今為止所有的研究，你還是不能明確指出什麼時候誰會受傷"


So teams are hesitant to stick their toes in the pool -- and few, if any,
want to really swim. At ASMI, Fleisig estimates that in the past decade, 20
of the 30 teams have brought at least one player to be mapped, but they
usually bring only prospects. Even then they don't always use the
information. Fleisig tells the story of a team that brought a major league
pitcher to see him in 2005. After the evaluation, Fleisig told the team that
the pitcher's mechanics increased his risk of injury; his elbow was above his
shoulders when he squared to home plate. But the player, who later had labrum
surgery, claims the club never told him about his analysis or helped him make
adjustments. Only after he was traded did his new team finally address his
delivery issues.

所以球隊還不想下水 -- 更少球隊想游泳。在ASMI，Fleisig估計在過去十年，有20支球隊
帶了至少一人來進行測試，但被帶來的多半是新秀。即使如此他們也不一定會應用得到的
資訊。Fleisig說了一個2005年的故事: 當年有支球隊帶了一個大聯盟投手來測試，測試
結果是他的動作會增加受傷的機率。但這位球員表示他的舊球隊從來沒告訴他這項訊息，
直到轉隊後新球隊才告訴他投球機制的問題。


It would require a risk-taking franchise to explode the status quo. A GM
would need biomechanics experts, coaches who listen to them and an owner who
believes the forward-thinking approach will save his pitchers' arms -- as
well as millions in payroll. Baltimore GM Dan Duquette may be that man. In
January, he hired Peterson as the Orioles' director of pitching development.

這需要一個勇於冒險的球團來破壞現狀。GM需要生物力學專家，會聽他們話的教練和相信
前衛思考可以保護投手手臂 -- 和數百萬元薪資 -- 的老闆。金鶯GM Dan Duquette或許就
是那個人。在一月，他雇用Peterson來當金鶯的投手指導長。


"I really think our industry is behind the times," says Peterson, who
believes his tenures with the Mets and Brewers were short-lived because of
his propensity for applying biomechanical analysis to change his pitchers'
deliveries. During spring training, Peterson invited ASMI to map 37 Orioles
pitchers, including the team's major leaguers. "This is now the philosophical
path this organization is going in," he says. "The format of those reports is
so vital. What do you do with the pitcher after you get the report? That's
where I come in. Other teams get the reports and go,'Now what?'"

"我確實認為球界落後了" Peterson表示。他相信他在大都會和釀酒人的短暫生涯是由於
他在應用生物力學分析改變投手姿勢的傾向。Peterson邀請ASMI分析金鶯隊的37位投手，
包括大聯盟球員。"這是現在組織的哲學" 他說 "這些報告的格式很重要。在接到報告之後
你想對球員做什麼? 這就是我來到這裡的原因。其他隊接到報告後只會說'所以呢?'"


In the meantime, as we all know, the rest of MLB's teams aren't doing
nothing. They count pitches. The Nationals announced in late February that
they'd limit Strasburg to 150 to 160 innings this season. Other pitchers who
have had Tommy John surgery, such as Brian Wilson and Kerry Wood, work out of
the bullpen to extend the life of their arms. Pitch counts are important to
the biomechanics community -- Fleisig and Andrews championed the Little
League decision to limit pitch counts nationwide in 2007. But pitch counts
alone, they say, can't protect UCLs from poor mechanics.

在同時，我們知道其他MLB球隊並不是沒在做事。他們計算球數。國民在二月底宣布小史
今年有150-160的局數限制。其他動過TJ的投手，向Brian Wilson和Kerry Wood，則到牛棚
延長手臂壽命。球數在生物力學中很重要 - Fleisig和Andrews主導少棒聯盟在2007
年制定的球數限制。但只有投球數限制，是無法保護UCL免於受糟糕的投球機制的摧殘。


At best, they prolong the inevitable.

最好的情況，它們延遲了爆炸的時間


"I've been throwing this way my whole life. I'm not going to try to reinvent
the wheel." -- Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg

"我一直都是這樣投球。我不會重新來個大改造" -- Stephen Strasburg


Tommy John never did work at that car dealership back home in Indiana. His
surgeon saved him. But it wasn't only the scalpel that made him -- to this
day -- the most successful pitcher following UCL reconstruction.

Tommy John從沒到家鄉的售車中心工作。他的醫生救了他。但讓他成為TJ手術後最佳存活
者的理由並不只有手術刀而已。


During rehab, John hooked up with his teammate, Mike Marshall. "The surgery
worked for Tommy because I made him put his hand under the baseball,"
Marshall says. John acknowledges a change in grip. "If you move it to the
side, the ball is pointing back when your hands break and you can come up
nice and high," says John, who pitched another 14 years, won 164 games and
retired at age 46.

在復健時，John向隊友Mike Marshall討教。"Tommy的手術很成功因為我教他把手保持在
球之下" Marshall說。John承認有做了握法上的改變。"如果你往側面一點握，當投球時
球就會指向後方然後你可以保持在很好很高的位置上" John說。他又投了14年，贏了164
場比賽後在46歲時退休。


The Nationals hope that Strasburg, at 23, has an equally long career ahead of
him. After all, he's brilliant. Following his yearlong rehab, Strasburg made
five starts last September. He pitched 24 innings, with 24 strikeouts, just
two walks and a 1.50 ERA. His command was good; 224 of his 328 pitches were
strikes, the prettiest of which was a 99 mph, letter-high, 0-and-2 fastball
that fanned Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton in the top of the first inning
on Sept. 17.

國民希望小史也能有同樣長的生涯在等著他。畢竟，他是那麼的出色。一年復健後，
小史在九月先發了五次，投24局24三振，只有2保送和1.50 ERA。他的控球很好: 328球
中有224球是好球。最漂亮的一球是在9月17日0-2時，一記99mph三振掉Giancarlo Stanton
的high-fastball。


But earlier in the game, Nationals TV analyst F.P. Santangelo recalled a
one-inning stretch six days earlier when Strasburg was hitting only 92 and 93
on the radar gun, causing some concern inside the Beltway. "He's getting out
front, and his arm was dragging," Santangelo said, referring to Strasburg's
habitual arm lag, which takes more of a toll when the pitcher tires.
Play-by-play man Bob Carpenter piped up a few innings later, relaying what
Nationals pitching coach Steve McCatty had told him: "'I don't want to be the
one that screws the kid up.'" And then: "He's scared to death every time
Strasburg goes to pitch."

但比賽稍早，國民球評Santangelo回憶起六天前小史在某局只投到92-93mph，在圈子內
造成一些擔憂。"他前面開掉了，而手臂沒跟上" Santangelo說，意指小史習慣性的手臂
延遲，在投手疲勞時造成傷害。稍後轉播員Bob Carpenter提到國民投教對他說的話
"我不想當弄壞這孩子的傢伙" 然後 "每次他投球都讓我嚇得半死"


He should be. Tommy John surgery isn't nearly as successful the second time.

他的確要擔心。第二次TJ手術的成功率可就沒那麼高了

--
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