MLB All-Star Game: Jeter, top storylines from the first half

The Tommy John epidemic Over 40 pitchers have, or will have Tommy John surgery this year.  That’s 40-plus at the halfway mark of the season.       Here’s the better question on this topic: who HASN’T had Tommy John surgery this year? We’ve seen just a few stars on the mound and more scars than ever and everyone is trying to figure out, or explain why.  The latest victim of the Tommy John epidemic in Major League Baseball is Arizona’s Bronson Arroyo, who became it’s 32^nd victim just last week.  That’s the 32^nd pitcher to either have gone under the knife, or is scheduled to this year.  There are still 18 more pitchers listed with “Tommy John symptoms” who may or may not have to go under the knife, including Yankees rookie ace Masahiro Tanaka. The epidemic has hit everywhere, and in the case of some teams, its hit more than just one pitcher.  The Diamondbacks have five pitchers out (Patrick Corbin, David Hernandez, Daniel Hudson and Matt Reynolds), the Braves have three pitchers out due to Tommy John surgery (Cory Gearrin, Kris Medlen and Jonny Venters), the A’s have two (Jarrod Parker, A.J. Griffin), the Yankees lost Ivan Nova to Tommy John and possibly Tanaka (rehab pending). While everyone is asking questions of why this is happening, one company is focused on delivering a cure to this pandemic, or at least an answer. Motus, owned by Joe Nolan and known as a provider of biomechanical analysis, has created something simply called the Motus Pitcher Sleeve, as exclusively shown for the first time to Will Carroll of Bleacher Report. Motus hopes to have the sleeve consumer-ready by next year, however two MLB teams – the Baltimore Orioles and the Pittsburgh Pirates—are currently testing the sleeve on their pitchers.

The sleeve looks like a regular compression sleeve as seen almost anywhere in sports today.  However it has a small sensor located just below the elbow that contains both accelerometers and gyroscopes (like smartphones).  The pitcher uses a smartphone app to put in his height and weight and the app can make some assumptions on the athlete’s arm and body that have been validated from its motion-capture database. The sleeve can capture arm speed, release point and even the angles of the elbow and shoulder and can also measure the forces acting on the UCL in real-time.  The app breaks down all of the information based on the sensor and gives the coach or parent a “red flag” if the pitcher is fatiguing, independent of any simple pitch count. Motus is hoping, along with the rest of the baseball world, that their device will slow down, if not put a stop to this current Tommy John pandemic.  If the sleeve works out as it’s supposed to, it could be a game saver and the days of 40-plus pitchers out to Tommy John surgery could be a chapter for the history books.