The Attrition War, Red Sox
Part of a continuing series, follow-ups to the initial post detailing the Mariners history over the same period.
Do the Mariners, in comparison to other teams, suffer a higher rate of injury to their pitching prospects than other teams? Here, I look at the Red Sox.
Please note that I am trying to refrain from drawing any conclusions or making any comparisons, guessing at causes or relationships, or doing anything but presenting straight data. When the series is finished, I’ll have a summary post where I talk about those things.
In every organization so far there have been are several cases where those stats seem to ignore something important. I’m going at attempt to address those in the summary post, as well as methodology and thoughts on future research directions.
The Red Sox had 32 pitchers who appeared at least once on a Baseball America Top Ten prospect list from 1995-2004.
Of those 32, pitchers who injured their elbow and required surgery: 3 (Delcarmen, Pena, Simon)
Of those 32, pitchers who injured their shoulders and required surgery: (Crawford)
(generally, I’m looking for major surgeries that require ~1y off)
Unknowns and weird disappearances: John Curtice, Mauricio Lara, Sang-Hoon Lee, Andy Yount
Barely missed counting: 0
Contributions welcome!
Readers are, as always, encouraged to to add/correct information here in the comments or by email. Resolving unknowns and citations are particularly welcome.
Detailed data
Abe Alvarez, 7/2004
Pitching in the minors.
Brad Baker, 2/2001
Traded to the Padres in June 2002 as part of the Alan Embree deal.
Robinson Checo, 4/1998
Non-tendered after 1998, signed with the Tigers.
Juan Cedeno, 9/2004
Traded to the Royals in July 2005 as part of the Tony Graffanino deal.
Jin Ho Cho, 6/1999
Released in June 2002.
Paxton Crawford, 9/2001
Had shoulder surgery in 2002 that cost him months, followed by back surgery later that year. Then he missed 2003 and reappeared in 2004 with the White Sox.
John Curtice, 7/1998, 2/1999
Unknown.
Manny Delcarmen, 4/2002, 6/2003, 10/2004
Elbow ligament replacement surgery in May of 2003.
Phil Dumatrait, 7/2002, 5/2003
Traded to the Reds in July 2003 as part of the deal for Scott Williamson. (had TJ surgery in April 2004)
Casey Fossum, 10/2000, 5/2001, 5/2002
Traded to the Diamondbacks in November 2003 as part of the Curt Schilling deal.
Franklin Francisco, 10/2002
Traded to the White Sox in July 2002 as part of the Bobby Howry deal.
Sun-Woo Kim, 3/2000, 4/2001
Traded to the Expos in July 2002 as part of the Cliff Floyd Deal.
Matt Kinney, 9/1998
Traded to the Twins in July 1998 as part of the Orlando Merced-Greg Swindell deal.
Mauricio Lara, 8/2001
Apparantly washed out after the 2002 season.
Sang-Hoon Lee, 10/2001
Unknown, seemingly disappeared after the 2000 season.
Jon Lester, 8/2003, 8/2004
Pitching in the minors.
Anastacio Martinez, 9/2002
Pitching in the minors.
Rene Miniel, 3/2002
Traded to the Padres in August 2003 for Lou Merloni.
Peter Munro, 10/1996, 8/1997
Traded to the Blue Jays in July 1998 as part of the Mike Stanley deal.
Tomokazu Ohka, 5/2000
Traded to the Expos in July 2001 as part of the Urgueth Urbina deal.
Rafael Orellano, 6/1995, 9/1996
Went to Japan.
Carl Pavano, 8/1996, 2/1997
Traded to the Expos in November 1997 as part of the Pedro Martinez deal.
Juan Pena, 9/2000
Elbow ligament replacement surgery in April 2000. Released in March 2003.
Chris Reitsma, 6/1997, 3/1998
Selected by the Devil Rays in the December 1999 Rule 5 draft.
Frank Rodriguez 2/1995
Traded to the Twins in July 1995 as part of the Rick Aguilera deal.
Jorge de la Rosa, 9/2003
Traded to the Diamondbacks in November 2003 as part of the Curt Schilling deal.
Brian Rose, 6/1996, 4/1997, 1/1998, 7/1999
Traded to the Rockies in July 2000 as part of a large, pointless trade.
Billy Simon, 7/2003
Elbow ligament replacement surgery in 2004. Also had previous neck issues.
Seung Song, 7/2001, 1/2002
Traded to the Expos in July 2002 as part of the Cliff Floyd Deal.
Jeff Suppan, 4/1995, 2/1996, 5/1997
Drafted by the Diamondbacks in the November 1997 expansion draft.
Josh Thigpen, 8/2002, 10/2003
Traded to the Reds as a PTBNL in the December 2002 Todd Walker trade.
Andy Yount, 5/1996
Disappered then resurfaced as a Detroit outfield prospect in 2001. I’m a little baffled.
Comments
6 Responses to “The Attrition War, Red Sox”
Wow, Seung Song. He was the starting pitcher for the Fresno Grizzlies at the Rainiers game today. He threw an impressively wild pitch about eight feet above Hunter Brown’s head at one point.
Curtice and Rose im pretty sure had career scrapping injuries.
Also i think Kinney and DeLaRosa had injuries while w. other orgs.
Fossum had “the pitcher’s version of a “hat trick†last October {2003]. He had surgery to repair tears in his labrum and rotator cuff, not to mention having a piece of bone “shaved†down during the procedure.” – http://www.trentonthunder.com/release/zRelease.asp?pYYYYMMDD=20040927
Derek, check the Braves injury thread, i added some confirmation of some injuries there.
And Pavano had a mess of injuries as a ‘spo (sorry to mention it if you address it in the spos list but his treatment as a BoSOx in his “injury nexus” years are probably relevant)
What happened with Andy Yount doesn’t fall under the ravages of pitching:
http://koreanfilm.org/darcy/95draft.html
Andy Yount showed a lot of promise when he was drafted, boasting a 95-97mph fastball and impressive numbers in high school. However, while attending the funeral of a close friend he had a freak accident — he was holding a Coke bottle in his hand, and, in his grief, he didn’t realize how tightly he was squeezing it. The bottle shattered, and severed the tendons in his hand. He had surgery, then reinjured his hand several times while attempting a comeback. Eventually the Red Sox decided that he was through, and they released him. However, in 1998 Yount signed with the Tigers and is currently trying to resurrect his career.
____
At the time, I think Yount was considered on par with Kerry Wood, though if that was the case, I don’t know why he was taken 12 picks after him.
Chris Reitsma suffered a broken arm in a freak occurrence while pitching. Here’s a link to a religious-tinted article as proof to the event: http://www.thegoal.com/players/baseball/reitsma_chris/reitsma_c.html
John Curtice was traded to Cincinnati along with Chris Reitsma for Dante Bichette.
I could’ve sworn Sang Lee went back to Korea, as he wasn’t used much, if at all.
-after being traded to Cincy, Curtice hasd to quit baseball with shoulder problems.
-Andy Yount tried to make it with the tigers as a pitcher and then as an outfielder, but seems to disappear in 2002 after hitting about .130 combined at two A Ball stops.
-and get this, Sang Hoon Lee is now a SINGER/ROCK MUSICIAN in Korea
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/culture/200411/kt2004112818192611720.htm