No team is immune to major injury. If you believe that your favorite team has secret knowledge to keeping pitchers off the injured list, you’re naive at best. In fact, the most brilliant baseball minds are not any smarter than you or I.

Case in point, the Rays Drew Rasmussen just went on the 60-game-Il with a strained flexor strain in his right elbow. Tampa is considered to be one of the more savvy organizations in the game. Yet, they are subject to the whims of nature. I’m guessing their medical knowledge and preventive science is as good as anyone’s.

Quoting Rasmussen after the game,

Rasmussen said he believes he will avoid his third Tommy John surgery and will be back after the All-Star break.    

“It sucks on a day when things are going pretty well to have something like this pop up,” Rasmussen said. “It is unfortunately a part of the game, and there is always a risk to taking the ball. 

Even with all their genius, the Rays couldn’t prevent the first two Tommy John surgeries. And let’s not get started on Tyler Glasnow.

With all the smart guys working on the theories behind throwing and pitching, nothing seems to be foolproof. Initially, it seemed like the only culprits were the hard-throwers or the guys like Chris Sale and Garrett Crochet that threw across their bodies.

The Cubs are not immune to the problem despite having the top pitching lab in the game. One of the most brilliant minds in baseball, Craig Breslow, in among their think tank-yet, the relatively soft-tossing Kyle Hendricks hasn’t been healthy or effective for the past few seasons. All the talk about tunnelling one’s pitches isn’t effective preventive medicine against nature.

I’m sure that some organizations don’t think of their pitchers as more than mere chattel, but they do. They are willing to pitch them until their arms fall off. Allowing them to throw with max effort in short bursts and then discarding them when they no longer can hit the high notes.

Because some people are obsessed with alleged progress, they fail to see that the old way, isn’t always the worst way. Today’s pitchers and hitters may be bigger, faster, stronger, but they aren’t necessarily better or more durable.

Don Sutton, Jim Kaat, Jamie Moyer are looking better every day, to name but a few,