I was planning on doing a series of posts about all of the new potential "Moneyball" inefficiencies that baseball teams could capitalize on. At some point I still plan on writing about these (several of which are already in use) such as nutrition for minor league players, efficient roster construction, platoons, defensive shifts, and bullpen usage.
However there is one inefficiency that stands out. In light of Jose Fernandez's injury and the slew of other injuries that have occurred recently, the most obvious inefficiency in baseball is injury prevention, specifically with pitchers. Jose Fernandez. Jameson Taillon. Matt Moore. Patrick Corbin. Jarrod Parker. Brandon Beachy. Kris Medlen. That's a partial list of pitchers to undergo TJ surgery in 2014! (Update: add Martin Perez to the list. Sigh.). Dylan Bundy, Matt Harvey, Lucas Giolito, Neftali Feliz, Arodys Vizcaino, Stephen Strasburg, Brett Anderson, and Adam Wainwright all have also undergone TJ surgery since the end of the 2010 season (Note: I didn't double-check this, but I believe my second list includes only pitchers who were once ranked their organization's best player.).
The baseball world needs to fix this problem. Teams do not have an incentive to share their advances in biomechanics with the rest of the world, but the first team to even remotely figure out how to prevent UCL injuries will reap a benefit many magnitudes greater than the original on-base percentage/don't-make-outs revolution that was the original "Moneyball."
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