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Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO
BUT dont you know tommy john surgery makes pitchers better?
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Eh, Tommy John surgery shouldn't really worry you guys that much, especially with a young pitcher.
Get a guy into his late 20s/early 30s and his velocity may not come back all the way. But a kid in his early 20s, 90% of them come back as good as new these days.
If you hear 'shoulder', run away screaming. Shoulder injuries are the debil. If you're lucky, you don't need to have surgery and the rest/rehab model buys you a couple more years (before whatever mechanics you had that caused the problem eventually blow it out entirely). Most guys can't get by with the rest/rehab, they have to have 'cleanup' surgery and they come back throwing 3/4 mph less than they were when they left.
The very rare occurrence comes back completely healthy (Chris Carpenter is the most notable recent example I can come up with) but for the most part, a shoulder diagnosis is about a worst case scenario.
At least the Royals don't appear to have anything that bad floating around.