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Man do we need this guy to live up to his potential
Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak recently called this upcoming season “huge” for Reyes. It’s easy to see why. The range of outcomes is virtually limitless for him in 2019. He could never pitch again. He could be one of the most dominant pitchers in the game. Neither is an overstatement.
“There’s reason for hope. When you boil it down, he just hasn’t been healthy for two years,” Mozeliak said. “The reason we’re still so excited is, when he’s healthy, he has an electric arm.”
The lean muscle Reyes has added to his square 6-foot-4 frame is there, but the fat he shed is more obvious. It shows most easily in his face, which can be puffy with baby fat when he’s not in workout mode.
When Reyes first showed up at Next Level Fitness in November, he was a doughy 248 pounds. With spring training approaching, he’s down to 233 even after adding several pounds of muscle.
This winter’s workouts centered on strengthening and training the specific arm and torso muscles that could bear the most strain when he starts pitching again. He has thrown a handful of bullpen sessions already. His exercise physiologist, Hugo Botero, manipulates his arm and shoulder in various postures, probing for weakness. The idea is to strengthen both the muscles and the connective tissues, which are often the breaking points for pitchers. The goal is to maintain strength and control at each awkward stage of the throwing motion.
“If we can train and sustain in most of the positions players get hurt in, if he ever gets to those positions and he’s under fatigue, his shoulder knows exactly what to do,” Botero said. “We used to think we wanted to avoid those positions.”
Reyes said he feels as strong as he has at any time in his life, but he admits he said similar things a year ago. Maybe this will be the season he stays healthy and shows the world what his powerful right arm can do.
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Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.
-YODA
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