Rice's 2003 big three hindered by arm problems
Remember Rice's 2003 "Big Three" of Wade Townsend, Jeff Niemann and Philip Humber, all of whom were selected in the first round of the 2004 Major League draft?
As this New York Times story reminds us, not one of them has made it to the bigs yet, thanks to recurring arm problems.
Interestingly, the reporter could not find one person willing to speculate that one possible factor in their injuries was being used for too many pitches per appearance at Rice. The players deny it (of course). Indeed, Wayne Graham offered this theory for the reporter:
Each of the three held out before signing, and Graham hinted that might have been part of the problem.
[snip]
"I didn't want them to do that," Graham, in a telephone interview from Omaha, said of their holding out. "I wished they would have signed within a month after our season ended. But once you get into it with most agents, that's the way things happen.
"I've seen pitchers get shut down when teams didn't want them to throw for three months, six months, to a year. When they come back, they're trying to impress, and they start throwing too much too quick. That's the only thing I can see."
Maybe we'll have to put the Bad Sports research staff to work on digging up pitch counts for those three during that 2003 season. That could be interesting.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/22/06 10:07 PM | Technorati | Comments (1)
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