We're a week into the baseball season and I have 25 names to write about in today's UTK. Big names like Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Ryan Braun and Jered Weaver have missed at least a portion of the first week, losses that they and their teams can't get back.
Someday we'll take a look at their season stats on Baseball-Reference.com and wonder why their numbers were just a bit low. It takes a bit of a deeper look to understand that missed playing time, missed innings pitched, missed plate appearances are the usual reasons.
It may be just the first week of the season, but a win is a win. Losing a game in early April means that there's a game that needs to be won later in order to make the playoffs, when the pressure is higher for everyone.
The same holds true for injury stats. Missed time early in the season tends to snowball or even go into a "death spiral," a time when the medical staff gets so overwhelmed reacting to a rash of injuries that preventative work falls behind, leading to more injuries.
The idea that a medical staff could get overwhelmed should be laughable, but most staffs operate with two, maybe three athletic trainers at the core. There's only so much time, despite the fact that it would be easy and cost-effective to simply add another athletic trainer to the mix.
I had the chance to see several of these staffs at work this week, and unfortunately they're already working hard. Injuries never take days off. Then again, neither do I.
Powered by the Under Armour E39, on to the injuries.
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