Jonah Keri (ESPN, Baseball Prospectus, The Extra 2%, an upcoming book on The Tampa Bay Rays) has a tremendous article on his site about pitcher injuries, Nolan Ryan’s resurgent Texas Rangers and Jaeger Sports. Check out A Not-So-Brief History of Pitching Injuries, Starring Nolan Ryan and the Texas Rangers.
From the article…
The Rangers sent Jaeger to the Dominican Republic to work with Dominican Summer League Manager Jayce Tingler and other coaches on teaching young pitchers the new long-toss regime. The plan worked like a charm. The team raced to the best record in the league, with no major pitching injuries all season. But the Rangers didn’t merely challenge the 120-foot long-toss convention at the rookie ball level. Last spring, when Jaeger flew to the team’s spring training complex in Surprise on his own dime to see what else the Rangers had done, he couldn’t believe his eyes.
“They were crow-hopping like we were crow-hopping,” Jaeger beamed. “They were throwing the ball with arc, using our principles. I watched guys pushing 300 feet, which is practically unheard of in other places. I almost cried.”
With that, the Rangers became one of the first teams to actively promote the use of long-toss. The Oakland A’s, St. Louis Cardinals, Minnesota Twins, Washington Nationals, Milwaukee Brewers and New York Yankees also promote the use of long-toss either at the major league level, the minor league level, or both. A few major league clubs recently lifted their restrictions on long-toss use. The gospel is spreading.
It’s an amazing article and definitely worth reading in its entirety.
