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Sunday, August 10, 2003
mailbag
more on brandon claussen . . .
jay, i hope you don't mind. . . . i posted your letter on my site. i think it's really good advice. at first i guess i wanted to goof around and stir things up, but i should realize that there are people reading and i can do something with that. anyway, thanks.
julien
Not at all, Julien. I'm glad you took my criticism well and checked out the data for yourself. I don't know if you saw this but here's what ESPN's Jayson Stark had to say about Claussen.
"LHP Brandon Claussen (to Reds from Yankees, for Aaron Boone): "I saw him in his first game (in the Reds' system), and his fastball was 86-88 mph," says one scout. "If he gets back to 90-92, then they've really got something, because his makeup is good, his knowledge of pitching is good and he throws his curve and change to both sides of the plate." But another scout says Claussen's velocity has steadily declined since early in the year, when he made one of the quickest returns from Tommy John surgery in memory: "It doesn't surprise me to see him go through a period where he has kind of a dead arm. He was back pretty quick from that surgery. I think it'll be a year before you see where he's really at."
For what that's worth, it's also worth noting that a "dead arm" is a relatively good sign. Here's what B-Pro's Will Carroll has to say on that subject:
"Longtime UTK readers know that I don't often think of dead arm as a serious condition. It is actually something of a positive, showing that a pitcher fatigued his muscles without having a breakdown in his mechanics and the resultant injuries. There are occasions where dead arm becomes a catchall diagnosis when a medical staff isn't sure what's going on, but this rarely happens anymore."
Anyway, keep up the good work. Best,
Jay
thanks, jay!
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