Yankee Doctors/Training Staff Performance Thread

[Mr Coffee]

The Mets' team physician must have expertise in this type of surgery.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/26/sp...it_th_20120426

He did the surgery on Mo's shoulder in 2008.

I can't find the article now but he streamline Tommy John surgery as well, cutting down healing time. The guy who invented TJS now endorses Altchek's method.

[35Knucklecurve]

He did the surgery on Mo's shoulder in 2008.

I can't find the article now but he streamline Tommy John surgery as well, cutting down healing time. The guy who invented TJS now endorses Altchek's method.

Oh - that's why the name sounded familiar - Mo. Thanks.

[Zimmers' Helmet]

He did the surgery on Mo's shoulder in 2008.

I can't find the article now but he streamline Tommy John surgery as well, cutting down healing time. The guy who invented TJS now endorses Altchek's method.

Didn't Altcheck also operate on Posada's torn labrum as well?

[Mr Coffee]

Didn't Altcheck also operate on Posada's torn labrum as well?

Yeah, and Johan Santana, Pedro (rotator cuff) and Dallas Braden. He's the go-to guy for shoulders

[ober0n98]

Surgeons arent the best diagnosticians. This comes from personal experience: half of my family plus extended family are doctors. I've got radiologist, pediatrician, surgeon, internal diagnostician, pathologist, neurologist in my family. My sister, the radiologist, despite being highly trained in the art of examining film still says the whole thing is still kind of an art. Some docs will see somethin minor and some wont.

Her husband, the diagnostician, has told me countless stories where doctors miss very basic symptoms/stuff on film. His opinion is that 95% of docs are pretty freakig stupid. When he was in rotation long ago at kaiser, he had to stop a few drs from accidentally (stupidly) almost killing a patient because they didnt know a drug would have a bad interaction with another drug. Yeah, they're that dumb.

Shoot my brother the pathologist tells me of the time that cops relied on some hack ME's opinion that a man "killed" himself despite obvious signs that he did not and they declared the death a suicide. *facepalm*

So in conclusion, a lot of doctors (even ones with good reputations) can suck and miss stuff. I'm not saying this is the case with the yankees or michael pineda, but lets just say i get multiple opinions whenever something happens to me...

[ieddyi]

Surgeons arent the best diagnosticians. This comes from personal experience: half of my family plus extended family are doctors. I've got radiologist, pediatrician, surgeon, internal diagnostician, pathologist, neurologist in my family. My sister, the radiologist, despite being highly trained in the art of examining film still says the whole thing is still kind of an art. Some docs will see somethin minor and some wont.

Her husband, the diagnostician, has told me countless stories where doctors miss very basic symptoms/stuff on film. His opinion is that 95% of docs are pretty freakig stupid. When he was in rotation long ago at kaiser, he had to stop a few drs from accidentally (stupidly) almost killing a patient because they didnt know a drug would have a bad interaction with another drug. Yeah, they're that dumb.

Shoot my brother the pathologist tells me of the time that cops relied on some hack ME's opinion that a man "killed" himself despite obvious signs that he did not and they declared the death a suicide. *facepalm*

So in conclusion, a lot of doctors (even ones with good reputations) can suck and miss stuff. I'm not saying this is the case with the yankees or michael pineda, but lets just say i get multiple opinions whenever something happens to me...

Stay healthy my friends to paraphrase TMIMITW

[Shadoux101]

So explain how Alex had more faith in a German doctor's procedure than his own teams?

Why would Alex visit a Doctor who specializes in spinning blood to isolate certain proteins that help alleviate arthritis?

Maybe because the Yankees (and almost everyone else in the world) don't do this. Maybe cause it's not allowed in the United States? Maybe because when you have injuries or procedures you see specialist who specialize in what you may need done.

However, my point was that this isn't the Yankees fault. If there was any sort of tear in any of their MRI's or other various tests any idiot could see that. If they couldn't see anything and something was laying dormant even. What would you have them do? Cut him open, you know, just in case... Screw modern science, lets start scoping people everytime they have a sore shoulder.

BTW the same type of scenerio played out with Hughes last year. Did he have any surgical procedure? I mean it was obvious he had a problem, right? Lost velocity and "stuff" according to some people makes it obvious that he was hurt, needed surgery and the Yankees must have been missing something. OH.....wait...

[Yankees1962]

As long as he doesn't touch anything except the shoulder. When I hear "Mets doctor" I worry that the patient is going to wake up with an enormous baseball for a head.

Which brings up my main point. Every single MLB team has more than a few examples in which their medical and training staff had injury issues. The Yankees and Mets aren't any worse than them as I think this problem is the same across the entire industry as the need to get these players back on the field comes in direct conflict of making sure they're healthy and ready to go first. By the way, it's not just baseball as we know stories about our football and basketball teams too.

[Mr Coffee]

I've been saying for a while American sports medicine practices are archaic. In Europe, they got doctors specifically trained in various parts of sports medicine that travel with the team and work with the training staff on an everyday basis.

Here... well, we go for the big brand names who got full time jobs elsewhere.

This isn't unique to the Yankees. It's true with all the MLB teams as far as I know.

Just a guess, but I would think teams wouldn't be able to afford these specialists full time in a country without socialized medicine.

It has nothing to do with the level of expertise.

[Mr.Muhozi]

Just a guess, but I would think teams wouldn't be able to afford these specialists full time in a country without socialized medicine.

It has nothing to do with the level of expertise.

Yeah I was thinking that would be the case as you guys still have to pay for your healthcare.

Who will foot the bill of Pineda's surgery? Pineda himself or the Yankees?

[Mr Coffee]

Yeah I was thinking that would be the case as you guys still have to pay for your healthcare.

Who will foot the bill of Pineda's surgery? Pineda himself or the Yankees?

He's insured by the Yankees.

But I wasn't referring to who plays the bill-- I was talking about comparative salaries for surgeons in the US vs those is countries with socialized medicine.

[ieddyi]

He's insured by the Yankees.

But I wasn't referring to who plays the bill-- I was talking about comparative salaries for surgeons in the US vs those is countries with socialized medicine.

But those guys dealing with very high priced soccer stars probably charge top $$ for their services, I'd wager.

They're outside the socialized medicine network, so market forces would be in play

A side note, I remember reading that they put GPS units on their players to monitor energy expended during a game

[Mr Coffee]

I remember reading that they put GPS units on their players to monitor energy expended during a game

Where does that go?


*shudder*

[grizy]

Just a guess, but I would think teams wouldn't be able to afford these specialists full time in a country without socialized medicine.

It has nothing to do with the level of expertise.

And how much do you think those specialists make?

We're not talking about having super stars. Just someone specifically trained for sports medicine who could familiarize himself with players and have input on training menus on a daily basis.

[awy]

medicine is a science. should get the most cutting edge technology and people working on the most advanced techniques.

[Mr Coffee]

And how much do you think those specialists make?

We're not talking about having super stars. Just someone specifically trained for sports medicine who could familiarize himself with players and have input on training menus on a daily basis.

They already have those guys, no?

I thought we were talking about guys like Dr Altchek-- a shoulder and elbow specialist, for example. He's a Mets team doctor but he still has a practice, and doesn't travel with the team as far as I know.

[grizy]

A side note, I remember reading that they put GPS units on their players to monitor energy expended during a game

My understanding is it's part of the computerization of sports data. The end goal is to collect enough data so a computer can recreate the entire game. There are already people doing this manually, marking every dribble and every pass. The idea is having the computer do it for more accurate data.

Giants, in partnership with SportsVision already has fieldfx (tracks all the players on the field... so they could see who reacts fastest as ball jumps off teh bat and who tends to take bad jumps). They're working on control/fx, which will measure how much the catchers' mitt moves per pitch as a proxy for pitcher control (the data will also be useful to quantify catcher's ability to frame pitches.)

Moneyball is happening in every sport. The technology already exists. Implementation will take some time but we're getting closer and closer to the point where every aspect of every sport can be measured and objectively scouted.

[sweet_lou_14]

Moneyball is happening in every sport. The technology already exists. Implementation will take some time but we're getting closer and closer to the point where every aspect of every sport can be measured and objectively scouted.

Simultaneously fascinating and soul-sucking.

[grizy]

They already have those guys, no?

I thought we were talking about guys like Dr Altchek-- a shoulder and elbow specialist, for example. He's a Mets team doctor but he still has a practice, and doesn't travel with the team as far as I know.

Like I said, it's just not common practice in the US (for baseball) for doctors to travel with the team.

Which has always struck me as odd considering how much time baseball teams spend on the road and our budget is many times bigger than most footballing clubs, with smaller rosters to boot.

I think it's just a case of nobody has tried it because the benefits are not immediately obvious. Football (American) and NHL are already heading in that direction (though mostly for immediate concussion diagnosis). The other benefits of having a team physician will eventually make it a common practice in baseball too IMO.

[grizy]

Simultaneously fascinating and soul-sucking.

There is always gonna be some intangibles that you can't measure and that's how scouts gonna keep their jobs, in addition to scouting players with relatively little data (which, for the forseeable future, is gonna be everyone not yet in MLB).

Once players get to the majors though, it won't take computers to analyze everything they do down to the millisecond.

[ieddyi]

My understanding is it's part of the computerization of sports data. The end goal is to collect enough data so a computer can recreate the entire game. There are already people doing this manually, marking every dribble and every pass. The idea is having the computer do it for more accurate data.

Giants, in partnership with SportsVision already has fieldfx (tracks all the players on the field... so they could see who reacts fastest as ball jumps off teh bat and who tends to take bad jumps). They're working on control/fx, which will measure how much the catchers' mitt moves per pitch as a proxy for pitcher control (the data will also be useful to quantify catcher's ability to frame pitches.)

Moneyball is happening in every sport. The technology already exists. Implementation will take some time but we're getting closer and closer to the point where every aspect of every sport can be measured and objectively scouted.

I'm looking forward to them measuring the quality of contact allowed by pitchers. It'll be a lot more meaningful than all the FIP variations

[grizy]

They already send that data to teams (pitch/fx can measure angle and initial velocity off the bat)