Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Dear Sir,
A reader of my website sent me a copies of your articles “Joe Williams: Not Your Normal Prospect” posted on May 18, 2009 and “Does the Cardinals’ signing of Joe Williams have a deeper meaning?”, May 21, 2009.
After fourteen years of pitching major league baseball, I know that writers do not verify everything that they write and I am too old to care. Nevertheless, I have to take exception to something that Mr. Strauss said.
Mr. Strauss wrote,
“Marshall has been seeking audiences with numerous major-league organizations trying to regain a toe-hold in the industry.”
I am working as hard as I can to teach those in professional baseball how to eliminate all pitching injuries. However, I am not trying to regain a toe-hold in the industry, as though I ever had a toe-hold in professional baseball.
However, in your May 18, 2009 article, you got it right.
You wrote,
“Apparently not every organization is constrained by tradition, which has a direct relation to how Williams became a Cardinal. St. Louis Vice President of Scouting and Player Development Jeff Luhnow recently asked Marshall to come down to Extended Spring Training (EST) in Jupiter, FL to meet with his staff.”
The Cardinals invited me to explain how to eliminate pitching injuries. Actually, before spring training 2006, to learn how I train baseball pitchers, the Cardinals sent someone to my Baseball Pitching Research/Training Center. At the end of that session, I had convinced this young man that I knew how to eliminate pitching injuries.
Unfortunately, they decided to go another way.
Then, this spring, Mr. Luhnow invited me to Jupiter, FL and, after my presentation, as you wrote,
“Shortly after, Williams was invited to participate in the Cardinals’ camp, where he must have shown enough to the coaches to snag a contract.”
Joe’s mission was to prove that baseball pitchers I train can pitch every day without discomfort.
That Joe successfully pitched in eight of the thirteen games available apparently convinced the Cardinals that Joe had sufficient talent to invite Joe back into professional baseball.
I believe that, considering the circumstances, Joe did exceptionally well.
That they terminated Joe’s opportunity is unfortunate, nevertheless, it showed Joe that, with a real opportunity, he could become a major league pitcher. Where we go from here is the question.
Lastly, I want to thank you for writing,
“Even that may seem threatening to some, but I wonder what harm could be caused in being open-minded about new and different ways to teach and learn. Still, in a tradition-laden environment like baseball or journalism for that matter, old ways die hard and new ones are notoriously slow to take root.”
Sincerely,
Dr. Mike Marshall
There are many things in life that rely on traditions or assumptions or trial and error. This holds true in baseball too.
Pitching is very important in baseball and many pitchers suffer injuries. Yet how best to prevent arm injuries tends to rest on best guesses based on anecdotal evidence. Should pitchers long toss and if so at what optimal distance? Should they be pitch limited on game day? 4 man rotation like yesteryear or 5 man today? How much to run and throw between starts? How early to develop breaking pitches? Is throwing across the body not good for arm health? Is Degerman’s motion iffy or just fine for him? How come some foreign pitchers develop surprising arm strength? Is this just a statistical illusion or is their regimen better? A lot of questions, without definitive answers, rather variable “opinions” among “experts.”
Mike Marshall had a remarkable career in MLB as a reliever. (Its nice for Brian to earn a letter from him.) So he is richly entitled to be regarded as an expert, though not the only one and other opinions are worthy of respect too.
Joe Williams has seemingly been helped to be able to pitch again, frequently, without help from a surgeon’s knife. Its hard to explain that away. Best of luck to Williams, in where-ever life leads next. Best of luck to Mike Marshall too, in contributing challenging ideas.
Thanks for sharing Dr. Marshall’s letter, Brian.
I was always impressed by the Good Doctor’s presentations at several SABR conventions.
The man could certainly pitch and pitch very well during his career, the pitchers that come out of his center show that they can pitch without injuring their arms.
I had hoped the Cardinals would have given Joe Williams a full season with a minor league club,
but apparently they didn’t want to. Granted he didn’t have fantastic results but there aren’t that many on the farm doing much better.
That Luhnow has shown some interest in the Marshall Plan is at least a little bit encouraging to those in that camp.
Very interesting. Hopefully this branch of teaching will lead to further advances.
I couldn’t help but notice the irony in the fact the Cardinals assigned Williams to Springfield, which currently has eight players on the DL, including six pitchers.
There may be something of a Catch-22 at work. Pitchers may turn to Marshall AFTER they have been injured. I wonder what kind of stuff Williams had before he got hurt? Even if he no longer suffers pain, he may have sub-fringy stuff owing to the injury. Ergo, I am not sure the short audition that the Cards gave Williams is a verdict on Marshall’s opinions. Williams may have pitched as expected given the quality of his pitch repertoire.
Marshall may be hurt most with the baseball establishment by being a friend of Bouton’s.