OT Tigers Michael Fulmer out for the year
Those who know the subject more than me: Does this explain why he struggled so much last year?
I don't think it does. The reality is that he simply doesn't get enough swings and misses to be an ace. As people saw him more and get more familiar with his stuff, he was just not going to have the same success as he did early on. I think that he is going to be a solid 2 or a really good 3 starting pitcher long term. I wish him the best in his recovery.
A friend of mine is in France this week indulging her craving for steak tartare. Needless to say, she wishes she could have a solid number two.
Typically someone that is having a UCL (ulnar collateral ligament, which is what the Tommy John surgery repairs) will have pain, inflammation, tightness, or something in the elbow that would point you to thinking he is having issues but that doesn't always occur. Also if he was having leg issues last year it could have altered his mechanics even more to place more stress on the elbow leading to the now injured UCL. After the first 20 games of the season I stopped following so I have 0 idea what issues he had last year so it is within the realm of possibilities or a secondary result from the issues he had last year
this was my biggest fear with fulmer. he had a bad knee and he and the staff kept trying to alter his delivery to take strain off that knee. now, bammo!!! tommy john surgery. i'm not shocked at all. he should have been shut down much earlier last year. they weren't playing for anything.
stupid
This organization hasn't been known for it's shrewdness the last few years.
He struggled so much because he's fat. Every year he looks more like Jobba Chamberlain. All fat baseball players eventually reach the same fate. That's why I was hoping he would traded before he either ate himself out of the league or started down the road of constant injuries like Cabrera.
David Ortiz would like a word with you. Jose Iglesias gets injured all the time, size doesn't translate into injury. If that were the case, who would be playing OL in football? You can be large and take care of yourself.
David Ortiz was a DH.
Fulmer is a pitcher who arguably has to move less than Ortiz... What is your point? Roger Clemens was a big boy too and had a pretty good, long term career.
Bartolo Colon would like a word...
Donut eating Micky Lolich 
See Ruth, George Herman.
Should've led with Bartolo Colon instead of Ortiz
Probably right, but I was looking for a hall of famer. Colon is a legend though.
You brought up two guys who are confirmed PED users. Last I heard, they help you come back from injury a lot faster.
PED's will do nothing to prevent a UCL tear. Just say you had an sizzling hawt take regarding a correlation between Fulmer's body type and his injury and move on. His injury was most likely, as it is with most pitchers a combination of overuse, genetics, and mechanics.
See Ruth, George Herman
Was Roger Clemens ever skinny? CC Sabathia has had a pretty great career for a big guy, Kirby Puckett, and Tony Gwynn weren't very thin either. Give me sometime and I could name another 10 or 15.
David Ortiz doesn't get injured because he never has to do much of anything but swing a bat. Not an athlete. #PEDs.
He's been recommended TJ surgery, but he's getting a third opinion.
Lost velocity and they originally thought it was a leg thing, now this.
I’m no doctor, but when was the last time you heard of someone being recommended for a TJ, not going through with it, and coming back strong?
I remember reading somewhere that scouts said his arm problems were a question of when, and not if, given his throwing motion. Too bad—hope he recovers with no issues.
I think Masahiro Tanaka has pitched with a partially torn UCL since 2014.
During these rebuilding years, when teams were willing to give up a lot for him, they really needed to make that move. Now, they are probably kicking themselves over it.
Can't trade someone because you think they'll get hurt later.
True, but he'd already had 3-4 surgeries by last trade deadline, so I think you could say the likelihood of him being healthy for the next 5 years was probably pretty low.
Now you're adding in knee and elbow surgery, if he's ever near an MLB starting pitcher again I'd be surprised.
eh, i watched him pitch a lot last year. he was topping out at 98 mph fastball. his stuff was as good as ever. he just kept trying to pitch with a sore knee. his control suffered leading to more walks and HRs.
assuming the surgery goes well, he should come back strong. he just turned 26. hopefully, he is near 100% come mid 2020. that's the earliest they could make any playoff noise anyway.
Playoff noise??? The only noise they will make will be from the stands or the lazy boy in their home. This franchise is a long ways away......
As far as I know he has only has nerve transposition surgery in his pitching elbow.
As I recall, it is not unheard of for guys to come back from Tommy John surgery even marginally better than before through some better care and training, but it is certainly not the normal result. We probably won't really know what sort of a pitcher Fulmer will be until 2021 now, I would think - nothing this year, limited duty for the portion of next year where he is technically available perhaps, or so I would assume.
It was more because it has been clear for a while that one really good starter was not going to make any significant difference for the Tigers for 3-4 years. It would have made sense to deal him for prospects when there was a market for him.
Exactly......by the time the Tigers get decent he will be at the end of his rookie deal and will be a lot more expensive. The prospects (and they would have got their best package yet for him cause of how cheap he is) would have been a haul.
He was already starting to show signs. And when you are in full rebuild, get what you can to rebuild that farm system. I'm sure they could have grabbed 2-4 good/great prospects for Fulmer.
Should have traded him when they had the chance 2 years ago. Ugh.....
So Tigers went from 102 losses to 108 losses..............
So we went from a 70 win team to a 60 win team.... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Ouch. I'm continually amazed when someone like Verlander keeps chugging along with a golden arm.
Experts saw this coming because of his throwing motion. The Tigers instead of being smart decided to ask way too much for him and are now stuck with dead money.
Al Avila, the gift that keeps on giving the whole year round.
dead money? He's the furthest thing from dead money there is. He's on a rookie deal right now and for next few years as well. They'd owe this year less than $3 million which is close to league minimum for guy like him has done right now in his career.
If Fulmer never throws another pitch (he will as TJ is nothing nowadays) then Tigers will still have made out like bandits since acquiring him as they have received a surplus of $50-ish million in value from his production minus the salary they paid him up until now.
It's not dead money at all where they'd be screwed, it's the huge missed opportunity and getting the value of what he was worth around the league in return for his services that they missed out on.
This is me as a Tiger fan right now.
Did not know there were still Tiger fans. One wonders why.
There's a ton. And no one really wonders why, except maybe you.
For the same reason people didn't stop being UM fans during the RichRod / Hoke years.
He won't be lonesome sitting out the year in the clubhouse watching sitcom reruns. Miggy "The Gimp" Cabrera will join him no later than July 1.
Not a whole lot has gone well for the Tigers since Al Avila was hired as GM.
Ausmus + Avila = hot steamy poo
He’s an elbow lifter (as opposed to having hands work up and around - see Joel Zumaya and Anthony Reyes) and it was bound to happen. Not exclusive to that mechanic but it most definitely exacerbates issues with the UCL, not to mention shoulder issues.
This really puts a crimp in the Tigers post season chances.
Well that just sucks. After watching the wings all year, I was hoping the tigers would somehow make the summer interesting from a sports standpoint