For the 2002 season Gagne earned the job as Dodger closer and he went on a three-season tear the likes of which baseball has never seen. By 2005 he had broken down, and it appears in 2006 that he has totally broken down. When he signed his 2-year, $19 million contract before the 2005 season Gagne was considered a bargain; now he looks like a bust, an all-time flash in the pan.
In trying to figure out what has happened here you have to consider if at some point Gagne used PEDs, and has he been paying the price as a result. Remember that Gagne had Tommy John surgery back in 1997. Also, remember that Jason Grimsley underwent this same surgery and turned to human growth hormone for help.
Does anyone really think that Grimsley was the first pitcher to use HgH to get help recovering from this major surgery? And as part of this “discussion” you have to wonder exactly why guys are able to “add” miles per hour to their fastballs after this surgery.
Do these extra “mphs” result just from the surgery itself or does pharmaceutical assistance – in the form of HgH or some other substance - deserve the credit? If you’re not thinking along these lines than you haven’t been paying close enough attention to what has been happening in Major League baseball.
Gagne’s high-90s fastball that made its appearance in the 2001 season was what made him the dominating, “sure thing” closer that he was for three seasons starting in 2002. Everyone attributed his new velocity as the unintended benefit of his surgery, but could something else have been responsible for his new fastball? Without this something else would Gagne have become a Cy Young award winner?
The latest injury suffered by Gagne is very odd. The story is that he woke up Tuesday morning with severe back pain, pain so severe he needed to get an epidural. Pain that ostensibly came from two herniated disks in his back.
All we’re getting out of the Dodgers is that Gagne’s latest physical woe just appeared out of the blue and that this injury is totally unrelated to baseball.
This is ridiculous.
Gagne underwent surgery in 2005 to repair a nerve in his pitching elbow, in early April of this year he had a nerve removed from his pitching elbow and has been on the disabled list since early June when he experienced problems with his elbow after a two strikeout performance against the Mets.
Article comments
1 - Brent
I wouldn't be so suspicious about Kerry Wood's arm problems. Young, dominant pitchers have succumbed to arm problems before their prime since, most notably, Boston's Joe Wood in the dead-ball era, and Wood has had nothing but trouble for almost all his body of work in MLB. (The irony of sharing the same name, so far as I know, is coincidental.)
You might have a better case with Gagne, but even then, I wouldn't necessarily jump to the s-word conclusion.
2 - sal m
it's not just about steroids and hgh...wood has had injuries that have nothing to do with pitching, as evidenced by the knee injury that he came into spring training with...if he's working out in such a way where he's got a knee problem, who knows what else he's done during his career that could have resulted in his being injured.
3 - Hairynipples
Perhaps Gagne's back problems started when he was driving around with Eddie Griffin the other night.
4 - Yaa101
The problem of this all is the professional amount of money which turns these guys into commodoties and their sports into freakshows.
I bet these guys here things like "Shut up, we are paying you insane amounts of money, so you do as we say" a lot.
I guess the stakes are so high that all players are replacable without whim.
I really feel for all those young teens that got suckered into trajects like these only to enrich the scouts, trainers, coaches, financers and so on, while getting physically and mentaly raped in the process.
It looks a lot like the record industry or a sweatshop industry mentality what is going on in sports these days.
5 - sal m
the sweatshop mentality may exist to some degree, but there is no shortage of those who are willing to prostitute themselves in order to work for the sweatshop that pays millions of dollars a year to play a game.
6 - Yaa101
yes, and they all do it out of free will...
or aren't they?
7 - Yaa101
Anyway, it is nice to see that someone from the field is noticing these things...
I hope you keep noticing these things over time to come and be carefull about the bodies of the people you train. Also I wish you success.