00:00Now I want to talk about a guy absolutely shutting it down in the minor leagues.
00:05Tarek Skubal made a start for the West Michigan Whitecaps, the high A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, on Sunday
00:12afternoon.
00:13Now, A.J. Hinch mentioned it could be one and done in terms of a rehab start.
00:17Skubal is coming off of that new nanoscope procedure.
00:20He had loose bodies in his elbow, and there was a tiny nanoscopic scope procedure done
00:26where it effectively served as an injection.
00:29So he went under the knife, and about a month later, Skubal fires five scoreless innings in high A,
00:36two hits, six Ks, no walks, and Skubal threw 54 pitches, 44 strikes in five innings in high A.
00:44I understand it's high A, and he didn't make a rehab with AAA Toledo, but Skubal looked like Skubal.
00:49And this not only opens the door for the trade conversation or the Tigers making a run right back
00:55into contention conversation, this also opens the door for the brand new procedure
01:01that changes baseball conversation.
01:03And I want to start with that one because Snell just got the same thing.
01:07Blake Snell with the Dodgers just did the same exact thing.
01:09We'll see how Snell responds to it.
01:11But if Skubal is any indication, this nanoscope procedure changes the way we look at bone chips
01:18and loose bodies in a pitcher's elbow, man.
01:19Yeah, which is huge.
01:21I mean, look, I think we've never been more in tune.
01:25And I say we like I'm out there on the mound.
01:27But in terms of just players and pitchers, like in the past, they used to throw and throw
01:32until literally they couldn't really throw.
01:34Whereas now it's like you feel a little something.
01:35You're getting it checked out immediately.
01:37So, yes, you still have a ton of Tommy John surgeries.
01:38But I think a lot more frequently now we're seeing some of the minor stuff like the bone
01:42chips or whatever pop up because players are a lot more in tune with what they're feeling.
01:46And then they're getting that checked out.
01:48So even so, you're still having so many guys miss multiple months.
01:52I mean, how many players with with those bone spurs did we see at the start of the year?
01:56It felt like more than TJ.
01:57And so to be able to expedite that process is absolutely huge.
02:02And I think to be able to have something that, you know, even is like the best case scenario
02:07in the past, it was still multiple months in a ramp up.
02:10And like what we're seeing with like 100 green, we still haven't seen them, right?
02:12Like Scooble got this procedure well after green and is going to be back well before green.
02:17So it really is a game changer, especially for pitchers where, I mean, a month is it's a
02:23huge chunk of your workload.
02:25And especially for these guys in contract years, like there's so many implications in so many
02:30different ways, but it's, it's really exciting.
02:32And I know Scooble might just be a freak.
02:34So that's why it's, it's a fun, I guess, just like wait and see kind of thing.
02:39Scooble might just be different.
02:41And I think he is, but at the same time, the human body is a human body.
02:44And I'm really interested to see how these next, you know, few examples of it, Snell and
02:49others respond because this could be a really exciting.
02:52And I would say just positive just development for, for medicine and, and for baseball.
02:58It seems like Scooble also took the time to put on 10 more pounds of mass, like just
03:02straight, like James Harden thing going on there.
03:06It's crazy.
03:07I had the way that he was like sauntering on the mountain.
03:09I was like, Oh my gosh, you're a unit.
03:10And he's always like been a unit over the last couple of years, but I, he just looked
03:14bigger somehow.
03:15And maybe it was relative to the hitters in the box because he's seeing a bunch of 20
03:19year old guys, but it's just amazing.
03:21Again, this is from Jason Beck of MLB.com.
03:23Smaller instrument is used in this nanoscope procedure to remove the loose body from Scooble's
03:28elbow procedure would be less invasive impact, less tissue and induce less swelling return
03:33would thus be simpler from regaining range of motion to throwing.
03:36And with less time sideline, Scooble would hopefully retain more of his arm endurance that he had
03:40built up before the surgery.
03:41That is huge.
03:42You do not want to see your buildup fall to the wayside because when you have to rebuild
03:47up and when you have to make three to four rehab starts, you're behind the eight ball,
03:51especially in a contract year.
03:52And there's always risk, right?
03:54Could you get ahead of yourself and then create another issue?
03:57So there's so many reasons why this is positive.
03:59The other thing is all of those things that you just read are a hundred percent true.
04:03Just off of seeing this first outing from him, he was, he touched 99, six times.
04:07If you want to round up from 98, five, but he was North of 99.0, I think several times
04:13in high.
04:13Yay.
04:13There's no juice there.
04:14Like that means he'll get to a hundred.
04:16He didn't throw a fastball below 95.8.
04:19And that was the, and that was the only pitch he threw below 96.
04:23And then the other part that I think is really telling.
04:25And again, a lot of this could just be Scooble being different is the feel was a hundred percent
04:29there.
04:30Again, it was 82% strikes.
04:31The changeups were, were dotted.
04:33Like it was like, he didn't even miss a turn in the rotation and part, partly Scooble, but
04:39I think also largely in part, the fact that his body didn't feel abnormal, which is like
04:45a prerequisite to even the most minor of minor surgeries.
04:48So this is really exciting.
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