Edinson Volquez Out for A Year After Undergoing Tommy John Surgery

In some unfortunate news today Cincinnati Reds pitcher Edinson Volquez underwent Tommy John surgery on his injured right elbow. This is a potentially devastating blow to this kid who was in only his second full season in the big leagues. It also damages the Reds' hopes of being contenders in the National League Central in 2010.

Volquez is still relatively young at 26 and earned All-Star status in his rookie season. His 2008 campaign was one every kid dreams about, as he went 17-6 over 32 starts with a 3.21 ERA and 206 strikeouts over 196 innings. This year has been pretty much back and forth. Volquez has a 4-2 record with a 4.35 ERA and 47 strikeouts over 49 innings.

After feeling pain in his elbow after his June 1 start, Volquez was shut down, hoping rest and rehab would get him back on the mound. Unfortunately, he had setbacks in two different bullpen sessions and a simulated game. So who's to blame?

Most would say Dusty Baker, the pitcher killer. Yes, Baker let Volquez throw over 140 pitches a few times, but there is something more troubling. Looking into this kid's history. I’m not so sure if one could completely blame Baker.

A lot of people would argue over how many innings Volquez threw in his rookie season. 196 is an awful lot for a rookie, right? Yes and no.

In 2007 between A, AA, AAA and the majors, Volquez threw 178 and 2/3 innings. So in reality, he only had a 17 and 1/3 increase from 2007-2008. That small of an increase is typically not associated with being damaging to a young guy. Actually, over seven seasons the Texas Rangers organization made sure he had small incremental increases and nothing overly damaging.

A lot would like to blame the World Baseball Classic for this one, but sorry boys and girls, he only pitched in one game for three innings.

I think if you want to blame anyone, it would be his minor league coaches. The problem with Volquez has to be his delivery, not innings.

When looking over his career, Volquez averaged just under six innings per start in 2008 and exactly six innings per start in 2009 (when you subtract the start where the injury occurred). So when you look at the fact that he threw 196 innings but averaged less than six per start, he must have pitch count problems.

Volquez has control problems—severe control problems. His WHIP is exactly the same in 2008 and 2009, 1.33. That’s fairly high but not uncommon for a young pitcher. Over the two seasons, he’s walked 125 batters and allowed 201 hits in just 245 innings pitched. So that’s 326 runners on base in 245 innings—a big amount.

When you take in to count the 253 strikeouts, you can really begin to see the problem. The guy just flat out throws a lot of pitches.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not blaming anyone for his injury and I think everyone should hold off on blaming Baker for this one as well. He’s had the high pitch count problem his whole career. The coaches never corrected whatever flaw there was in his delivery, and unfortunately that flaw caught up to him.

It’s unfortunate, but it happens in the high stress role of pitching at the major league level. Luckily for Volquez, he’s relatively young. He’s got plenty of time to recover and make his return.

Here are a couple articles around the blogosphere about Edinson.
Redleg Nation - Worst Case Scenario
Bootlegger Sports - Edinson Volquez is Going To Miss Plenty