Scout Hints At Risky Tactics To Unlock Pitcher’s Hidden Potential

Ever notice how in baseball, the line between greatness and orthopedic surgery gets thinner every year? Sometimes I wonder if scouts are searching for the next Cy Young or just the next candidate for Tommy John rehab. That brings me to this jaw-dropping tale straight out of Coral Springs—where, apparently, mangled elbows and shredded ligaments are officially career aspirations . The image of a grizzled scout advising a fresh-faced lefty to rack up some more tendon trauma? Whew—it’s about as comforting as watching a piñata full of medical bills. But hey, who needs a healthy arm when you can have major league velocity and a ligament that sounds like bubble wrap at the dinner table, right? If you’ve ever wondered just how far the obsession with speed will go—or if elbow carnage is the hot new stat scouts are penciling in—strap in. This one’s a doozy. LEARN MORE

CORAL SPRINGS, FL—Emphasizing the importance of violent, ligament-shredding torque in achieving pro-caliber pitch velocity, regional baseball scout Phil Jenson told pitching prospect Gio Aguilar this week that he would like to see him mutilating his elbow a bit more. “You’re clocking high-90s on the radar gun, but you really need to be making that UCL pop more to get the spin rate required to fool hitters,” said Jenson, adding that the 19-year-old lefty still lacked the herky-jerky mechanics and frayed tendons that teams look for in high-ceiling arms. “Look at the greats—your deGroms, your Verlanders—they all wreck the shit out of their elbows by age 21. You should be chasing that kind of extreme damage if you want to go in the first round.” According to sources, Jenson went on to show Aguilar how to adjust his shoulder rotation to maximize the intramuscular trauma in his delivery.