Communication is an essential part of Major League Baseball. Not only the communication within one franchise, but also the communication among teams, the community, and the fans. Through Gephi I attempt to follow the spread of communication of the hashtags I examined.
These tweets show that two of the more popularly used hashtags were the Giants and Padres out of the four other team hashtags I used. My MLB hashtag is located in the center while the two teams are located on the outside. Also near the middle of the image is the MLB Pipeline user, which is a branch of the MLB that specifies in minor league prospects and examines them in unison with their major league affiliates. The most interesting user is CentroApuesta because it is a Spanish gambling website for sports. This is interesting because it shows how gambling is an aspect of sports that fans indulge in while watching their teams play. This is also not something I was expecting to see show up in this image, but I am not surprised considering how popular gambling on sports has grown to become. There are two other small clusters in the inside, which could represent two other teams central to the MLB and other teams in general. This would lead me to believe that they are popular teams and could possibly represent the Yankees and Red Sox tweets that I examined. Overall there are a lot of tweets on the outside portion of the image that are not in large clusters. I cannot clearly identify these but would assume that they only hold loose relation to the MLB overall. This just shows how communication from baseball is very widespread and that the major leagues isn’t the important part of the game, but how baseball is impactful worldwide.
Having the opportunity to see which twitter handles are communicating the most and with who leads me to want to uncover the mysteries that go on inside front offices. A great source to keep updated on all the latest news and transactions in the MLB is MLBTradeRumors.com whose motto is “It it’s whispered, we hear it”. This website provides information about team moves that are unknown to the common fan. Each transaction is then analyzed to determine why these moves were best suited for that particular team. Spring Training has almost concluded and General Managers are in a frenzy for acquiring team depth. During the start of spring training 12 pitchers suffered injuries to either their elbow or shoulder requiring surgery and forcing them to miss the entire season (CBS Sports). This total does not include the players that suffered similar injuries before the first games of spring training even began. A common trend is that these players are all young in their careers and their arms cannot handle this kind stress. In the era of “bullpenning” (adding depth to the bullpen with multiple top of the line late inning pitchers). This is a new trend where teams are straying from the norm with just one or two great pitchers in the bullpen; they now have many pitchers to appear in specific situations to ensure they always have the upper hand on their opponent.
Pitching depth is necessary since so many young hard throwing pitchers suffer injuries that force them to miss at least a full season. The rapid uptick in increased throwing for players is definitely a concern for players and especially pitchers. There is no way to fully understand every players arm and determine how much they can throw and how quickly they increase their total amount of throws or pitch count throughout the spring. Those who survive the spring aren’t fully in the clear yet either. In 2016 four more pitchers required season ending surgery on their arms over the course of the first four weeks.
First Month of season: 4/3-5/3
Dan Winkler 4/11: fractured elbow
Robbie Erlin 4/18: elbow surgery
Chris Bassitt 4/29: elbow surgery
Garrett Richards 5/2: Elbow surgery
These pitchers were still just early into their season when they got hurt and were at high risk of injurty due to it being early in the year. However, after surviing the first month the risk of injury seems to decline. Only three pitchers needed season ending surgery over the course of the next two months. But, if you look closely at the players that had their seasons cut short they had been dealing with injuries for the whole year.
5/3-7/10
Carson Smith 5/15: Elbow surgery
Drew VerHagen 5/23: Thoracic outlet syndrome
Gavin Floyd 6/26: Torn right lat
Carson Smith didn’t start the season until late because he was resting his already injured elbow that he developed during spring training. He would only make one appearance after missing the first month and then completely shut down his rehab and decided he needed surgery. Drew VerHagen had surgery to fix Thoracic Outlet Syndrome that causes pain in the shoulder area. VerHagen most likely had suffered injuries in the past or his shoulder simply began to fail over time. This type of injury is rare and has not really been brought to light in the MLB until recently. Lastly, Gavin Floyd had to cut his season short because he suffered a torn lat. Floyd had a history of injury as he suffered fractures in his elbow in 2014, and 2015. It is plausible to say that Floyd is at a greater risk of injury than other players. In 2016, the mid season all star break lasted a week, this provides players with a break from baseball and chance to return to their friends and family. However this is also a full week of rest for most players. Taking a full week off from throwing allows your arm to recover and the feeling of fatigue to disappear. From my own experience, taking this much time off from throwing makes you feel like superman when you throw again. I have noticed my own velocity increase after taking a full week off from throwing and then beginning to throw again. Unfortunately, the next day my shoulder was extremely sore and that feeling did not go away for the rest of the season. Over the course of the first two weeks, post all star break, four more pitchers suffered season ending injuries.
Post All star break pitcher injuries: Game 1 (7/16)
Nick Tropeano (7/19): Torn elbow ligament
Luke Hochevar 7/25: Thoracic outlet syndrome
Aaron Nola 7/29: Elbow strain (season ending)
Colin Rea 7/31: Elbow surgery
MLB Analysts are the main source for speedy updates on transactions as well as their applied agendas. Brian Kenny always gives his own and statistical input in his tweets and has recently been focusing on the utilization of bullpen pitchers and their frequent substitutions. Ken Rosenthal is a more unique and frequent tweeter than Kenny. Rosenthal posts tweets rapidly about transactions as well as news around the league. Recently, he has mentioned the decision to suspend Juerys Familia only 15 games for domestic abuse violations is a very low number for a serious crime, but a longer suspension would push back his eligibility for free agency and keep him under contract a year longer. If the Mets do not release him (which they should have done) then they would have him under team contract for an extra year if the suspension were longer. This could be an attempt by MLB to rid Familia from the league quicker in the long run. Rosenthal also posts tweets with links to other current and relevant news articles about players and teams. Joel Sherman is another analyst that embodies a similar profile to Ken Rosenthal.
“MLB Injuries.” CBSSports.com. CBS Sports, n.d. Web.