The Arizona Diamondbacks have struggled this season with injuries, and injuries to key players. Stephen Drew will play for the first time this season, Chris Young went down with a shoulder injury when he was one of the hottest hitters in baseball and Daniel Hudson missed time earlier in the season with a shoulder issue.
Now he is sidelined with a supposed elbow injury that will keep him out of action indefinitely.
According to Tom Verducci from SI.com, this should be no surprise. He wrote a column last January that warned of the pitchers at risk of injury this season, based on a theory that pitchers under 25 years old who increase their innings pitched from year to the next by at least 30 tend to get hurt more often.
Hudson made that list:
Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson brings an old-school competitiveness to the dugout. Arizona's starters threw more innings than any rotation except Philadelphia's. Hudson pitched well down the stretch and Arizona was trying to win a World Series, so Gibson had no need to curtail Hudson's work.
Whether his injuries are related to his workload, that has yet to be determined. And predicting injuries is a very imperfect science, as bodies are built differently. Some pitchers never get hurt, no matter what they do. Others seem to be fragile.
This situation may come up again a year from now with Wade Miley. He pitched a combined 169.2 innings in 2011. He will likely surpass 200 this year, thus increasing his workload by more than 30. However, in 2013, he will be 26, so he should be off the at-risk list.
The D-backs certainly this is not the case, neither are they hoping for anything serious for Hudson. If they are to make a run to and possibly through the playoffs, they will need Hudson healthy and effective. He has struggled with both this year.
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