Blackburn

Nick Blackburn had the worst stats of any starter in baseball last season with at least 15 starts. His ERA was over 7.

Considering he had a bone chip on his elbow that needed to be removed, that was understandable.

The problem is, even though that surgery was done way back in October, he still wasn't feeling comfortable throwing. A couple days ago he had more surgery. This time it was his wrist.

Optimistically, he'll be ready to pitch just after spring training starts. Pessimistically, it could be a lot longer. Worse? His original procedure is usually the same procedure that nearly every pitcher gets just before Tommy John surgery is required.

It's possible we'll finally see a healthy Nick Blackburn by the time spring training wraps up. It's more likely that we will never see the Nick Blackburn we liked to see pitch just a short couple of seasons ago.

Pitching is tough on a player's arm. Careers can go south in a hurry. Maybe Nick will beats the odds. But I'm starting to see why the Twins new formula for success is to hire 7 or 8 guys for the job and hope at least 5 stay healthy. It's a long season and the more arms you have, the better your chances of getting through it.

That's baseball's new reality. It's hard to believe that teams used to have 4 man rotations and many of them threw complete games on a regular basis. 250 to 300 innings a year per starter was actually pretty normal. And many of these guys had 15-20 year careers.

I've mentioned in the past that baseball needs a new way of looking at pitching. If I have time, I'll revisit that approach (with a few tweaks) tomorrow.