Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Luke Bryan and The Misery of Injury Prone Athletes

Hello,

On Sunday I listened to a lot of music by Luke Bryan, he's got some pretty cool songs. These are two of my favorite songs of his. The first is "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye":



"All My Friends Say":



Is there anything more frustrating than a talented, but injury prone, athlete? Such players as Michael Vick- who was injured yet again last night on a solid hit to the ribs- will cause a loyal fan base to go on an emotional roller coaster. Usually once a player becomes injury prone, he usually stays that way throughout the rest of his career. Jerry Jones isn't the smartest owner, not even close, but at least he didn't give Vick $100 million for five years. The Cowboys have two injury prone wide receivers in Dez Bryant and Miles Austin. Right now the Cowboys are without their top 3 receivers with Jason Witten injured too. Bryant compounds his being so injury prone with also being an idiot. None of those three players may play the rest of the preseason. I'm glad I wasn't expecting much from the Cowboys this season anyway. (I'm not sure who I would rather have out of Tony Romo or Vick? Honestly neither. Does this make RG3 the second best quarterback in the NFC East?)

Carl Crawford started out the season on the injury list from off season surgery. Then last night it was announced that he'll be undergoing Tommy John surgery on Thursday. Crawford only played 31 games for the Red Sox this year. After the first two years of this contract he's been a horrific signing. Although with Crawford joining pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka and Jon Lackey in getting Tommy John surgery, I hope the Red Sox are getting the frequent use discount. (I'll refrain from commenting on the Red Sox firing their pitching coach, other than it seems like re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.)

No player will probably have more injury problems than Grant Hill. Perhaps one of the few players to be relatively close to Hill is University of Utah quarterback Jordan Wynn. He's had his last two seasons ended because of injuries. All ready this season he has been sidelined a few days for a shoulder injury. But if he was just injury prone, that would be one thing. But he also isn't that good of a quarterback. I've yet to see him play in a game that I was impressed by him. He doesn't have a lot of arm strength and throws very few spirals. He actually throws a lot of ducks when passing. He's a mediocre quarterback at best and will never take the Utes very far.

It's time for the Utes to move into the future and start freshman Travis Wilson. Sure he's going to make some mistakes, but he has so much potential. If I was Kyle Whittingham, obviously I'm not, I would name Wilson as my starting quarterback now. I would also help Wynn find a good place to go for his two remaining seasons of eligibility. That would leave Jon Hays the backup for this season, but I'm sure the Utes have some more stud quarterbacks in the pipeline.

What do you do with these injury prone players? My thought is to let them go from the team. I don't care how great a player is. If I can only rely on him to play in half the games, what's the point? I'd rather have the slightly less talented player who can play nearly every game. A case in point. This season the Red Sox are giving paying Crawford $20,357,143. With him starting the season and ending the season on the disabled list, we already know that he's only going to play in 31 games this season. That works out to him being paid $656,682 per game. All this for a player who only hit .282 in his 31 games.

Would the Red Sox be better off having a second player like Mike Aviles? Aviles is only hitting .255 so far this season. However he's projected to play 146 games this season and is "only" paid $1,200,000 for the whole season. He's making an average of $8,219 a game. (A stat that points out how ridiculously overpaid professional athletes are. If Crawford had played in all 162 regular season games this season, wishful thinking, he would have been paid $125,661 per game.)

Unfortunately in MLB contracts are mostly guaranteed, so the Red Sox are stuck with Lackey and Crawford for the next few seasons. Matzusaka, who again is on the disabled list, will finally be gone at the end of the season. Let's hope the Red Sox can his the $10 million he made this season and find an effective, mostly healthy player.

themusicaddict

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