Nats Manager Davey Martinez on Spring Training (An injury thread)

[Burgold]

I was listening this morning to 106.7 FM and the Sports Junkies were interviewing Davey Martinez. One of the questions they broached was what he learned and if he would have done anything differently. The hosts gave him the out by recalling the slew of injuries the Nats had at the beginning of their season. I thought what he said was interesting and might relate to our Redskins who so often lead the league in injuries.

 

He said that he made a demand that his players come into Spring Training in shape instead of coming with the idea of playing into shape. He said the team provided each position group a different regimen. So far, he reports he has seen a huge difference. Whereas last year, the Nats almost immediately suffered a bunch of "ankles and calves" this year that has been absent. While last year, the Nats could only run the bases three times, this year they are going eight. Now, I don't know if this will last and whether it will ultimately last/matter, but it got me thinking about the Redskins.

 

Are the Redskins doing enough in the offseason? Are they working out correctly in the offseason to prevent injury? Where the Nats had a bunch of ankles and calves, we always have a ton of hamstrings and ankles. I remember way too many games where our tanks ran dry in the second half even though the time of possession was relatively fair.

 

Many of us have wondered about injuries and speculated about fields, training facilities, the skill set and knowledge of our training staff etc. I do wonder big a part of the problem is this issue that Davey brought up. Too many of our players arrive in the wrong shape and are trying to play themselves into shape through the minicamps and training camps.

[Captain James]

26 minutes ago, Burgold said:

Too many of our players arrive in the wrong shape and are trying to play themselves into shape through the minicamps and training camps.

It's hard not to think that some of it is players taking their "job" for granted. They assume that since they've been physically gifted/freakish their whole lives, that they need less training now that they've "made it."

 

Of course this may be completely false. Either way, playing at the highest level in your sport should make high-level training the obvious norm. But what do I know?

[Burgold]

All this makes me think of Laron Landry who was a workout fiend, but trained like a weightlifter. He wanted to get pumped up like Arnold Schwartzenegger. He became so bulky that his body began to break down.

 

He worked hard, but he worked wrong. His position demanded power, but it also required speed, agility, suddeness, etc. His regimen ran contrary to what his job required. No one could say he was lazy or didn't train, but what he did proved contrary to becoming the best football player he could be.

So, it could be an all of the above.

 

It could be lazy players, players that party too much, it could be players who train incorrectly, or it could be the fields, equipment, bad luck, etc.

[goskins10]

I am sure there is a bit of the players not working out properly. But to me the biggest cause of that is the CBA (still the players fault). I see it as a case of be careful what you wish for. They wanted less training camp, less hitting, less work and the result is more injuries. While it seems to impacted the Redskins to a greater degree, with the odd exception of last year, the amount of injuries has grown considerably since the last CBA was signed. 

 

Here is a chart of the total number of injuries for each year with a trend line added. The data I have only goes back to 2009. But it's still clear the trend is certainly upwards. 2017 was actually the worst for the NFL. The second table shows the Redskins injuries and where they ranked each of those years. 

 

I took this a step further for the Redskins, and added averages for the 5 yrs before Jay and the 5 yrs Jay has been here. I am and will continue to be supportive of Jay. However, there certainly seems to be some sort of correlation here. The 5 yrs before Jay the team was in the lower half for injuries 4 of those 5 season - the only one higher was 2012 when the team was 9th. In the 5 yrs jay has been here the team has only NOT been in the top 10 in injuries once - 2016. The averages for each of those 5 yr segments? Pre-Jay 18th, with Jay 8th. That's a significant difference. There are rankings so the CBA does not impact this. It's all relative to the rest of the NFL. 

 

i do not however believe Jay and Jay alone is responsible here. Bruce has to own at least some portion of this since he has been the GM 3 of those 5 yrs. In fact, a closer look at the data shows that when Scot was the GM, the team was 4th his first yr but dropped all the way to 20th his second year then jumped right back up to 6th when he left and Bruce wa the man. In 2014 the team 10th. When MS was the HC/GM (at least that's what we were told), the team fared much better. 

 

Coincidence? i do not think so. While Jay is certainly not blameless. I believe a large part of the issue is Bruce signing and keeping injured players. We do not know the exact breakdown on how much this is on Jay wanting to keep players and Bruce over riding him. But we do know they have clashed on players and FA approach in general. To what degree? Only they know that. 

 

Here is where the data came from. It's a pay site but I am grandfathered in at $5.00/yr. So I have kept it. https://www.mangameslost.com/category/nfl/nfl-2018-season/

 

Note: LOst AV = Lost Approximate Value based on the previous season - A QB that was top 10 at their position last yr will count more in terms of lost value than a LG that was average at thier position.

 

Lost WAV is the Lost Weighted Approximate Value based on the players career. So same as the AV but accounts for their contribution for their entire career. So Aaron Rogers will have a higher Lost WAV than Jared Goff but Goff would have a higher Lost AV since his last season was better than Aaron's last. Higher is worse. They are not great metrics but are at least a good starting point.  I do not put a lot of stock in them but they are of some value.