Dr. James Andrews. He's the guy you always hear about and you've probably never heard talk -- or seen live for that matter.

All you know is that he's generally the guy who is telling you that your favorite baseball player is in rough shape. When his name pops up, it's never a good thing.

He deals with a lot with pitchers, and while I have no basis of fact for this, it feels like he's dealing with more this season than usual.

Young Rays stud Matt Moore could be the latest in what seems like a long list of pitchers to require Tommy John surgery to repair the UCL in the elbow.

Patrick Corbin is one of several top arms to require Tommy John surgery this season. (Photo by Rob Tringali/Getty Images)
Patrick Corbin is one of several top arms to require Tommy John surgery this season. (Photo by Rob Tringali/Getty Images)
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The Braves have already lost two top starters (Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy) for the season. The A's lost Jarrod Parker and the Diamondbacks are without young ace Patrick Corbin. And the Mets are without Matt Harvey. These are young, prominent arms.

If you follow me on my new Twitter account (which most of you don't, as I'm still in the 40s on followers since my creation two weeks ago), I wrote yesterday that it was sad to see how prevalent Tommy John has been this year.

Andrews was on with MLB Network Radio on Sirius on Thursday and spoke in a fascinating way about the prevalence of TJ. Andrews said that often times kids will develop minor elbow problems that go undetected in youth and really rear their ugly heads in adulthood.

He also said that youth baseball being played all year round causes massive problems and kids who throw so hard at young ages are really straining ligaments that haven't developed yet.

He said a high school arm really isn't built to throw above 85 MPH.

Listen to the full interview here. It's great stuff.

 

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