ERod Scratched from Opening Day Start Per ESPN

Red(s)HawksFan

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Jan 23, 2009
20,676
Maine
How can he have a dead arm prior to opening day? Is this a mistake by the training staff?
Pitchers get dead arm in spring training ALL THE TIME. It's not a training mistake. It's a part of training. Not that it's intentional, but it's a common occurrence as pitchers are ramped up from zero to Opening Day ready. Often it hits with a couple weeks left, but as this spring training was a bit abbreviated and ERod didn't exactly hit the ground running on day one, it's coming a bit late.

It's nothing to panic over.

Edit to add: I put the term "spring training dead arm" into google and the second link I got was for this article from 2015 describing Jon Lester missing a spring training start with "dead arm". He recovered, starting on Opening Day, and didn't miss a start the whole season.
 

nvalvo

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Jul 16, 2005
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We've had basically amazing health news all Spring, so I guess it's only fair that in the space of a few days, JD Martinez should eat some bad sushi, Christian Vazquez should get hit in the face with a baseball, and Rodriguez should go through dead arm.
 

mwonow

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Sep 4, 2005
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ERod being unavailable for health reasons is like "fires in Tonawanda" - it's 'news' in that it attracts commentary, but it's not at all a 'new' phenomenon
 

greek_gawd_of_walks

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Apr 14, 2009
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Far from ideal, far from awful, especially if Cora is somewhat confident that Rodriguez will be able to avoid the IL. In a full-length season, this shit happens, particularly for a guy who was laid up as long as E-Rod was. Buckle up and get used to it.
 

cornwalls@6

Less observant than others
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Apr 23, 2010
6,249
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Disappointing, but not at all surprising given the long layoff. Hopefully just preventative maintenance, but even an IL stint/couple of missed starts in April isn’t the end of the world , if it helps him for the grind of the season.
 

CanvasAlley

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May 22, 2016
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Los Angeles, CA
Pitchers get dead arm in spring training ALL THE TIME. It's not a training mistake. It's a part of training. Not that it's intentional, but it's a common occurrence as pitchers are ramped up from zero to Opening Day ready. Often it hits with a couple weeks left, but as this spring training was a bit abbreviated and ERod didn't exactly hit the ground running on day one, it's coming a bit late.

It's nothing to panic over.

Edit to add: I put the term "spring training dead arm" into google and the second link I got was for this article from 2015 describing Jon Lester missing a spring training start with "dead arm". He recovered, starting on Opening Day, and didn't miss a start the whole season.

Thank you very much for explaining. While I felt it happening so close to opening day was an aberration, you are correct that Spring training was abbreviated.
 

nvalvo

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Jul 16, 2005
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Rogers Park
We're going to see more of this around the league. Just in general, nobody threw enough IP last season, so every team is going to have their pitching depth severely challenged.
 

IpswichSox

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Jul 14, 2005
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Suburbs of Washington, DC
Hopefully this is nothing, but more typically dead arm shows up earlier in March, and pitchers recover without missing a regular season start in April. Again hopefully this is only unfortunate timing.
 

mauf

Anderson Cooper × Mr. Rogers
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I’m sure Cora isn’t lying when he says this is “unrelated” to E-Rod’s bout with COVID. But I’m skeptical that E-Rod’s lack of readiness to start the season is truly “unrelated” to his inability to work out for several months while he recovered from this serious illness. Hopefully that’s all it is, and E-Rod just needs a few weeks longer than usual to get ready to throw 90-100 pitches in a big-league game.