Breakable Young Pitchers - A New Trend or an Old Story?

In case you didn't hear today's news, Stephen Strasburg most likely will have Tommy John surgery; he'll miss the rest of this season and probably all of next year. This is a huge blow obviously for the Nationals, but also for baseball, as well. Does it seem like this type of injury is more prevalent in recent years? Can anything be done to prevent this? Or is it something that has always been happening to pitchers in baseball; information is just more widely available these days?

Joe Posnanski from Sports Illustrated published an article titled All Too Familiar, where he talks about Strasburg's injury right after it happened (long before the TJ announcement, interestingly enough). He put Strasburg with many other baseball names who had the talent, but couldn't maintain the arm.

There is an endless list of names… players who could have been in Cooperstown with the great stuff they had…

These are not exceptions to the rule. They are the rule.

...

All of which is to say that Stephen Strasburg fights the odds. But he was fighting the odds anyway, long before this latest injury.

The article is well-worth the read.