But this isn't about any of that. Lawrie was recently quoted as blaming the artificial turf in Rogers Centre, home park of the Jays, for his myriad of injuries over the last 4 seasons. Lawrie, a native Canadian, claims the turf "treats [his] body kind of silly and throws it off". While there's unquestionably a huge difference between playing on a short-pile synthetic turf and a real field with real grass and real dirt, are Lawrie's woes in particular truly the fault of the stadium?
Let's take a look at a short list of Lawrie's most devastating injuries, when and where they occurred, and what was broken or strained:
End of 2011: fractured finger during batting practice, September 21st (at Toronto)
Early 2013: broken ankle sliding into 2nd base, May 27th (at Toronto)
Mid 2014: hit on the hand by Johnny Cueto, June 22nd (at Cincinnati)
Late 2014: back tightness, August 5th (at Toronto for one game)
The length of time missed due to these injuries is insignificant here, we just want to see what happened and where to cause Lawrie to land on the DL as frequently as he has. He's only topped 110 games once, when he was in the lineup for 125 contests in 2012. I'm inclined to say that his injuries have mostly been the result of bad luck, but there's no denying that, aside from the HBP from Cueto at Great American Ball Park, they have all taken place at Rogers. That aside, it still feels like the playing surface isn't really to blame here. A finger fracture while fielding balls hit in batting practice seems to be the only one wherein the artificial turf could be responsible. Players twist or fracture their ankles while sliding all the time, a hit-by-pitch is courtesy of a pitcher, and "back tightness" is one of those dummy terms designed to be a catch-all ailment when the team doesn't feel like officially disclosing the current state of a player's health.
Lawrie can't be the only guy who isn't/wasn't crazy about playing 81 games on the synthesized "field". Jays shortstop Jose Reyes has also had a bit of a spotty history since crossing over the border into the Great White North, as he also fractured his ankle while sliding into second during a game against the Royals on April 12, 2013. The difference is that they were playing at Kauffman Stadium, and Reyes returned in late June to finish out the string. When Lawrie goes down, he's usually out for the year. Another Toronto slugger, right fielder Jose Bautista, has also experienced long downtimes since discovering his power swing. The worst example came in 2012, when wrist inflammation caused him to miss the majority of the final two months of the season. However, there was no indication, then or now, that the injury was a result of playing on the field. Finally, DH Edwin Encarnacion has started 234 games at first, third, or left field since the start of 2012. He too missed time with a wrist injury, albeit the last 3 weeks of the 2013 season, but outside of that, he stayed relatively healthy while playing the field.
None of this is meant to discredit Lawrie, or paint him as a surly, injury-prone whiner (even though I might have done just that). Playing on artificial turf has long been viewed as a detriment to an athlete's health. But Lawrie's afflictions in his short career can't all be blamed on the playing field. Some of the unbroken fingers should be pointed to Lawrie's intense style of play. While it's earned him a good deal of praise and accolades thus far, any adherents to the Pete Rose-esque, balls-out type of performance will consequently find themselves riding the pine with a variety of abrasions and contusions. You can't jump into the dugout or the stands to field a pop foul and expect to come out unscathed.
Therefore, it's on Lawrie to prove in 2015 that his injury history was indeed a matter of playing on a faux-grass substance. If he misses significant time or continues to rack up days on the DL, he won't have Rogers Centre to accuse any longer.
No comments:
Post a Comment