Eric Chavez, Injuries Analysis

As we all know, Eric Chavez was considered few years ago one of the top baseball athletes in US. Immediately after joining the MLB his career started to be adversely affected by injuries.
Comprehensive information is necessary to understand the causes of his injuries and the results of the many treatments that he received. But we can still, with the available public information, make some analysis and have some conclusions that hopefully will help to prevent repeating this unfortunate athletic history.

The information below shows the sequence of injuries “reported”. Please observe carefully the time when they occurred, the type of injuries and they recurrence.





INJURIES BY ANATOMICAL LOCATION
Date On                Date Off           Transaction Days Off   Games Off                 Injury
Lower Back
2004-08-15            2004-08-17            DTD            2            2            ----            Low Back            Spasms
2006-06-07            2006-06-08            DTD            1            1            ----            Low Back            Soreness
2006-06-09            2006-06-10            DTD            1            1            ----            Low Back            Soreness
2007-07-05            2007-07-07            DTD            2            2            ----            Low Back            Tightness
2007-07-16            2007-07-21            DTD            5            4            ----            Low Back            Tightness
2007-07-27            2007-10-01            60-DL            66            60            ----            Low Back            Surgery                                    Microdiscectomy
2008-03-19            2008-05-29            60-DL            71            53            ----            Low Back            Recovery from Surgery            Microdiscectomy
2009-05-18            2009-05-18            On-Alr            0            0            ----            Low Back            Surgery
Microdiscectomy
Leg
2003-07-02            2003-07-04            DTD            2            2            Right            Foot            Contusion            Foul Ball
2006-04-14            2006-04-14            DTD            0            0            ----            Thigh            Strain            Hamstring
2006-09-01            2006-09-03            DTD            2            2            Right            Ankle            Sprain            Medial
2006-09-23            2006-09-23            DTD            0            0            ----            Thigh            Strain            Hamstring
2011-03-21            2011-03-25            Camp            4            -            ----            Lower Leg            Spasms            Calf
Shoulder
2005-06-14            2005-06-14            DTD            0            0            Right            Shoulder            Inflammation                                    Degeneration
2005-09-29            2005-09-30            DTD            1            1            Right            Shoulder            Soreness           
2005-10-14            2005-10-14            Off            0            0            Right            Shoulder            Surgery                                    Debridement
2007-09-05            2007-09-05            On-Alr            0            0            Right            Shoulder            Surgery                                    Debridement
2007-11-16            2007-11-16            Off            0            0            Left            Shoulder            Surgery                                    Debridement
2008-06-22            2008-06-25            DTD            3            2            Right            Shoulder            Soreness
2008-06-27            2008-06-30            DTD            3            3            Right            Shoulder            Soreness
2008-07-02            2008-09-29            60-DL            89            78            Right            Shoulder            Surgery                                    Labrum Repair, Biceps Tendon Transposition
2009-03-09            2009-03-27            Camp            18            -            Right            Shoulder            Soreness
2009-04-11            2009-04-12            DTD            1            1            Right            Shoulder            Soreness
2009-04-13            2009-04-19            DTD            6            5            Right            Shoulder            Soreness
Arm
2003-05-11            2003-05-14            DTD            3            2            Left            Hand            Contusion            HBP
2004-06-02            2004-07-09            15-DL            37            33            Right            Hand            Fracture
2006-06-25            2006-06-27            DTD            2            1            Bilateral            Forearm                                                Inflammation
2006-06-30            2006-07-03            DTD            3            3            Bilateral            Forearm                                                Inflammation
2006-07-10            2006-07-17            DTD            7            4            Bilateral            Forearm                                                Inflammation
2006-07-23            2006-07-24            DTD            1            1            Bilateral            Forearm                                                Inflammation
2007-05-22            2007-05-26            DTD            4            3            Right            Elbow            Inflammation                                                Triceps Tendinitis
2009-04-25            2009-10-05            60-DL            163            147            Right            Elbow            Neurological Injury                                    Ulnar Neuritis




Here are few of my findings:
1)    Mr. Chavez suffered problems in his back for 5 years even though the different types of strength and conditioning programs he followed and two surgeries performed on him. In the epidemiology of baseball, back pain is one of the main problems and clearly associated to batting, throwing and running. Therefore, if he does not change his sport techniques we can expect recurrent and/or new damage in his back.
2)    After all the interventions to his lower back, and loosing his contract at the A’s, it is reported that in March 2011 he started with new calf spasms. Lower back damage or degenerative processes can cause leg spasm, so could this be an indication of a new series of back problems? Probably, and sooner than expected!
3)    He also had shoulder problems for 4 years with several surgeries performed in both of his arms. Again, the shoulder is one of the primary injury locations described in the baseball epidemiology. Most of the shoulder injuries in this sport are associated to batting and throwing. Clearly in four years he did not change the primary reason that was causing the damage, therefore is likely that he will continue having problems in the same location in the near future.
4)    His arms were manifesting stress for three years until ’09 that ended in neuritis, a nerve inflammation also associated to mechanical stress (technique or training load related (volume and/or intensity)). There is not information about his arms, since he stopped playing due to the surgery in his back. Now, his arms might be well rested, however the primary source of the damage has not been modified. As a conclusion, we can expect a recurrence of the arms problems in the next few months when he resumes his activities and the volume of work increases.

Eric Chavez needs a complete revision of his training process and technical performance to be able to capitalize his time-off and start fresh. Most of his inflammations might be already reduced thanks to the recent time off (except for the back that seems already manifesting neurological signs). This is the right moment to reduce risks with a comprehensive training analysis and a restructure of his work.

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