Brewers await Weeks' breakout

[RynMan]

I'm not sold that players coming back from wrist injuries, take a hit in the power department.

I'd like to see some evidence if somebody has some. Power is not generated by the wrists at all.

Have you ever played baseball? Power is generated with bat speed as much as any other factor. Bat speed is largely driven by your wrist and legs and then to a lesser extent upper body strength.

Yes, I've played for 20 years. I've also spent far too long looking at the biomechanics of the swing at university.

I can tell you for a fact, that you do not generate bat velocity in your wrists. You generate it with your hips, which in turn travels longitudinally upward through your trunk and out through several segments towards the bat. The fact that the wrists are a distal segment in the kinetic chain means that they don't generate the majority of the power, in fact, theoretically they create the least. The main role of the wrists is to act as a rigid fulcrum and preserve and transfer energy to the bat.

If you wanted to argue that wrists coming back from injury are as a result weaker and are less effective in transferring that energy (they don't remain as rigid as they need to be), then I can live with that (though disagree). However, I do have a problem with thinking that the wrists generate power. There have been studies to show that wrist strength has absolutely no correlation with bat velocity.

Derek Lee's power took a hit last year? Compared to what? His career year? He still hit 22 home runs and slugged .513. That's right in line with the rest of his career.

[J35J]

Its not JUST the wrists, or JUST the hands, or JUST the legs, or JUST the hips....its all of it together that make a powerful stroke. 1 chink anywhere in that armour and you will struggle at the plate.

[Ender]

[quote="RynMan]
Derek Lee's power took a hit last year? Compared to what? His career year? He still hit 22 home runs and slugged .513. That's right in line with the rest of his career.[/quote]

yes and 16 of those 22 came in the 2nd half which was a year after his wrist problems, the expected recovery time for a wrist injury.