BP Marlins health report

Will Carroll is once again giving his preseason team health reports and yesterday was the Marlins.  As always it doesn't look all that favorable. 

All of the starters are either red or yellow (green is what you want be) but this isn't uncommon since they are all young with many coming off injuries and some having increased their innings beyond the recommended amount.

Will Carroll's team health report is premium content and while he is not a perfect predictor of possible injuries, he more accurate than almost anyone else.

To read the whole thing you will need to subscribe to the site, but I will give you an example.  It is one that caught my eye since I had heard about this phenomenon in the past but had forgotten it.

C John Baker:  One front-office type who I spoke with told me of a theory he'd heard from scouts: that catchers who struggle defensively can try so hard to overcome their inadequacies that they can overtax their arms, their backs, and their legs. Players like this might not last long enough to factor in to what we know, but it's an interesting theory. Baker is one of those guys, though the system is doing this based solely on playing time and position.

I was told this very thing by an Astros bench coach about a gazillion years ago.

In other words, whether Baker stays healthy may not just be based on the normal wear and tear of the position but also on the fact of him trying to become better defensively.

Last season Rabelo and Treanor spent some time injured and neither one worried about improving their defense.  One, Treanor didn't need to, he was already good behind the plate.  Two, Rabelo just seemed lost.  No need to worry about the defense when nothing was working.

The backup catcher slot could play an important role in the upcoming season.