Dr. David Chao, Sports Injury Expert

Celebrate and save at Ashley's Anniversary Sale. With hot buys, your choice of colors starting at just $3.99. Ashley Sleep Mattresses starting at $2.50. Plus, receive a free adjustable base with select mattress purchases and shop top mattress brands like Stearns and Foster, Tempur-Pedic, Purple, and Beautyrest Black with 60 months special financing only at Ashley. Subject to credit approval, no minimum purchase required.

Minimum monthly payment, down payment, tax and delivery may be required. See store for details. Old Man Winter here. If I had it my way, it would stay winter all year long. Short days, wind chill, black ice, and a good polar vortex.

Heaven. Wait, is it getting warm in here? Your cold snap is over, Old Man Winter. Spring has arrived.

Spring. Spring is here, which means it's the perfect time to get away in the Hyundai you've always wanted. Visit the Hyundai Getaway Sales Event where you can get great deals on all of our award-winning Hyundai models like the tech-filled Tucson and Kona as well as the spacious Palisade.

Enjoy wherever you go with the peace of mind that comes with America's best warranty and three years or 36,000 miles of complimentary maintenance. But hurry in, these deals won't last. Add more joy to your journey at the Hyundai Getaway Sales Event. Now get 0% APR or up to 1,500 bonus cash on the Hyundai Tucson. Now during the Hyundai Getaway Sales Event. Offers end soon.

Call 562-314-4603 for details. Doctor, thank you for taking the time to hop on. Oh, thanks. Thanks for having me. I listen to you all the time in the car, so happy to hop on. I appreciate that.

I guess the question, let's start on the pictures first. I know it's a different day, it's a different time, it's a different era, but when it comes to someone like Garrett Cole, who's been a workhorse, it's no shock that, you know, he's injured or hurt. But someone like Aaron Judge, I get it, he's a giant human. He's feeling soreness. They don't have full certainty that he's going to be ready to go. Are players not working out the ramp up in the off season? How did they just show up already in pain? Well, you know, in Aaron Judge's case, you know, that was a turf toe injury that lingered and perhaps there's compensation involved. In Garrett Cole's case, yeah, he's been a workhorse and it remains to be seen what's up to the elbow, but certainly some significant concern. But the bottom line is this, as players are bigger, faster, stronger, your bodies are built a certain way.

So it's like you're putting more horsepower, you're putting a Formula 1 engine on my car chassis, right? And that's where you get some of these breakdowns. And, you know, you mentioned Ben Simmons, you talk about NBA stuff, Kawhi Leonard. The NBA gets a lot of grief for load management, right?

And they're trying to manage that. But let me tell you something, load management has been around a long time in every sport. Talk baseball. I mean, I'm old enough, I don't know if you are, you may be, where it was four starters. Now it's five and maybe a six man rotation, right?

Everything changes. And load management, you know, you have guys that sit, they don't play, you know, all the time in baseball. It happens in basketball, but basketball gets the biggest grief for it. Because when, you know, Steph Curry goes and visits Philadelphia and he sits that one game, that's the one time. But when Ronald Acuna goes and plays the Phillies, it's multiple games.

So fans don't get to see him, so you don't get that grief. But load management is even part of football. You know, okay, an alternating series for running backs or other situations. It's in every sport and injuries are what people worry about. And especially, you know, the, you know, the overuse injuries.

Dr. David Chow is here with us, the JR Sport Reshow on CBS Sports Radio. When you talk about pitchers specifically, there was an article that came out last week, it had a lot of quotes from Max Scherzer about trying to put a larger emphasis on starting pitching. You know, nowadays you don't want the starter to go past, you know, two appearances versus a batter. And we have to cobble games together with multiple relievers.

They're also making now almost 40 million dollars a year. Do you think that we can get back to a place where we have somebody with a rubber arm? Or are we way past the Nolan Ryan going out there and just throwing flames his whole life? Yeah, well, Nolan Ryan was a little bit of a unicorn, right? And once again, I'm old enough when, you know, relievers, you know, pitch the eighth and ninth inning, and sometimes the seventh and ninth inning.

Right now, you'd never have that. And starters went routinely seven innings. Now five, it seems to be the target, right, as you talk about Max Scherzer. But to be fair, part of that is every major leaguer basically throws in the 90s or high 90s. It's commonplace to have a guy throw a hundred now. That didn't used to be the case.

And guess what? The only collateral ligament in your pitcher's elbow didn't get any thicker and stronger over the last decade or two. Yeah, that's without a shadow of a doubt. Now, having said that, what can be done, if anything, for younger players, youth players, Peewee to high school, to college as they move forward? Is there any particular adjustments that can be made at the youth level? Yeah, you know, obviously, arm care and pitch counts. But you got to remember, you do pitch counts. But do you really count all the warm up pitches? We do count all the practice pitching that happens. So it's it's overall arm care and having good coaching.

Yeah. What I tell youngsters and my son's 11, you know, a little leaguer, pony leaguer now, Bronco player now, and he pitches is, look, forget about throwing curveballs and all this stuff early. Just work on spotting your pitches, because guess what? As you continue to grow, your release point will be different. Your curveball or slider or whatever you're throwing is not going to be the same pitch as you get to high school and beyond. So why are you trying to refine that pitch now? Just work on speed and spot location.

And you should be good enough right now and worry about the fancy stuff down the road. Former NFL team doctor 17 years Dr. David Chow is here with us on CBS Sports Radio. When you think about some of the the advancements in health care, for instance, Aaron Rodgers return and also Kirk Cousins. So we learned that Lucas G. Alito of the Red Sox is not having another Tommy John, but they're they're putting like a hinge or brace internally on his arm. Could you see a scenario as technology advances that, you know, players come back even faster or maybe these injuries are kind of nipped in the bud sooner? Well, we hope so.

Right. There's a lot of biologics going on from PRP to stem cells to exosomes and some of this bracing stuff maybe can help. Look, what Aaron Rodgers did wasn't that special.

The internal brace has been around 15 plus years. He just advanced his rehab technique. Look, the day that it happened, as soon as Robert Sala indicated indeed it looked like an Achilles, I tweeted out it wasn't impossible for Aaron Rodgers to return to play that season in the early playoffs. I wasn't saying December, I was saying early playoffs, but the Jets would have to get there, number one. And number two, if they got there without Aaron Rodgers, what are the chances that they would replace the starting quarterback for Aaron Rodgers?

It turns out he didn't get there. And part of that is because he's a quarterback and it was his front foot, not his push off side. It wouldn't have happened if he was a running back or a DB or anything like that. So not all injuries are exactly the same.

And Dr. David Chiles, we start to wrap things up here. We have players who seemingly get hurt at a higher rate, but they also, their careers are longer. We're talking about more and more quarterbacks. Kirk Cousins got a deal that will take him until he is 40 years old. You know, even at his age, going to be 36, Russell Wilson, a little bit of a reclamation project, is still going to be looked upon to lead the way. And obviously we know about what Tom Brady just did and completed. What are your thoughts as to why? I mean, are these guys rested so much or are they conditioned to fall apart quick but last longer? What's the deal?

Yeah. And you know, I just this week talked to Philip Rivers and he confirmed his potential return to the 49ers that didn't work out coming out of retirement. And Joe Flacco obviously did it with the Browns and now he's going on to Indy. I think part of it is what, at least in terms of quarterback, look, running backs aren't lasting any longer. They're very fungible and they're out of the league early.

Why do you see we're still on it? But in the cerebral position of quarterback, I think that's what people are realizing. It's not about how strong is your arm and can you fit it within a very tight window. It's how to read defenses and make the right throws. But if you have to, if you make 10 tight window throws and make it on your big arm, that means you're going to throw more picks because a tip ball, a little bit of wind, you name it, it's a bigger deal. But if you make the right throws on time on scheme, I think that's where you can have more longevity but also not have to rely on a big powerful arm to get it in there. And that's where I think quarterbacks have more longevity nowadays. It's pretty wild.

The quarterbacks are out there playing. We got LeBron James. And what do you attribute his success? We always hear about his body maintenance. He has yet to have a major, major injury. Is he a unicorn as well? Or are we bound to see more players last into the almost 40s?

Well, he's clearly a unicorn. He's been playing at a high level since high school, right? And he's played into the postseason basically every year. So whatever number of seasons he has, I think you have to add several more to that to basically playoff time that goes all the way into June for him most of the time.

And so, yeah, I do think that he's a unicorn. Just to wrap up here, I am very worried about Garrett Cole. We do things at Sports Injury Central based on video and information.

There's no video here. But here's the thing. When you get an MRI and you don't have an immediate announcement that everything is fine, the next thing you hear is a one or two month absence and he's flying out to meet the surgeon. That's to me saying your flight is delayed an hour.

That's a check back with me time. That's not a realistic he's going to be ready to go time. And let's just say he gets a PRP or he recovers or he doesn't need surgery. And let's hope that's the case. If he starts ramping up a month from now, he's probably two, three months away from playing. And that's the best case scenario. So is he going to get 30 starts this year for the Yankees?

I think they're going to be lucky if they get 20 out of them. I mean, at this point in time, if I were a Yankees fan and you said you get Garrett Cole of two thousand twenty three back right after the All-Star break, I would take it. It's a hard knock life right now for Yankees fans. Dr. David Shaw, where can people follow you in all of your work? Sports Injury Central, SICScore.com. We talk about Acuna. We talk about Judge. We talk, you know, football. We're really big into, you know, I have some baseball and basketball experience. We have a panel of doctors who try and provide year round injury information. And really, we're the only place that gives true injury analysis as opposed to injury reporting. Hey, doctor, we always appreciate your time. Thank you for being a listener as well. We'll catch you down the line. Unfortunately, it seems like it's always bad news.

Maybe it'll be something positive, a return to something. OK, sounds good there. Celebrate and save at Ashley's anniversary sale with hot buys. Your choice of colors starting at just three ninety nine. Actually, sleep mattresses starting at 250 plus receive a free adjustable base with select mattress purchases and shop top mattress brands like Stearns and Foster, Tempur-Pedic purple and Beautyrest Black with 60 month special financing only at Ashley subject to credit approval. No minimum purchase required. Minimum monthly payment, down payment, tax and delivery may be required.

See store for details. Old Man Winter here. If I had it my way, it would stay winter all year long.

Short days, wind chill, black ice and a good polar vortex. Wait, is it getting warm in here? Your cold snap is over, Old Man Winter. Spring has arrived.

Spring. Spring is here, which means it's the perfect time to get away in the Hyundai you've always wanted. Visit the Hyundai getaway sales event where you can get great deals on all of our award winning Hyundai models like the tech filled Tucson and Kona, as well as the spacious Palisade. Enjoy wherever you go with the peace of mind that comes with America's best warranty and three years or thirty six thousand miles of complimentary maintenance.

But hurry in. These deals won't last. Add more joy to your journey at the Hyundai getaway sales event. Now get zero percent APR or up to fifteen hundred bonus cash on the Hyundai Tucson. Now during the Hyundai getaway sales event. Offers end soon.

Call 562-314-4603 for details. What's the first thing you do if you'd had more time in the day? Take a nap, read a book, talk with a friend. When you know what's important to you, it's easier to fit it into your schedule. Therapy can help you figure that out. BetterHelp offers affordable online therapy that comes to you. Start the process in minutes and switch therapists any time. Learn to make time for what makes you happy with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash grow today to get ten percent off your first month. That's BetterHelp H-E-L-P dot com slash grow.