There's lots of talk in both the Lester and Buchholz threads about how the injury histories of those two pitchers should be used to form our expectations of their performances going forward. But has it ever been statistically shown that some pitchers, or players in general, are more injury prone than others? It sure seems like some players are always getting hurt, and some players go their whole careers without a trip to the DL, but you'd expect extreme outliers even if injuries were completely random independently distributed events.
Perhaps it can be broken down further by the type of injury. For example, some joints have a greater tendency to be dislocated again after being dislocated once.
But in general is it really fair to say that because Lester has stayed healthy his entire career, and Buchholz has missed lots of time, that going forward we should expect that to be the most likely outcome? Is staying healthy a skill which a team should pay a premium for?
Perhaps it can be broken down further by the type of injury. For example, some joints have a greater tendency to be dislocated again after being dislocated once.
But in general is it really fair to say that because Lester has stayed healthy his entire career, and Buchholz has missed lots of time, that going forward we should expect that to be the most likely outcome? Is staying healthy a skill which a team should pay a premium for?