The Rice Boys

The New York Times writes about about Rice's highly touted trio of starters from the 2003 draft: Ross's Vegas-buddies Wade Townsend and Jeff Niemann, plus Mets prospect Phil Humber.

...A recent paper produced by the institute and published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine studied tendencies in 95 pitchers ages 14 to 20 who required shoulder or elbow surgery from Andrews, and 110 who did not.

According to Glenn Fleisig, the institute's director of research, who wrote the paper with Andrews and others, the results showed that those who often pitched through fatigue; pitched more than eight months a year; pitched in four or more showcases or tryouts in their careers; or had poor mechanics and conditioning were more likely to need surgery than those who did not.

Among those characteristics, the biggest red flag came from Townsend, who said he went through eight tryouts for scouts — one a week — in the two months before the June 2005 draft. "That's weird," Townsend said when told of the study's findings.