By Chris from Maine

The oblique strain has become an increasingly common injury throughout Major League Baseball. Chances are, you have likely rostered at least one player over the years who has suffered this enigmatic injury. So, what exactly is an oblique strain, how does it happen, and what are the implications for those players who succumb to this rather annoying and perplexing injury?

What is an “Oblique” Anyhow?

Simply stated, the obliques are a group of muscles that are located between the hips and the ribcage. These muscles compress the abdomen and rotate the torso. There are two sets of these oblique muscles: the internal and external obliques. They are named based on their location in relation to one another, i.e. the internal oblique is underneath the external oblique, closer to the spine.

How are the Oblique Muscles Injured?

Typically, the obliques are injured when the trunk is twisting, as would be a very common motion with a baseball player’s swing. They are also often injured in pitchers, primarily due to the compressive forces of the internal oblique as the trunk side flexes during the pitching delivery.

You might be thinking, “If baseball players are used to twisting and bending like this, why do they keep getting hurt?” This is a great question and is one that I hear time and time again over at my blog. The answer is multi-faceted.

First off, much of the time spent exercising needs to target these muscles, which are small and require more precision in training. It is completely likely that a good majority of the training that occurs in baseball is either too non-specific or is spent working with heavy weights that do not correlate to greater oblique strength.

Players are also much bigger than they used to be. The prototypical baseball player in the 1980’s was likely in the 6′0″, 180 pound range. Now we are seeing sluggers who are the same height but weigh 220 pounds or more! It is feasible to think that these tiny muscles are simply getting overworked by the other, larger, stronger muscles of the upper body … the ones that are creating so much bat speed. This, once again, brings us back to the fact that training specificity is paramount. It also raises the red flag on the steroids issue … which cannot be ignored.

Another possible reason that we are seeing this injury more often, recently, is that it is getting diagnosed as such. This injury has been called many things in the past, even terms as vague as “ribcage strain” or “abdominal strain” - both of which leave a lot of room for interpretation as to which muscle is actually strained, since there are many muscles in the abdomen.

Fantasy Baseball Implications

Now we are down to the part that you really want to know: how is this going to affect my player’s performance? Chances are, if a player goes down with this injury, he will be rendered useless for at least three to four weeks. I would use this as a baseline, since the obliques are slow to heal, as they are almost continuously being stressed throughout everyday function.

Depending on the severity of the muscle strain, you can expect your player to miss a minimum of three to four weeks, while a higher grade tear can shelve a player for upwards of eight weeks.

Once a player has strained this muscle during the season, it almost always will become a nagging issue. If the oblique is not properly strengthened following injury, it will be just as likely to get injured again with the same mechanism of injury (swinging or pitching).

Batters: Expect a hesitancy to pull the ball upon initial return to game play, due to decreased bat speed generated with the trunk. A decrease in power, and an increase in singles, doubles, and opposite field hits could be seen.

Pitchers: Expect pitches to be left up in the zone, as the pitcher may be hesitant to forcefully drive his glove side down in order to accelerate the pitching arm towards home plate. As a result, decreased velocity and accuracy can occur.

With time, proper healing, and specific rehabilitation and exercise, these injuries can be managed. Once fully healed, there should be no longer-term repercussions.

Notable Players with History of Oblique Strains

Here is just a sampling of a list of players who have suffered oblique strains in the past few years (2007/08 in bold):

Chris Young, SP, SD

Wily Mo Pena, OF, WAS

Albert Pujols, 1B, STL

Lance Berkman, 1B/OF, HOU

C.C. Sabathia, SP, CLE

Jeff Kent, 2B, LAD

Mike Cameron, OF, SD

Chipper Jones, 3B, ATL

Rich Harden, SP, OAK

Johnny Damon, OF, NYY

Mark Prior, SP, SD

Casey Blake, 3B, CLE

In February, I highlighted Lance Berkman’s recent oblique injury at my baseball injury blog, http://disabledlist.blogspot.com/.  Here, on FantasyBaseballMafia.com, I would like to break down Chris Young’s string of recurring oblique injuries, why I think it happens, and what I expect for this season.

Chris Young, SP(R), San Diego Padres

The first thing that is glaringly evident when you see Chris Young is his tremendous height (6′10″) and lanky body frame. Due to his body type, he is more likely to experience difficulty in training and conditioning. Over the past couple of seasons, he has had multiple injuries to his abdominal region and lower back. This is likely due to non-specific strengthening and conditioning.

Looking at Young’s pitching motion and delivery, the most apparent flaw that, in my opinion, leads to his oblique and low back injuries is that his glove side arm is raised extremely high prior to his front leg landing on the ground. When his front leg lands on the ground and he drives towards home, the internal oblique on the left side compresses the abdomen forcefully.

Also, as he continues to drive towards home plate, he has to rapidly bring his glove side arm down towards the ground, thus using his Latissimus Dorsi and Lower Trapezius muscles forcefully - which can lead to back strains.

For these reasons, it is great to see that Young has recently started training with Tiger Woods’ physical therapist, Keith Kleven. As with golf, baseball players rely heavily on their ability to twist their torso forcefully in order to play at their highest level. Said Young, “I was really impressed with my experience … I think it’s going to be extremely beneficial.”

Young’s comments lead me to believe that the type of training he underwent with Kleven was something new to him and that this newfound form of exercise will target the troublesome areas that continued to hinder his performance last season.

I would expect Chris Young to not only have a great season but to challenge Jake Peavy’s win totals and post a similar ERA and WHIP. While Peavy’s strikeout totals will almost certainly be in the 200’s, I would expect Young to be just shy of that mark.

2008 Predictions: 31 GS, 189 IP, 130 H, 75 BB, 178 K, 3.05 ERA, 1.08 WHIP