Morning Briefing: Geno Auriemma says most college coaches are afraid of their players

Connecticut women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma had some strong words for some of his fellow coaches.

“The majority of coaches in America are afraid of their players,” Auriemma said Tuesday in a conference call involving all four women’s tournament Final Four coaches. “The NCAA, the athletic directors and society has made them afraid of their players. Every article you read: ‘This guy’s a bully. This woman’s a bully. This guy went over the line. This woman was inappropriate.’

“Yet the players get off scot free in everything. They can do whatever they want. [If] they don’t like something you say to them, they transfer. Coaches, they have to coach with one hand behind their back. Why? Because some people have abused the role of a coach.

“People gave [Michigan State men’s coach] Tom Izzo a lot of grief for something he did on the sideline,” Auriemma said of an incident in the men’s tournament when Izzo met a player at halfcourt and started yelling at him.

“His players loved that. He doesn’t have to care what you think of it. He just has to care what his players think of it. If his players all transferred, if his players all quit on him, then he went over the line. If his players play really hard for him, they keep winning, they love him, they keep coming back to the program, then that’s passion.”

A scar is born

“Tommy John surgery” is still a scary phrase for any pitcher to hear, even though many pitchers now recover from it and pitch for a long time afterward. Position players aren’t immune either. Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager missed almost all of last season because he had the surgery.

Some teams seem to have more players needing the surgery than others, but how do we know for sure?

Jon Roegele comes to the rescue for that. He has a database that lists every player, in the minors or majors, who has had Tommy John surgery. With that, we can break down some numbers.

For example:

Tommy John surgeries by team since 2016

21-Cincinnati Reds

19-Milwaukee Brewers

18-San Francisco Giants

17-New York Mets, New York Yankees

16-Angels, Cleveland Indians

14-San Diego Padres

13-Miami Marlins, Oakland A’s, Texas Rangers

12-Washington Nationals

11-Houston Astros, Tampa Bay Rays

10-Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, St. Louis Cardinals, Toronto Blue Jays.

9-Atlanta Braves, Detroit Tigers

8-Chicago Cubs, Seattle Mariners

6-Arizona Diamondbacks, Baltimore Orioles, Colorado Rockies, Kansas City Royals

5-Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates

4-Boston Red Sox

According to more research done by Baseball America, the average organization has lost 11 pitchers to Tommy John surgery during that span.

Not worried

Vince McMahon doesn’t think the apparent failure of the upstart Alliance of American Football (AAF) will cause problems for the football league he is starting in 2020, the XFL.

“We have said all along the success or failure of other leagues will have no impact on our ability to deliver high-quality, fast-paced, professional football,” the XFL said in a statement. “The XFL is well-funded, we have time before kickoff to execute our business plan, and we will soon announce a national broadcast and cable TV schedule that makes it easy for fans to find our games consistently every weekend when we launch next February. There is no doubt that avid football fans want more and we’re excited to get going in 2020.”