I've officially wasted a big chunk of my afternoon playing with this new Injury Database. Download it if you want, give it a spin and see what you can find. I loaded in first and last names, plus team affiliations and was able to do some Astros-related work. As the article explains, this data only goes back to 2002, but there's still good stuff in there. What did I find?
- 79 different Houston players have spent time on the DL since 2002, totaling 3,403 days of missed time.There were a total of 198,625 missed days in MLB over that time, averaging out to 6,620.3 days per team. Who knew the Astros have been that lucky with injuries the past seven years?
- Strains were by far the most common type of injury with 1,120 trips to the DL. There were also over 100 each of Soreness, Fractures, Sprains, Tears, Tendinitis, Inflammation and Surgery. Shoulder injuries were by far the most common, showing up 758 times, followed by Elbow, Knee and Hand injuries. Least common? Head, followed by Upper Back, Chest and Face.
- For the Astros? There have been 14 shoulder injuries, just edging out the 12 elbow injuries as the most injured body part. Other injury groups above five were Groin (8), Abdomen (5), Thigh (5) and Lower Back (5). No Astros hurt their Head, Foot, Ankle, Upper Back or Chest during this timeframe.
- Injuries were more common on the right side of the body than the left, 1657 to 1068. The Astros ratio was 33 to 28, which is not as pronounced, but still favors the right.
- 2009 featured the most Houston DL trips of any season in the grouping with 22. Only two other seasons saw double-figure trips as the Astros sent 10 to the DL in 2007 and 11 in 2002. During the World Series year of 2005? Just four DL trips, including 127 days from Jeff Bagwell, 32 from Lance Berkman, 41 from Brandon Backe and 28 from Humberto Quintero. No wonder that team didn't have much offense!
- The player who's been on the DL the most since 2002? Roy Oswalt with six trips. He has spent a combined 132 days on the DL over that time. Oswalt had three different stints on the DL in 2003 and missed 82 days that season due to a strained then pulled groin. He's been on the DL four times with strains, one with a muscle pull and once with pain in his back.
- Other players in the top five were Brandon Backe (5 trips), Kazuo Matsui (4), Humberto Quintero (3), Andy Pettite (3) and Doug Brocail (3). Some of the Astro names I had forgotten (Tom Gordon! Hipolito Pichardo!) and others just made me sad (Wade Miller...). The Astro with the most total DL time was easily Backe, who had 394 missed days. Brian Moehler clocks in with 186 while Adam Everett missed 149 days. Wade Miller and Aaron Boone also had over 140 missed days. Surprisingly, Jason Jennings missed 93 total days. I really thought he had been more dependable than that.
- The major league leader in days missed is Chad Fox with 841. Chris Snelling comes in second with 813 while Mike Hampton has 688 and Chris Carpenter has 666. The rest of the top ten are all names you'd recognize (Mark Prior, Troy Percival, Carl Pavano, Jason Schmidt) with a couple that you might not have thought of (Dmitri Young? Rusty Greer?). Notable trade target this offseason Rafael Soriano has spent 505 days on the DL but was just edged out by free agent pickup Nick Johnson (515) for the player changing teams this offseason with the biggest injury history.
That's all I've got, people. Dive in yourself if you'd like. It certainly proved a good diversion for me.