Tom Verducci posted an article today on SI.com about Noah Syndergaard and the relationship between velocity and elbow injury. I thought it was pretty good. 

Also, feel free to check out my blog posts about TJ surgery decision-making and techniques, if you're interested.

He makes a very interesting case.    I still believe that poor or improper/inconsistent mechanics exacerbate the potential for injury, especially in "max-effort" guys, but you can't really argue against those numbers too much.

 

Although I think you would also have to look at the motion and mechanics of all those pitchers on that list as well.

 

It's a conversation I had a lot over that last few years with my son.    He was always worried/bummed that he didn't throw hard enough, and he felt at times that made him less effective as a pitcher (the numbers would disagree though ).    While some of his current teammates do throw harder than him, his velocity is pretty much on par with his age group (he was routinely touching 80 this year on his FB at 16).     I've always stressed to him that velocity is useful, but throwing good strikes/hitting your spots and mixing your pitches are far more important, don't stress your arm too much.