In poker it's called a "Tell". Something you constantly due to tip your hand. Unfortunately, for Corey Seager his tell speaks of something more significant than a lost hand. Watching warm ups and game video, I noticed Corey likes to crack his neck. Self manipulation actually points to an imbalanced spine. Watching Seager habitually crack his neck was just the first of many clues into the young shortstop's injurious past and future.

Faults:

1) Limited right thoracic mobility (upper back) in the transverse plane (compensated with frontal plane motion)

2) right hip mobility insufficiency

3) left hip weakness with pelvis instability (left pelvis rotation with full weight on left leg)

4) tight hip flexors (worse on the right)

5) right trunk lean (see right hip mobility)

Baseball mechanics analysis:

Swing: Digs into deeper hip flexion (excessive squatting), putting more stress on his knees (especially his left), but allowing him to compensate and move through the hips more for his lack of spinal range of motion

Throw: Again, limited thoracic range of motion and relies heavily on his arm with a dysfunctional shoulder girdle to make the long throws to first.

Running: excessive lateral push off with running due to tight hip flexors (worse on right)

Limiting Corey's playing time with more days off and using a restricted throwing program are ways of limiting the wear on tear on his elbow and spine. Actually addressing the core of his problems would be better.

The Injury Analyst is a blog dedicated to not only explaining injuries that have occurred, but predicting and highlighting future injury risks for professional athletes. You can email us at info@jamsportsandspine.com

Note: I have not seen the subject of this article personally in clinic, rather all views and opinions of the author have been made based off of video footage of the athlete. This article is not meant as a diagnosis or a treatment plan.