Bailey added some bulk

[cbowen2112]

Per John Fay:

–Homer Bailey is a little thicker in the chest and shoulder.

“I put on about 15 pounds,” he said. “We felt it would help me get through the course of the season.”

Bailey had two stints on the disabled list last year with shoulder problems. That limited him to 22 starts. The goal is keep the shoulder sound. He altered his offseason program a bit to that end.

“(Pitching coach Bryan Price) gave me a bullpen schedule for before I got here,” he said. “In the past, I’ve come in too ready and had to dial it back. This year, I came in ready to throw 30 pitches, instead of 60.”

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/reds/201...om-goodyear-3/

[cbowen2112]

Hopefully this will help those nagging injuries.

If not, Oswalt is out there.

[The Operator]

I really, really hope we get a full season from Homer this year. I'm dying to see what he can do over an entire season.

[nate]

But is he in the best shape of his life?

[WMR]

Time for the best shape of his life thread...

[The Operator]

Time for the best shape of his life thread...

http://www.redszone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=92969

[sonny]

Came in too ready? Never heard that one before especially how it relates to injury/effectiveness.

[Blitz Dorsey]

I like this. Homer hitting the weights hard can only help his durability. (And I won't even add something like "I don't even care if he's taking HGH if it helps the Reds." Whoops.)

[RedEye]

I know nothing about the issue of "bulking up" relative to pitching performance, and this certainly sounds like it might help Homer this season. But I'm curious whether sometimes adding mass can negatively affect athletes like pitchers, who are so dependent on flexibility and torsion to be effective in what they do. Can anyone speak to this concern?

[The Operator]

I know back in the day The Marlins had Josh Beckett undertake a weight program to strengthen his shoulder after spending some time on the DL with shoulder issues, and it seemed to work pretty well. At least for a while.

It's at least worth a shot, he's missed about half of each of the last two seasons, so aside from a catastrophic elbow blowout there's really only room to go up as far as Homer's durability is concerned.