After all these years of seeing it happen, I am still amazed players are strong enough to injure themselves swinging the bat:
Rangers outfielder Joey Gallo took a swing during his at-bat in the fifth inning Saturday and immediately grabbed his left side. He didn’t even finish the at-bat and left the game. Uh oh. The immediate thought in that situation is an injury to the oblique that could last something like six weeks.
CBSSports.com
Gallo hit his 17th home run of the season earlier in the game, and had also walked. He is a more mulit-dimensional hitter this year, with a good BA to go with his outstanding OBP and slugging percentage. The Rangers, now over .500 and in second place in the AL West will miss Gallo’s offense if he is out for an extended length of time.
Hitters swing a 2 lb club in a manner to generate maximum bat speed and power to hit a 6 oz ball thrown at maximum arm speed and ball velocity. An everyday player probably swings the bat 50 times a day (include BP) with anywhere from 8-20 swings of max effort in game conditions. Over the course of a season a hitter may swing a bat at maximum bat speed in game conditions as often as a starting pitcher throws a ball at maximum arm speed in game conditions
Frankly, when you think about it , increasing velocity requires hitters to increase bat speed. That increased velocity takes its toll on pitchers arms and increasing bat speed takes it toll on hitters obliques, wrists, hips, knees, etc.