Miller’s exercise program coming under scrutiny

File this one in the too-little, too-late department, but dismissed coach Marty Miller’s running program is coming under fire today.

Over at the excellent Baseball Musings, David Pinto asked Bob Sikes, former assistant trainer to the Mets and Getting Paid To Watch blogger, his take on the Miller controversy. Sikes had some interesting points to make:

The hamstring has its own unique role in biomechanics. Running involves the hamstring to fire both types of contractions-concentric and eccentric. Or in laymen terms, shortening the muscle and then lengthening it under stress. Weight room activities are designed to supplement and athletes ability to run. If Miller desired to decrease the amount of running in favor of something else, he made a decision that’s ended up burning many professionals.

Yanks’ GM Brian Cashman has taken some heat for hiring Miller from a health club to join a professional baseball team, and Miller was fired when the players practically revolted and refused to partake in his program. There’s more than meets the eye to this situation.

I have to wonder just what was going through Cashman’s mind when he brought Miller on. He messed with players’ work-out programs right at the start of Spring Training, and now the Yanks are paying the price. They’ve seen four hamstring injuries since the middle of March.

It’s too late now, and Miller is gone. But Brian Cashman should be questions about this guy. What made the Yanks turn to Miller in the first place anyway?