If Dr. James Andrews were Oprah, he’d be handing out UCL replacement surgeries like new cars these days.

“You get a Tommy John surgery! You get a Tommy John surgery! You get a Tommy John surgery!”

The latest pitcher with a blown out elbow to climb onto Dr. Andrews’ table is Miami Marlins’ young ace Jose Fernandez.

The flame thrower is just one of several young pitchers to be felled by a failing ulnar collateral ligament.

Even Dr. Andrews, who has profited greatly from putting pitcher arms back together, said it is becoming an epidemic.

Just in the past three months, young guns Kris Medlen, Matt Moore, Jarrod Parker, A.J. Griffin, and Pirates’ prospect Jameson Taillon have gone under the knife.

Last year, Matt Harvey had the surgery and the year before that Stephen Strasburg.

What do all these pitchers have in common?

They all throw hard. Extremely and frighteningly hard.

Seven of the top 10 hardest throwing starting pitchers over the past two-plus seasons have blown out their arms.

The thought is throwing too hard may be the problem.

Young pitchers, it seems, would rather burn out than fade away.

Franchises have tried to coddle these young arms. Good pitching is gold and these organizations treat it as such, putting pitch and inning limits on their young studs.

It hasn’t worked.

In fact, the argument could be made that it is doing quite the opposite. The coddling is opening the hurlers up to more injury risk.

As Dr. Andrews gets more and more patients and his wallet gets thicker and thicker on the discarded elbow ligaments of young pitchers, it is becoming obvious what the real problem is.

Radar guns.

That is the culprit.

Young pitchers have their success and failure as a professional pitcher and even sometimes as a prep one tied too closely to the number they can put up on a gun.

Throw 88 mph and you are a marginal prospect these days, no matter how well you can pitch.

Throw 95 mph and scouts are lining up to get a look.

Who cares if throwing 95 will lead to arm woes in the future? Dr. James Andrews will fix you right up.

Ironically, Tommy John, who will forever have his name linked to a myriad of pitchers, was never really a flame thrower.

He was a crafty lefty, a sinker-ball pitcher who made hitters pound the ball into the infield grass. He won 288 games in a 26-year career.

John carved out a career by knowing how to pitch, not blowing a fastball by people.

Perhaps if there was less emphasis on the radar gun and more on the craft of pitching, Dr. Andrews would have to find another surgery to patent.

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.