Happy Father’s Day!
Tentacles?
According to some early reports, Mr. Carlos Gonzalez had a tumor “with tentacles” in his finger.
Really? Tentacles? I have the true inside scoop in photo documentary form:
Preoperatively:
In the operating room:
In the orthopedist’s “trophy room”:
A happy postoperative Mr. Gonzalez:
And his not so happy biggest fan:
Get well soon, Mr. Gonzalez.
The End of Baseball as We Knew It…
On this date 47 years ago was the beginning of the end of baseball in the American League when the New York Yankees drafted Ron Blomberg first overall. A mere 5 1/2 years later, on April 6, 1973, he became the first player to prove that fielding was no longer part of the game.
A reprieve
Jedd Gyorko is now on the DL for plantar fasciitis. At this time, it is not clear how long he is going to be out. Position players have had a total of 5 DL stays in the previous 4 years with 3 being less than one month but Logan Forsythe and Albert Pujols both missing >60 days in 2013. For those of you who have never had the joy of plantar fasciitis, it is typically a chronic, recurrent pain on the bottom of one’s foot near one’s heel.
Courtesy, wikipedia images
It’s so painful that even the great Mr. Albert Pujols said he would rather be a bed wetter than risk aggravating his plantar fasciitis again.
That being said, Mr. Gyorko already crushed my spirit this spring. I took him late for a 2B with greater than 20 homers last year, thinking I got a steal and he broke my heart. If Mr. Gyorko is still starting on your fantasy team, however, this is a super time to go out on a limb. No one is going to fault you anymore than they would for sticking with a sub-Mendoza line Mr. Gyorko still. Consider, for example, the Twins’ Danny Santana, the Yankees’ surprising Yangervis, and the fall back acceptable Scooter Gennett of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Yu
Yu Darvish is having an MRI of his spine in his neck today after complaining of “neck stiffness.” Mr. Darvish has not reported arm weakness but one has to be concerned that he too may have a herniated disc in his neck. With so many key components of their team already out this year and Mr. Darvish complaining that this pain feels the same as his original injury that led to a DL stint at the beginning of the year, there’s no reason to believe he will not have another 15 day DL stint even if he only has a pulled muscle in his neck.
Follow up on Mr. Fielder
As you have probably already seen, Mr. Fielder requires season ending neck surgery. From the good doctors Roberts, Roc, and Hsu, here is a brief overview of the success and time to return for major league pitchers over a 25 year period. Keep in mind, pitchers tend to have a longer DL stint than position players for almost every injury:
Roberts D, Roc G, Hsu W. Outcomes of Cervical and Lumbar Disk Herniations in Major League Baseball Pitchers. ORTHOPEDICS. 2011; 34: 602-609. doi: 10.3928/01477447-20110627-23
Gio
Mr. Gonzalez had not looked sharp in his previous two outings before going on the DL after complaining of “beyond normal soreness.” His MRI and arthrogram fortunately showed “shoulder inflammation” without any apparent structural damage. As discussed earlier, pitchers with shoulder inflammation tend to fall into two groups: Those who miss the minimum or just above and those who are out more than 90 days. At this point, Nationals fans can hope that his recurrent stiffness really is a one or two day setback but that is not clear just yet. The Nationals have not yet announced a plan for further evaluation of Mr. Gonzalez’s shoulder so until he starts throwing or follows up with the team doctors, Mr. Gonzalez’s expected length of absence will remain unknown.
Our players’ hands are falling off!
After watching this video (pay special attention around the 0:08 mark) I am reasonably confident that the Brewers’ had a conversation last night that went something like this:
Ron Roenicke: Let’s get out of Atlanta. We got no food, no jobs, our PLAYERS’ HANDS ARE FALLING OFF!!!’
Ryan Braun (whispering): Our players’ hands are falling off?
Domo Arigato, Mr. Joey Votto
The title isn’t funny. I could have gone with Grand Theft Votto. Or Joey is My Vato. Or even tried to make a reference to the Walking Dead if I could convince myself to care about that show. But none of those are funny either. I never promised funny. But I do have good news. Mr. Votto’s MRI shows a quadricep strain and no injury to the actual knee. A quadricep strain if it requires a DL stint averages about 4 weeks (based on DL stints related to quadricep injuries in 2010-2013) and that’s including Rick Ankiel’s monster 80 day stay in 2010 when he reinjured his quadricep during his rehab and injuries to Jarrett Hoffpauir in 2010 who played in 21 games in his career but in 2010 managed to still miss 65 games in the middle of the season as well as Tony Abreu in 2013 that clearly involved more than his quadricep. If we take out those three outliers, the expected absence drops closer to 3 weeks. While the Reds apparently have not made up their mind yet, it is clear that the team will manage Mr. Votto’s injury conservatively given that he is the expected face of their franchise for the next decade. Since I cannot come up with a final title, I will leave you with this picture which purports to show the batter’s use of hip muscles in creating power, courtesy of LWW:
Cal Ripken, Rest Easy.
Prince Fielder missed tonight’s game due to a herniated disc in his neck, breaking his streak at 547 games. He held the longest active continuous games played streak but as of today Hunter Pence now holds that record at 215 games, which means he will be 45 years old by the time he reaches 2,632 games. So unless Julio Franco is Mr. Pence’s role model Mr. Ripken, your record is safe until the 2030s at least.
If you are interested in the procedure Mr. Fielder is having, this is an animated description.
homeplatecollision 