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March 5, 2008 Team Health ReportsPhiladelphia Phillies
The Facts Scott Lauber from the Wilmington News-Journal made this real easy for me by essentially writing what I would have written here. He also did it two weeks ago, so I won't bother to try to re-create it. What I will note is the trend line for the Phillies is a bit aberrant. Scott Sheridan's first year on the job isn't atypical, in that any new athletic trainer is going to make for some changes, and whether they're good in the long term or not, the short term can often move negative. It doesn't help that he's following long-time trainer Jeff Cooper, one of the best in the business; in Philly, it's like being the third baseman after Mike Schmidt. So, in his second year, Sheridan is going to be asked to answer whether last year's numbers were fluke or trend. It's not that they were that bad; on a purely statistical basis, they were slightly below the median, but the injuries to the pitching staff picked up significantly. Yes, there were the flukish oblique strains, an injury that no trainer has yet figured out how to forestall. If there's any positive trend, it's that the Phillies got guys back, effectively and ahead of schedule, in a year where one game meant a lot. Getting Cole Hamels back or keeping Brett Myers healthy in his incarnation as the club's closer are all positives, which makes me think that with a year under his belt, we'll see an improvement on the raw numbers for Sheridan's staff. Since it is essentially the same team that Sheridan has back, this situation will provide an excellent year-over-year comparison. With the known risks in the rotation and the same solid but thin lineup, we'll know next year if the Phillies have a longer-term health issue.
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