Aaron Boone will have exploratory knee surgery next Tuesday to determine how serious the tear of his ACL is. MRIs are notoriously difficult to read, so it makes perfect sense for Lewis Yocum to peek around before deciding what course to take. This does let us know that the tear is likely not complete, a definite positive for Boone’s assertions that he will be back in August. Tyler Kepner also reminds us that Boone had the same surgery in 2000 and made a full recovery.
Scott Erickson is back, and reports from his workouts–public and private–are reasonably positive. No one is predicting that he’ll be a top starter, but he’s recovered sufficiently from a series of surgeries on his pitching arm to make a contribution at the back of the rotation. His stamina is going to be more of an issue than his stuff, especially early in the season. At least Mets fans can look forward to some Lisa Guerrero sightings this season.
The Mets are also hoping that Cliff Floyd will be sufficiently recovered from late season Achilles tendon surgery to be a force in the middle of the lineup. Early signs are very positive. Mets team sources indicate that Floyd is running at full speed and will be ready for spring training. Floyd may be injury-prone, but the tendonitis should be in his past.
Today BP debuts the second season of Will Carroll’s Team Health Reports. Over the next few weeks, Will will cover all 30 teams, rating each team’s lineup, starting rotation and closer on a three-color scale: red light for significant injury risk, yellow light for light to moderate injury risk, green light for minimal injury risk. First installment: the Philadelphia Phillies.
It seems there’s one case like this every year, but I can’t remember one that had the potential to be as significant. With Aaron Boone down and likely out for the season due to a significant tear to his left ACL, the Yankees are scrambling to not end up with Drew Henson at the hot corner. The Yanks will be calling all the usual suspects looking for some help, but Brian Cashman seems ready to play hardball to get some financial recompense. According to the AP, Cashman is ready to invoke a clause in the standard player contract that specifically cites basketball as a prohibited activity. The Yankees are reportedly waiting for final results, but since Boone damaged his knee nearly two weeks ago, this sounds like a stall.
While I’ll leave the fallout to the Yankees lineup to others in this site, I’ll look to the injury itself. The most similar injury I could find was the near complete tear of the ACL suffered by B.J. Surhoff in the early days of 2002. Surhoff missed the entire season, but was able to return for spring training 2003. Expect a similar timeframe for Boone.
The Yankees got better news on Steve Karsay. After shoulder surgery last year, Karsay was able to throw from a mound over the winter, but won’t throw breaking balls until pitchers and catchers report. That will be his big test and will determine whether Karsay will be immediately penciled in as one of the Yanks top set-up men or whether he’ll miss the start of spring training. Even if healthy now, Karsay remains one of the bigger risks in pitching.
Kris Benson had a difficult end to his season in 2003, spending the last two months not only on the shelf, but answering hard questions about the injury–or, as the Pirates medical staff insinuated, lack thereof. Benson finally got back on the mound last week, pronouncing himself fit and pain-free. While the Pirates don’t expect to contend, their hopes lie in Benson asserting himself as the ace everyone expected him to be coming out of Clemson the better part of a decade ago. If Benson can prove himself healthy and effective–something he hasn’t been since returning from Tommy John surgery–he could be this year’s version of Sidney Ponson: a comeback candidate who’ll likely finish the season on a contender.
The Pirates are also hoping two acquisitions from last season–Jason Bay and Bobby Hill–will be ready to go for Spring Training. Both were unable to participate in a recent mini-camp. Bay is recovering from labrum surgery while Hill is still not cleared for baseball activity after suffering a stress fracture in his lower back.
Robb Nen comes back to his closer role this spring after missing the entire 2003 season. While he is throwing pain-free and from the mound, it’s still a long road back from labrum surgery. At this point, we’re simply left to guess–and pay close attention during Spring Training–if Nen in 2004 will be anything close to the Nen in 2002 who was so key to the Giants’ run to the Series. With a much thinner pen, the Giants need him.
Earlier this week, the Federal government banned products containing ephedra, the dietary supplement which was linked to the death of former-Orioles’ pitcher Steve Bechler last spring. This ban gives athletes, trainers, and anyone else currently using products containing ephedra 60 days to clear out their inventory and rebuild around products containing other thermogenic agents.
And yet, while the ban is intended to keep people from using ephedra, products containing the dietary supplement are already flying off the shelves in some areas. The reason? Because despite its pitfalls, products containing ephedra are still very effective at helping individuals lose weight.
That said, ephedra is not the only thermogenic agent. The pill that Bechler took, Xenadrine RFA, was removed from the market voluntarily by its manufacturer and replaced with a similar product that did not contain ephedra. In fact, on the Xenadrine webpage, the manufacturer states that the new product is more effective without ephedra. What, then is powering this ‘more effective’ thermogenic? According to the manufacturer…
The Yankees aggressively pursued Javier Vazquez, making him an early target of the Hot Stove/Cold War between the Bronx and Boston. Vazquez has always been someone who is both coveted and worrisome. Despite never being officially diagnosed with a significant injury, Vazquez has often run into a wall, but has always recovered quickly with a short rest. Over the last four seasons, he has been able to pitch over 200 innings with effectiveness. Given he started that streak at age 22, one could look at Vazquez’s history as a ticking time bomb or as proof that we have a new member of the Abuse Sponge Club (Livan Hernandez, Proprietor).
Beyond the baseball implications, Oakland was taking on a player with back problems and giving up their catcher and…well, losing Long makes some sense. Kotsay had a sub-par 2003 season, deeply underperforming his PECOTA, losing power and looking all the world like his Mike Greenwell comp was dead on. There’s hope though, A’s fans, because back injuries aren’t what they used to be.
Coming off a career season is one point on the “good” side and a broken wrist that required surgery must go on the “bad,” right? Not necessarily. Jose Guillen remains someone that some teams should consider. Of all the injuries one can have, a fracture might be the most predictable in all but the most severe, Jermaine Dye-type instances. Wrist fractures in particular are easily fixed with relatively minor surgery. There’s a long list of players that have come back–and quickly–from these types of injuries with little or no effect, even in-season. The question is more whether Guillen just experienced a career year or a career turnaround. They call him “Everyday Eddie”, and looking at Eddie Guardado’s career line, he looks like the rubber-armed reliever that everyone wants. After two years in the closer’s role with great results, he’s ready to head out into the world with a couple other good closers and see if he can shake loose some silver from a GM who can be distracted by that shiniest of baseball objects, the closer. Past elbow problems are past enough that they shouldn’t be a serious concern, but Guardado’s work habits have never been a selling point. Guardado’s next team will get what they get–an effective reliever who can finish games–but paying the closer price isn’t necessary.
As free agents make their filings, General Managers across the game are starting the process of figuring out how they will put together their teams. An important part of that process is figuring out which free agents they should pursue. Part of the equation is expectations of health. Signing a Jeffrey Hammonds and expecting 160 games a year is pure folly and likely to cause a team to drastically overpay. On the flip side, the team that correctly assesses the risks, and prices accordingly, is much more likely to find the next Esteban Loaiza. While the factors that must be considered go far beyond health, it is one major component–one we’ll look at here with the Free Agent Health Report. Remember, this is not an exhaustive list–players not on this list are neither completely healthy nor completely screwed. They just didn’t make my cut.
Powered by a renewed sense of fiscal responsibility and Pom 100% Pomegranate Juice, here’s your 2003-2004 NL Free Agents…
The recent case involving Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) has brought the word steroid back to the forefront in a post-World Series baseball community. In a case that involves not steroid-trafficking, but tax evasion, a number of high-profile athletes, including five MLB players and a heretofore unknown anabolic steroid called THG (tetrahydrogestrinone), is perfect for the media but tells the fans nothing they shouldn’t already have known. The sexy sheen of a steroid probe involving Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi is a story that lays itself out on a silver platter for a lazy journalist that will not allow the thought to cross his or her mind that there have been no accusations of usage by these athletes or any other baseball players. Worse, by putting the word “steroid” and “Bonds” or “Giambi” in the same headline, the color of impropriety is almost impossible for these athletes to overcome. There is simply no way to ever give either a fair trial or even a reasonable testing, but there’s nothing wrong with this fact. Innocent until proven guilty is not a doctrine in American athletics; we’ve moved to a tabloid-style stoning by innuendo and rumor.
From the NY Post : “An MRI revealed an inflamed tendon in Jason Giambi’s left knee as well as patellar tendinitis. The condition is chronic and he will have to undergo diagnostic arthroscopic surgery after the World Series.” Sometimes, it’s good to know where my work hasn’t made it. You, of course, realize that an inflamed tendon is the very definition of tendinitis. Giambi will have surgery, but the recent pain that kept him out of the World Series could indicate more damage than expected. This will surely bear close watch. The Yankees will also be watching as Derek Jeter undergoes his expected off-season shoulder surgery. As we saw with Phil Nevin, the time period from surgery to game-ready is reduced from previous expectations due to new technologies and techniques. Jeter should return in plenty of time for Spring Training, assuming he maintains the new timeline we’ve seen established in the past year. There should be no ill effects and in fact, Jeter should be expected to improve slightly, on a pure health basis.
I pride myself on doing what I say, but when I sat down to write the World Series Health Report, I found myself staring at a blank sheet and a bunch of worthless information. Like last year, we have teams that have no current injuries of significance. There are fatigue issues on both sides, and each team is dealing with long-term injuries that they’ve been able to adjust around. The lesser injuries, like Mike Lowell’s hand or Josh Beckett’s blisters, are in the past due to solid work from the respective medical staffs. Both teams headed to the field at Yankee Stadium as ready as they could possibly be. That fact is in some part responsible for their being on the field and not back home golfing.
Jack McKeon knew that he had to play Game Seven like there was no tomorrow, throwing Brad Penny and Josh Beckett on short rest, while Dontrelle Willis was in the bullpen warming up, at one stage, after pitching in Game Six. It’s one thing to play like there’s no tomorrow, but it does make things a bit awkward when tomorrow comes. The Marlins enter the World Series with two off days, giving the likely start to Dontrelle Willis, both on match up and on account of the fact he’s about the only one that will be ready to go. I’ll have more on this in tomorrow’s Series Health Report.
Johan Santana had his expected scope of his elbow, and the results are about as good as could be expected. While you never want your young ace pitcher getting cut, it was a scope-job, and only one chip was found. Santana could be back throwing inside of a month and will certainly have no ill effects by spring training.
Despite the suggestion of his manager, Larry Walker isn’t going to retire. Instead, he’s having his annual tune up–this time, it was a cleanup in his shoulder and minor knee surgery to clean up the cartilage. As usual, Walker will be ready for spring training, but it’s just a matter of time before he’s injured again–the only question is how effective he’ll be in between those inevitable injuries.
Is it wrong to have been slightly rooting against my Cubs in Sunday’s Game Five? Not that the Marlins needed my help; Josh Beckett’s Game Score v2.0 of 97 bushwhacked the Cubs, forcing a Game Six that I’m lucky enough to be attending. With Prior on the hill versus a Marlin To Be Named Later (MTBNL), it should be interesting–perhaps one for the ages.
I’m still about 10 days away from unveiling the plan to celebrate the World Series that John Goalder and I hatched back in our college days, helped by malt beverage products o’ plenty. I’ll just tell you it involves 30,000 cheering fans, 100 railroad ties, 225 feet of rolled steel, and the Sears Tower.
So onto the injuries before…
All even. The Marlins and Red Sox get the split on the road, so for them, mission accomplished. Better, everyone should be healthy, and to some degree, rested. We’ll talk more about Kerry Wood, Johnny Damon, and others in just a bit, but there are patterns to teams that make it this far into the postseason. Most are either very lucky with their health or able to adjust around the injuries that they have. The Angels won, in large part, because they went through the 2002 season with almost no injuries. Meanwhile, the few they had, like Tim Salmon’s balky self, were compensated by the DH rule and good spare outfielders. As these four teams push for the ultimate goal, the Fall Classic, health should cease becoming an issue apart from collision and collapse. Escaping these, however, is never sure.
Powered by Side Two of Outkast’s “The Love Below,” the best Prince album Prince didn’t make, onto the injuries…
If anyone ever asks me why I love baseball, I can just replay them the inevitable playoff highlights from this postseason. We’re barely into the LCS and there are already more great moments than I can remember. Sure, as a Cubs fan, maybe I’m a bit more into it than normal, but not by much. With the Yankees/Sox starting up tonight, we can count on that always heated rivalry giving us something more to remember and likely someone earning a reputation as something… another Bill Buckner, another Bucky F. Dent, another Reggie Jackson. We’re never sure what, but we always know we’re going to see something amazing. This is why we love baseball and why it seems no one can make the game go wrong, no matter how much they try. I’m just glad I have FX and a split-screen.
On to the injuries…