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September 10, 2004

Under The Knife

Bad Teams Get Hurt, Too

by Will Carroll

I'll let everyone have their night of football here in Indy. There's just no stopping these football people. They root, they cheer, they show up early, but what they don't do is commit. Football is something anyone can follow; you root for your team, you know your top couple of players, and the rest are replaceable. Baseball is a marriage. It requires faith, compromise, and while everything won't go right, you're in it for the long haul--or should be. I like football, but I love baseball.

On to the injuries…

• The Mariners got a message today from the surgical table. Eddie Guardado had planned surgery to fix his painful left knee a couple weeks back, returning to Seattle on Thursday. He told the media that he was sure that his shoulder was injured compensating for the pain and lack of range in his damaged knee. Sources tell me that Eddie quietly questioned the M's pitching and medical staff for ignoring his pain. Guardado is trying to rehab his injured pitching shoulder rather than have surgery. If the injury truly was a cascade, he may well avoid it. The M's will lose cult hero Bucky Jacobsen for the rest of the season. He'll have surgery to correct a minor but painful problem with his patella.

• The Rockies and Preston Wilson put out a lot of conflicting signals both before and after Wilson's mid-season knee surgery. Wilson made a point of not releasing any information and put the Rockies on the spot during much of the media speculation. He's heading under the knife again next week, ending his season and opening up another round of speculation. My best sources have Wilson heading in for removal of more cartilage and some cleanup on the articular surface. If this was his first operation of the season, no one would think twice about it. It's not, so let's wait and see how the surgery goes.

• Let's run down the list of things you need to play baseball: bat, glove, cap, cup, talent and full extension in your right arm. Hold up, I guess that last one isn't needed, at least not if you're Carlos Beltran in the midst of a playoff race. Beltran looked okay in Thursday's doubleheader, going 2-for-8 with a triple. At worst, Beltran's power might be lessened, but a limited Beltran is still better than most players, and certainly better than the Astros' next-best option. The Astros got more good news today when Adam Everett had his cast removed. It's still a longshot that he'll be back, but it's possible. The bigger question is if he can be effective after a big layoff. Everett wouldn't be a bad bench player in the playoffs.

• Bone chips tend to recur. They're not tremendously serious in the age of arthroscopic surgery, but no one really wants them. Brendan Donnelly will have surgery this offseason, just as he did after the 2002 season, to remove the offending pieces of floating bone. Donnelly will be able to pitch in the meantime, but he could be limited by pain. Watch for Mike Scioscia and Bud Black to use him normally down the stretch, but shut him down if the Angels fall out of contention or, less likely, lock up a playoff spot early

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