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April 10, 2006

Under The Knife

A Friend is Gone Today

by Will Carroll

My Sidekick is dying. After two years, it’s almost like a family member, but a mobile phone tied to the two-foot power cord due to a dead battery is hardly mobile at all. So my calls tonight were made standing at my bookcase here in the office, wondering if I’ll have to go to the darkside and buy a new phone. The Sidekick III is months away, I’m told, so this should be interesting. The Sidekick has really changed how I watch baseball and cover it, allowing me to check facts while sitting in the stands, to get messages from sources no matter where I am, and to never be out of touch by any communication vector. I’m open to suggestions--especially from Danger or T-Mobile--but to me, the Sidekick is the perfect baseball companion.

Powered by my new Nike A’s hat, on to the injuries:

• The more I hear about Eric Gagne, the more confused I become. The Dodgers’ spin on the surgery is perhaps predictably the most positive one: that the peripheral sensory nerve that was cut in the half-hour operation will necessitate a four- to six-week recovery before he returns as a still-dominant closer. Allowing that the nerve loss won’t affect his pitching motion--and I’ll agree that it wouldn’t seem to--I’m still not getting all the facts to add up here. Gagne had a neuroma (a benign tumor) on the nerve, and it was removed during the half-hour surgery. How did this just now start hurting? My best source says that Gagne only experienced the pain once he started throwing at 100%, something that only happened about two weeks ago. If we call this surgery a minor complication of last June’s elbow surgery, Gagne’s essentially at the same point as many people coming back from Tommy John surgery, without the nominal certainty those survivors have. He’ll need all of those four to six weeks to return, if only to build up arm strength; certainly not to recover from the surgery, which was minimally invasive. Was his reduced velocity in spring training the result of the pain from the neuroma? That’s less clear, much like Gagne’s future.

• The Braves' depth will be tested over the next couple days as Chipper Jones and Marcus Giles were both injured during Sunday’s game. The game was played in damp conditions, but neither injury actually appears to have been affected by the turf, and in the case of Jones, the slippery surface may have actually prevented it from being worse. Jones’ play looked bad, as he collapsed to the ground with both a sprained knee and a severely sprained ankle as a secondary--but more serious--injury. The knee appears to be stable and the ankle is being treated in hopes of minimizing the swelling. He’ll have both injuries re-evaluated Monday, and the DL is a possibility. Giles aggravated a previous quad strain while running, and later removed himself from the game. He’s likely to miss a few days, unless the injury to Jones encourages him to take one for the team and fight through it.

• The Red Sox may be without Coco Crisp for up to a month. Reports from Boston’s WHDH state that Crisp’s "jammed finger" is actually a broken knuckle. This would obviously be a massive difference. Crisp was to be checked on Monday anyway, so more details should be coming. Broken fingers and hands heal on a predictable schedule, but often have lingering effects. For Crisp, his game is more about his legs than his power, so this should be a minimal change. For the team, a shift from Crisp to Canadian Idol Adam Stern could be significant. Watch for more info from the team tomorrow and in this space on Tuesday.

• The Cardinals are a team that, at least initially, looks to be one that will be carried as far as its stars can take it. Certainly Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds, and the now-healthy Scott Rolen could take any team a long way, but beyond that, the team is both thin and vulnerable. After the off-season loss of Matt Morris, the responsibility for fronting the rotation falls more squarely on Chris Carpenter. He’s been worked hard over the past two seasons, but has been up to the task apart from the freak shoulder problem at the end of 2004. Carpenter is dealing with some mild back spasms after his last start. While he’s not going to miss time, it’s something to keep an eye on. All problems start small, and after being swept by a Cubs team with more questions than the Cards, the new stadium is going to be a nice distraction. (By the way, a friend inside the industry thinks that new Busch is going to play as a hitter’s park.)

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