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June 22, 2006

Under The Knife

The Fight for Youth

by Will Carroll

I hope everyone will read UTK for the info you expect, then keep reading after Quick Cuts. The extended piece is too long to put up top, but needs to be read by everyone, especially if you’re involved in youth baseball.

Powered by the fight to save young arms, on to the injuries:

• Don’t take this as an indictment of the Cubs, because few teams take a creative look at player usage. Kerry Wood threw a simulated game on Tuesday. Everything went well through sixty pitches. Between sixty and seventy, Wood began getting tight, losing snap on his pitches, and he didn't go past seventy. On Wednesday, he felt like he did after his recent starts, bringing his ability to recover into question. It also brought his season into question, the latest frustration for the Cubs. All this isn’t really news. What gets me is that Wood pitched well up to sixty. Even without moving him to the bullpen, isn’t there some way that the Cubs could make use of Kerry Wood for sixty pitches? Could he not be paired with Angel Guzman as a tandem fifth starter? Could he throw thirty or forty pitches more frequently, allowing him to be used as what one NL pitching coach calls a “spring pen starter”--using the relievers in the first couple innings to make sure that the work gets in? Too many baseball men with sharp minds are caught in the box of risk-averse conservatism, caught by the scribes who circle and challenge anything that’s “against the book.” If it takes thinking outside the book to keep Wood on a mound, I’m all for it.

• The Cubs should get some better news by the weekend. Derrek Lee continued his work towards a return by taking batting practice with the team. While a final decision hasn’t been made, Lee doesn’t feel that he needs even a short rehab assignment and wants to get back in the lineup. If he wins the discussion, he’ll be in the lineup this weekend. If he does head down to the minors, assuming there are no setbacks, he’ll be back next week, right at the eight-week mark. As with any wrist injury, there are questions about power and control, though you’ll remember this really isn’t a wrist injury; it’s a broken arm. Hitters recover from those without many problems.

• The NL Central is full of returning 1B. Albert Pujols is pushing for his return, continuing to pass all the challenges that the St. Louis medical staff puts in front of him. There are already baseless whispers in some circles about his quick healing. Pujols isn’t outside the timeline for a mild oblique strain, though he is well within the period where recurrences happen, the ones that are always worse than the original injury. The Cards could use their slugger back after two nights of watching the White Sox hit like, well, a team of nine Pujolses. To add an injury to the insults, Jim Edmonds--a player who was supposed to be taking it easy on an injured groin--was the latest victim of The Wall. The Sox must have taken down that extra Rowand padding, because the hit didn’t look that jarring as Edmonds went up to try and steal a Joe Crede home run. As he landed, he never put his hands to anything other than his head. The early diagnosis is a mild concussion and Edmonds left the game. The expectation that Edmonds would head to the DL when Pujols returns could be more necessary now.

• The Angels are busy, assessing what they can do with Darin Erstad. While Mike Scioscia will stick up for ‘his guys’ long past any point of baseball logic, the team knows that it is in the hardest part of a transition and at the point in the season where those hard decisions must be made. Erstad isn’t able to stay healthy playing regularly and is in pain even with rest. The team is thinking of putting him back on the DL by the weekend, with Howie Kendrick mentioned as a possibility to be recalled. Kendrick would be a boost of offense for a team that needs it and the DL would Erstad time to heal and decide how much he wants to play. My guess is that he’ll be back after surgery.

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