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July 24, 2006

Under The Knife

Weekends--Your Source for Pain Proliferation?

by Will Carroll

Weekends are always interesting. There are always a couple of days' worth of injuries, and the flood of Sunday notes columns that help shake out things from the baseball bushes. My columns end up longer, I watch more baseball, and at the same time, try to step away as much as possible. My Sidekick (II, not III – damned T Mobile) keeps me ‘in the game’ whether I like it or not. Add in the trading deadline’s approach and this wasn’t exactly a normal weekend, though it occasionally seemed like the calm before a storm. I’ll be on the road all week, checking in from the road. Let’s hear it for in-room high-speed and cell phones.

Powered by Delta Airlines in hopes that they don’t lose my bag, on to the injuries:

• Broken bones heal. That’s one of the medhead tenets that helps make injury analysis a bit more than an educated guess. In almost every case, you’d rather have a broken bone than a torn ligament or tendon. Bones heal and have the advantage of things like casts and splints, Forteo and electric stimulators, and other advanced techniques. Ligaments have Jim Andrews and Neil ElAttrache’s imagination. What makes this complex is that the body isn’t discreet; bones don’t often break without the involvement of some other structure. A broken wrist will often involve ligaments, tendons, or nerves. That is what the Cubs are dealing with now: Derrek Lee made it back from his broken wrist on a normal schedule, and was actually a bit behind where I was expecting based on the available information. The injury is clearly still bothering Lee at the plate, enough to keep him out of the lineup three out of five days last week. Given that he played every day before that since his return, that implies that there’s a complication that occurred and is problematic now that wasn’t when he initially came back from the DL. Looking at Lee’s lack of power and increased strikeouts, the best match for his symptomology is some tendonitis in the wrist. This is fixable and not that serious, but the Cubs' seeming inability to control it is the most worrisome aspect of this situation. Combined with the other Cub medical woes, one has to wonder if the medical staff is to blame. Luck only goes so far. One reader asked this weekend if he thought Lee’s benching was Dusty Baker’s way of saying that his team still wasn’t healthy. I think Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, and now Sean Marshall playing injured does that far better than faking something with Lee. Lee’s still injured, and more and more, he’s the best symbol of the Cubs season--broken.

• Getting someone back is often said to be as good as a deadline deal, but not always. The Rangers and Brewers would have much rather had Adam Eaton and Ben Sheets all season long, rather than saving them for the stretch run. Often, a mid-level #3 starter will be more valuable over the course of a season, making all his starts, than a short-term ace will be. Something is better than nothing, of course, so both teams are glad to see their big guys back. Sheets is more clearly the rotation's top gun in Milwaukee, and his ability to come out strong after missing most of the last year with a shoulder injury will determine the Brewers’ course at the deadline. Eaton isn’t the staff ace in Texas, but is the ‘make or break’ pitcher in the Rangers' quest for the AL West. Both return this Tuesday, and fans of each team will just have to hold their breath until then.

• The Padres have a more interesting situation. At the start of the year, I was shocked to see Jake Peavy on the cover of BP. Sure, everyone loved him, but not many people realized how serious the shoulder injury Peavy had was going to be. I tried to explain that he was suffering from a similar injury to the one that had sidelined Ben Sheets and Bartolo Colon. Peavy’s toughness and lower natural arm slot helped him pitch, but his results so far show that he’s been missing the mark more than hitting it. Less control, less velocity, and less motion is the nightmare trifecta for any pitcher, let alone one expected to contend for a Cy Young. At 26, Peavy’s health has him at something of a crossroads career-wise. Shoulder injuries don’t portend long, effective careers without summoning up visions of Frank Tanana. At least there’s better news for Padres fans when it comes to Chris Young: in addition to no dead arm, Young made it through a test of his injured push foot. He’ll start as scheduled on Monday.

• It was good news that Pedro Martinez made it through his planned 80-pitch simulated game without a problem. It was better that he came back on Sunday without anything more than normal soreness. That’s the best indicator that his arm, at least, is ready. Unfortunately, there’s no such indicator on how well his injured hip is going to hold up. Even after a month’s rest, my best Mets sources still aren’t sure how Martinez will handle things. They acknowledge that he’ll be handled even more carefully, slipped out of games when possible, and have starts skipped or delayed to buy him extra rest. They’ll need to do the same with Paul Lo Duca. His notorious fade is often accompanied by injury and sure enough, LoDuca’s hidden a hand injury since before the All-Star break. LoDuca is hinting that he’ll need surgery in the off-season, so this is no small matter. He’ll test the Mets medical staff as well as the field staff as they try to keep him effective down the stretch.

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