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April 28, 2008

Under The Knife

Quick Work and Gray Braves

by Will Carroll

Chipper Jones (3 DXL)
John Smoltz (7 DXL)
The Braves understand that one of the risks involved with older, injury-prone players is that they're going to need to go to their backups. The team has them in place, but they'd hoped they wouldn't have to use them quite yet; it's one thing to have Plan B in place, and quite another to put Plan B in the rotation or in place of your hottest hitter. Smoltz is no stranger to shoulder problems, but normally they've been coming towards the end of seasons, which would make fatigue a contributing factor. With these latest problems coming so early in the season, we have to hope that fatigue isn't the issue, but at this stage, it doesn't seem like the Braves really know what's involved. Sources tell me that the soreness is in a "lower area" than what had him on the DL at the start of the year. They'll wait for the shoulder to calm down before further examination, an indication that there's an inflammatory process going on. He'll miss a start and could hit the DL after a scheduled examination on Tuesday. The Braves will also be without Jones until at least Tuesday; he described the back spasms he experienced over the weekend as a "sledgehammer in the back." That doesn't sound good, but Jones tends to heal quickly and come back at normal capacity. His small injuries—quad, back, foot—are already adding up, but Jones is hitting through all of them, so assess your level of risk tolerance. Bobby Cox is used to this.

Kerwin Danley (7 DXL)
Here's the quote that stood out to me in the Kerwin Danley story: Umpire Greg Gibson, Danley's crew chief, said "I've had three concussions myself." Anyone who saw Danley go down after being struck on the mask by a 96 mph Brad Penny fastball understands the forces in play and the dangers involved when something as common as a sign getting crossed occurs. Danley was released from the hospital on Sunday morning, in large part due to the quick work of the Dodgers medical staff; watch the video and see how fast Stan Conte gets to him. Ironically, Conte has conducted studies in the past on catcher's masks, looking for ways that incidents like this could be minimized. I've made a lot of calls before for improved protection for pitchers, but catchers and umpires deserve the same kind of research. I can only hope the sporting goods manufacturers are watching, because its a problem all the way down to Little League. Concussions are serious business. It's the ultimate sign of respect that I give Danley only 7 DXL. If it's good enough for the best players in the game, it's good enough for the best officials.

David Ortiz (1 DXL)
Papi missed a couple of games during the weekend, the result of what was called "bruising" in his repaired knee. There's two explanations here, and they couldn't be more dissimilar from one another. The minimal scenario is that Ortiz has a simple traumatic bruise, resulting from his "car accident" of a headfirst slide. We all understand those—they hurt, they heal, and we move on. The second and more troubling possibility is that there's some internal bruising as well, caused by bone-on-bone contact after the removal of part of his meniscus last winter. We see this more often in the NFL, where there's more running and weight-bearing activities with guys carrying more weight than even Ortiz. This would be an issue of maintenance and pain tolerance, something the Red Sox are good at. We'll have to see how well Ortiz handles the situation and adjusts to it; early indications are that he's slow to adjust, but can.

Grady Sizemore (1 DXL)
Sizemore is dealing with a mild sprain of his ankle and missed Sunday's game in order to give it time to heal. It's not considered serious, though ankle sprains do have the tendency to linger, and can get inflamed by seemingly minor things. In addition to his other skills, Sizemore has always been very healthy; his easy-looking style of play contributes to this, in direct contrast to center fielders like Jim Edmonds or Aaron Rowand. In a discussion about Sizemore with a front office type last season, he mentioned that Sizemore was "always clean." I wasn't sure this was a compliment, since "dirtbag" is a term of endearment. He explained that Sizemore did things with such physical ease that he didn't have to dive or slide in most situations, and that he was the type of player that "dirt doesn't stick to" when he is forced to stretch for one. The mild sprain shouldn't keep Sizemore out long, if at all past the day off he was already given.

Moises Alou (45 DXL)
Alou was very close to a return from hernia surgery when it was discovered he may have a fractured ankle. It's not clear if this is a stress fracture or a traumatic fracture. Complicating things is that this is the same ankle Alou nearly had destroyed by an injury in 1993. There could have been some lingering damage there, as anyone who has seen Alou since then would acknowledge that the joint is not "normal." I can remember first seeing that ankle in 2002, almost cringing as Alou rolled down his sock to show it to me in the Wrigley clubhouse. The Mets and Alou think he'll be able to come through this, but sources acknowledge that Alou seems tired of the injuries and could decide to call it a career. At this stage, Alou will miss at least another couple of additional weeks with this latest injury, so we'll set the DXL at 45 (inclusive of his hernia recovery).