Chris Ray underwent Tommy John surgery. No surprise there. Chalk this one up against the Orioles, an injury that will cost upwards of 100 DL days. Sure, it will be spread out over this year and next, minimizing the impact on their injury stats, but at least it counts against them. You see, B.J. Ryan was the closer in Baltimore before Ray and he too underwent Tommy John surgery this year.
Since we know that usually, Tommy John surgery is preceded by a long slow decline inside the elbow, it’s hard to “blame” one staff over another. Even in cases like Kerry Wood, where he’s played for only one team, there’s still the idea that the damage began in high school or even before. Watching curveball after curveball today during Versus’ coverage of the Ripken World Series, it’s hard to imagine that the damage isn’t starting earlier and earlier.
The problem with Tommy isn’t that we’re not sure who to blame. It’s that there’s so much blame to go around.
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