Thursday, March 31, 2011
The Saddest of Possible Words....
And they ain't "Tinker to Evers to Chance" of F.P. Adams fame.
If they are, you have a problem... namely Baseball Zombies.
No, these words are "Dr. James Andrews." They are oft accompanied by "consult with" and eventually "season-ending surgery." Now, the Blue Jays have not heard these words just yet, but you have the forearm discomfort of Brendan Morrow and Brett Cecil's missing 5-6 MPH on his fastball. These are rather sizable concerns for a team that is supposed to be anchored by its young starters.
The Blue Jays are, to their credit, extremely proactive about protecting their young arms, imposing inning limits and shutting them down whenever there's a hint of a problem. So far, Cecil "feels fine" and the club is optimistic about Morrow and everything is just precautionary at this point, but everyone was pretty optimistic about B.J. Ryan once upon a time. And Jesse Litsch... and Adam Wainwright...And Stephen Strasburg (ok, everyone knew Strasburg was done as soon as he threw that pitch).
Rotation health was a key to 85 wins last year, and while the organization is doing its best to safeguard the starters, it's hard to keep a whole crop of young pitchers healthy - hence the wisdom of developing them in crops.
With luck, Morrow and Cecil will be putting together back-to-back 7-inning gems inside of 3 weeks. But young arms have a tendency to break hearts, and an eventual trip to Birmingham wouldn't be a surprise. ¶ posted by Jim Turner at 11:12 PM
If they are, you have a problem... namely Baseball Zombies.
No, these words are "Dr. James Andrews." They are oft accompanied by "consult with" and eventually "season-ending surgery." Now, the Blue Jays have not heard these words just yet, but you have the forearm discomfort of Brendan Morrow and Brett Cecil's missing 5-6 MPH on his fastball. These are rather sizable concerns for a team that is supposed to be anchored by its young starters.
The Blue Jays are, to their credit, extremely proactive about protecting their young arms, imposing inning limits and shutting them down whenever there's a hint of a problem. So far, Cecil "feels fine" and the club is optimistic about Morrow and everything is just precautionary at this point, but everyone was pretty optimistic about B.J. Ryan once upon a time. And Jesse Litsch... and Adam Wainwright...And Stephen Strasburg (ok, everyone knew Strasburg was done as soon as he threw that pitch).
Rotation health was a key to 85 wins last year, and while the organization is doing its best to safeguard the starters, it's hard to keep a whole crop of young pitchers healthy - hence the wisdom of developing them in crops.
With luck, Morrow and Cecil will be putting together back-to-back 7-inning gems inside of 3 weeks. But young arms have a tendency to break hearts, and an eventual trip to Birmingham wouldn't be a surprise. ¶ posted by Jim Turner at 11:12 PM
