2 Baseball Injuries That Never Seem To Go Away
By orleanscardinals at 10 June, 2008, 7:55 pm
There are injuries that cost a player the entire season. There are injuries that make the casual baseball fan laugh in amusement.
Ryan Zimmerman (Photo: The Canadian Press)
And then there are injuries that end up lingering through the season, never seeming to heal and always impairing the performance a fantasy manager hopes for.
- For hitters, it’s a shoulder injury.
- For pitchers, the elbow is the culprit.
The Dreaded Shoulder Injury
Ryan Zimmerman is the latest would-be slugger to reveal a shoulder injury is impairing his 2008 season. “I don’t mind the pain. I can play through the pain,” is what Zimmerman is quoted as saying. That no doubt is true, but the expectation of a breakout season for the talented third baseman are now fairly remote. Shoulder injuries sap the key stat fantasy baseball managers hope for in a blossoming third baseman: Home Runs.
Zimmerman’s injury follows the shoulder injuries of power hitters like Gary Sheffield and Travis Hafner, largely considered fantasy disappointments thus far this season.
Even if Zimmerman ends up playing the majority of games the rest of this season, don’t count on a lot of production in major scoring categories. The Nationals are currently last in runs scored and runs batted in through June.
Elbow Problems Persist
In Atlanta, Rafael Soriano is saying “I just need to rest a couple days.” in order to get over a bit of elbow tendinitis that has plagued him since coming of the disabled list (which he went on for pretty much the same reasons).
(Photo: Gregory Smith/AP)
Elbow injuries just tend to linger and while you hope pitchers will be honest with the training staff about their health, you know they want to get back out and compete. The results of rushing back early from an elbow injury can be devastating.
Unfortunately, Soriano isn’t the only pitcher fighting through this type of injury (location). A few weeks ago I touted the upside of guys like Oakland Pitcher Joey Devine and had fellow RP Santiago Casilla in the back of my mind as well. Both are down with elbow injuries right now and may never be the same when they come back later this month.
Bottom Line
Guys like Zimmerman and Soriano had the potential for a breakout season with a mid-round draft selection but injuries to the shoulder and elbow can effectively derail that opportunity. Should you wait it out?
If you have one of these guys on your roster, it may be time to start looking for more productive alternatives. At the least, I’d keep them on your bench or DL slot and wait it out a bit, in order to get a clear picture of how these injuries play out over the next few weeks.
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