Early a.m. injury updates: A-Rod, IPK, JoPo

May 5, 2009 by Benjamin Kabak 107 Comments

Injuries are swirling around the Yankees right now. With Brian Bruney, Xavier Nady and Alex Rodriguez on the shelf, the Yanks’ depth has nearly vanished. The news on Monday got both worse and better at the same time. I’ll run it down.

First, for those of you asleep at 1:30 a.m. when the Yankee game ended last night, the Bombers lost Jorge Posada to a hamstring injury. Posada hurt his hamstring sliding into second base in the 6th inning and had to leave the game. He’ll get an MRI later today, and Joe Girardi said during the post-game press conference that Posada will miss a few days.

Jorge leads the Yankees with 20 RBIs. He will be nearly impossible to replace in the lineup, but the Yankees will have to make a roster move. The team needs a second healthy catcher, and Francisco Cervelli, the only other catcher on the 40-man, could be Bronx-bound today. Cervelli is hitting just .190/.266/.310 in AA.

In better news, Alex Rodriguez could rejoin the Yankees by Friday. A-Rod went 1 for 5 with a walk in Extended Spring Training yesterday. His lone hit was a home run off of rehabbing Phillies’ reliever J.C. Romero. The Yankees expect A-Rod to play again today, and the team will then determine his schedule.

In speaking with reporters, Joe Girardi said that A-Rod could be activated on Friday in Baltimore. He doesn’t need to slide in game conditions, and if a Minor League rehab assignment would simply afford A-Rod some work on his hand-eye coordination, the Yanks will skip that luxury to bring him back to the Bigs. “So much of it just depends on how he feels and when he believes he’s ready to go,” Girardi said. “I have not really put a date on it, because I want to see how he bounces back. It’s up to him. When he feels that he’s ready, we’re probably going to take him back.”

Meanwhile, in the A-Rod story linked above, Bryan Hoch checked in with an Ian Kennedy update. The Yanks’ youngster is currently suffering from a vasospasm in his right middle finger. Doctors checked out Kennedy on Monday and prescribed more rest. He’ll have another exam on Thursday and is currently in a holding pattern.

Nady Nation

Praying Jorge’s injury is not serious. If Mo forbid he is, it would be the first time my confidence level would actually be shaken this season.
- A.D.
  
  Agreed, hopefully just a week tops type of hamstring.
- http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
  
  Meh, we’ve been battling all season. If we lose Jorge for a month but get ARod back, all we’re doing is moving the only real black hole we’ve had so far from 3B to C (and Molina gives back more defensive value from his C black hole than Peña/Berroa/Ransom gave from their 3B black hole)… and, offensively, ARod >>>>>>> Posada.
  
  It’s bad, but when you couple it with the good of having ARod back, plus the awakening of the Tex Monster, i think our level of play could actually go up, even if Posada’s out for a month. Seriously.
  
  (But yes, Mike Cameron would still be lovely right now.
  - Nady Nation
    
    Yea, that’s true. I also meant that my confidence level would drop from an 8 to a 7, assuming he’s not lost for the season or anything like that, so it’s not that drastic of a dropoff, but a dropoff nonetheless. Losing Jorge for a month wouldn’t be catastrophic, but it definitely would hurt a bit.
  - http://actyankee.blogspot.com Matt ACTY
    
    I don’t know, man. I don’t think they can get by with another long term injury to Posada. I know they’ve got Rodriguez coming back and there’s Tex but…I don’t know. I just have a bad feeling about Posada being down for a while.
  - Chris
    
    I’m not sure what to expect from Posada when he’s healthy. He’s got a career OPS+ of 124, but his last 2 healthy seasons (this year and 2007) he has an OPS+ of 154. It’s probably just a small sample size thing, but maybe there’s something he’s actually changed (maybe he stopped peeing on his hands…).
    - Colombo
      
      BLASPHEMY!!!!
    - http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
      
      WE NEED MORE URINE, JORGE!!!!!!
      - A.D.
        
        He needs to pee on his hamstring
  - Axl
    
    Posada’s leading the team with 20 RBI though. Arod might or might not be able to mimic that for a while…coming back from the injury.
- Wayne
  
  How many top guys can the Yankees afford to lose and expect to stay competitive? Molina and Cervalli together do not equal one Posada.
- Rich
  
  Also agree. Hope it is just minor.
henry frisch

I suffered through the whole wet cold mess. We ballpark fans were sure they would call it once they let it go to 8.45. It was no different all night than at 7, except that it got progressively colder. Posada’s injury might relate to the stupidity of playing under those conditions. Are they going to subject the poor injury prone players and we suffering ticket holders to more of this tonight? Why not postpone the game really early and play it when ARod and Posada are back? Or are they hellbent on adding more players to the injury list?
- Bo
  
  It boggles the mind. And now we’re all paying for it with Posada out for a month. A few days for a 37 yr old catcher with a bad hammy? Doubtful.
  - http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
    
    henry frisch says:
    Posada’s injury might relate to the stupidity of playing under those conditions.
    
    It might. But it might also be totally unrelated at all. There were several other mid-30’s players out there last night, players who actually played the field and thus subjected themselves to more of those “conditions” and they didn’t hurt themselves. Sometimes people just get hurt.
    
    Bo says:
    And now we’re all paying for it with Posada out for a month.
    
    Can we wait for the team doctors to say that Posada hurt his hammy because of the cold and the rain before we leap to the conclusion that the Yankees stupidly allowed the game to proceed and put Posada’s health at risk?
    - Bo
      
      How many hammy injuries are a few days especially for older guys like Posada? A-Rod was out for how long last yr?
      
      Let’s be cautious here and get him 100% before he hurts it really bad.
      
      And playing the game last night in those conditions was uncalled for.
      - http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
        
        Bo, do you understand how the reply button works?
        
        Because you weren’t “replying” to anything I just said. All you were doing was repeating yourself.
      - Johnny
        
        The Yankees don’t decide when to call the game, MLB does, otherwise of course they would call it. Who wouldn’t push an important game back to get your team healthy for it?
        
        You have to try and play through though. remember every game PPD either eats up an off day or creates a double header later in the year, which is just as hard on the team, especially the pitching.
        
        Note: I would sit through the rain for a week to be on hand for the fireworks tonight. If I were youk, Iwouldn’t be hangin over the plate in this one.
        
        http://www.riveraveblues.com Benjamin Kabak
        
        Actually, you’re wrong. If the lineup cards have not been exchanged, the home team is in charge of determining when and if the game gets played. If the lineup cards have been exchanged, that decision rest in the hands of the umpire-in-chief. It’s in the rulebook.
        
        Chris
        
        I may be wrong, but my understanding was that until first pitch the decision on whether to play or not is up to the home team. After first pitch, it’s up the the umps.
        
        henry frisch
        
        The Yankees made the call to take the tarp off at the point where everybody was sure they would call the game. The umps take control after the game starts. When George was in charge he used to give a free game to those sitting through a mess like last night.
        
        What if another old guy goes down tonight?
ChrisS

On paper, this is a great team. Unfortunately, paper doesn’t pull hammies or tear ligaments. However, older players do.

In any event, this team is still pretty good. The three big FA additions have, as I’ve come to expect, failed to get off to a dominating start. The bullpen has had its troubles, but Joba and Hughes have show promise. Losing CMW hurts. Losing Posada will hurt more. Pasta Diving Jeter is doing as much as can be expected and Ramiro Pena has filled in adequately. Melky tore up April like he did last year and I wonder if maybe (possibly?) he can take the next step to a league average player. And Robbie is scorching the ball (yay!).

Meh, color me concerned in June.
- http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
  
  C- a possibly a problem
  1B- looks like it’s fast becoming the dynamite we thought it would be
  2B- dynamite
  SS- solidly above average
  3B- about to be dynamite again
  LF- solidly good
  CF- surprisingly solid
  RF- dynamite
  DH- dynamite again
  
  bench- thin (but Nady may be back in 6 weeks or so)
  
  SP1- scuffling but showing signs of improvement
  SP2- scuffling but capable of a no-hitter at any moment
  SP3- solid
  SP4- solid to dominant
  SP5- solid to dominant
  
  bullpen- an utter wildcard but one still full of promise (Mo, Bruney, Melancon, Coke are all emerging as legit weapons, Albie, Veras, D-Rob have been hot/cold but serviceable, and there’s more depth still)
  - http://www.twitter.com/MatthewHarris84 Matt H
    
    Joba solid to dominant, I’d go with average to solid right now.
    - Nady Nation
      
      Yea, I’d have to agree.
      
      TSJC – I love your confidence, but is that Hughes you have as solid to dominant right now? I’m a big Hughes fan, but I think that’s quite generous.
      - Nady Nation
        
        Or was this assessment just based on potential?
        
        El Generalissimo
        
        Im calling midseason when we have a full team and everyone is playing at full gear… when we start to tear off huge win streaks.
        
        Rich
        
        Which was yet another reason not to play last night’s game.
        
        steve (different one)
        
        yup. no reason to play last night.
      - Chris
        
        Joba’s ERA: 3.13
        Phil’s ERA: 2.70
        
        If they maintain those numbers for a full season, they’re in serious discussion for the CY Young. That would constitute “Solid-Dominating”.
        
        Nady Nation
        
        “If they maintain those numbers for a full season, they’re in serious discussion for the CY Young. ”
        
        You just proved my point. That’s a pretty big IF, don’t you think? Again, I love both Joba and Phil, but if we’re analyzing them right now, I think it’s a bit too early to call them dominant.
        
        Chris
        
        What evidence do we have that Joba (in particular) will drop off? He has a career 2.85 ERA as a starter, so what he’s done so far is not out of line with anything else he’s done.
        
        For Hughes, there is more doubt, but he was the #1 pitching prospect in baseball a few years ago and he’s finally healthy.
        
        I don’t think there’s any more evidence to suggest they’re going to struggle than there is to suggest they’ll maintain their current levels of performance.
        
        Nady Nation
        
        I actually agree with you about Joba, and I believe he should keep up his performance, but I’d like to see a larger sample before declaring him dominant.
        
        Just because Hughes was formerly the #1 pitching prospect and that he’s healthy now doesn’t mean it will automatically translate to Major League success. I sure hope it does, and I believe that he will be successful, but all I’m saying is that I think it’s pretty early in the season/their careers to label them as dominant pitchers. It’s not really a big deal, I’m not doubting their abilities.
        
        jsbrendog
        
        eventually hughes will exhibit zack greinke like skills. it just may take him 3 or 4 mroe years.
        
        http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
        
        Again, I love both Joba and Phil, but if we’re analyzing them right now, I think it’s a bit too early to call them dominant.
        
        But, even if you disagree that they’re “dominant”, they’re at bare freaking minimum “solid”, aren’t they?
        
        SP4- solid to dominant
        SP5- solid to dominant
        
        Nady Nation
        
        Yes, they are certainly solid. I have no idea why I took such umbrage with your word choice. I think I’m just cranky from the lack of sleep I got due to last night’s game. My bad.
  - Axl
    
    One game of Tex hitting 2 home runs doesn’t change my mind at the moment.
    
    And is the starting pitching going to be mediocre to dominant all year long?? Or are they eventually going to hold each others hands for once and pitch consistently good for at least a couple starts in a row??
    
    How did we spend nearly 300 million dollars on pitching…to get WORSE than we were last year with Sir Sidney Ponson, Dan Geise, and Darrell Rasner eating up innings????
    
    And we’re consistently hitting JUST enough to lose. We’re 2nd in the league in runs scored…but more often than not…we’re giving up significantly more than we’re scoring. Which doesn’t help.
    - Bob Stone
      
      “How did we spend nearly 300 million dollars . . . to get WORSE than we were last year with Sir Sidney Ponson, Dan Giese, and Darrell Rasner eating up innings????”
      
      Just for the record – On May 5 2008 the Yankees were 17 and 16, 3.5 games out of first place. On May 5, 2009, the Yankees are 13 and 12, 3.5 games out of first place. Saying that we are worse is VERY PESSIMISTIC. I understand why a lot of people have concerns but this team is much better than last year.
- Chris
  
  Unfortunately, paper doesn’t pull hammies or tear ligaments.
  
  I have an uncle who’ll disagree with you. He worked in a paper factory and was seriously hurt moving piles of paper.
  - steve (different one)
    
    ietc
    - Mike Pop
      
      +1
  - A.D.
    
    This is why the game should be played on spreadsheets.
Rich

Part of the problem is that the Yankees are an aging team, and older players are more susceptible to injuries. Plus their ML ready mL depth is non-existent.
- Bo
  
  They have no depth here and that was a big mistake since most of the team is old and aging.
  - http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
    
    Ugh.
    
    Just like last year: THE YANKEES HAVE DEPTH. The problem is, in addition to their starters being hurt, A LOT OF THEIR DEPTH IS ALSO HURT.
    
    You should expect a team to be able to have one or two backup plans in order to compensate for one or two injuries. NO TEAM EVER has enough backup plans to compensate for SIX TO EIGHT injuries.
    
    Posada looks like he’s hurting. He’s old, it is a risk.
    
    Xavier Nady, Brian Bruney, Cody Ransom, Damaso Marte, Chien-Ming Wang, ARod, Ian Kennedy, Jason Johnson… these guys are NOT old injury risk players and they were part of our plan OR our backup plan. It is impossible to forecast injuries to young players who don’t have an injury history.
    
    Stop being upset that we don’t have a backup plan for our backup plan for our backup plan. That’s ridiculous.
http://www.twitter.com/MatthewHarris84 Matt H

Oh, and on the Jorge injury, if he misses any considerable amount of time, we saw how bad this was last year, even with a healthy ARod.

Molina while he is the best option for a backup catcher in baseball right now, gets exposed as a full-time catcher; offensivly that is.

Let’s hope Jorge only misses a week or so.
- V
  
  It IS bad, but we also have a healthier Matsui, a non-black hole Cano, a non-black hole CF (so far), Teixeira over Giambi, and better pitching.
  
  Color me worried if they’re 10 back of the Sox in mid-June.
- JobaWockeeZ
  
  Yeah but we have a better Cano, a healthy Matsui, Teix replacing Giambino and a better Melky but it’s still a SSS.
  Losing Jorge does not make us like last year. Not even close.
  - JobaWockeeZ
    
    Oh and we have Nick Swisher too. Nuff said about that.
- jsbrendog
  
  yes but this year, instead of ponson/rasner/karstens/injured pettite/inexperienced joba we have cc/burnett/healthy pettitte/little mroe experienced joba/little more experienced hughes
  
  the injury to posada is what kept us out of the playoffs BASED on the team LAST yr. if everything is identical last yr except you put cc/burnett in there and a pettitte whohad enough time to train so he hopefully doesnt wear down then we make it.
  - Rich
    
    But still no backup catcher that can hit his weight.
    - jsbrendog
      
      irrelevant. with the dh in the AL, if you have a backup catcher who can play gold glove defense 90% of the time and has a good-great arm and can hit better than a pitcher (meaning anything over 235-250) then i wouldnt be too worried. ESP someone like molina who can also randomly and seemingly accidentally fall into a hr and who (somehow and agreeably completely unsustainably) has an obp close to or over 400 for right now.
      
      molina catching could help the pitchers get mroe comfortable, he will help take away the run (which other than andy no one is really good at keeping runners close) and hit average to a little below average.
      
      last yr there was no one to replace JoPo’s production so molina was an awful fill in. but now you have Matsui/Tex/Swisher, a non sucky cano, and arod coming back.
      
      plus, molina can def hit hsi weight, what’s he weigh, about 230-250? :-P
      - jsbrendog
        
        wrong on the obp, its .333 (still good for him) and score +1 for me on the weight. 235 and he’s hitting .257
    - The Fallen Phoenix
      
      But if Molina could hit his weight, he wouldn’t be a backup catcher.
      - jsbrendog
        
        exactly, he’d either be a starter somewhere else or be a great hitter/no defense guy and dh or move to 1b (a la victor martinez type guy)
        
        ppl on the bench are on the bench for a reason. because they are nto good enough to start.
      - steve (different one)
        
        if Benji Molina could hit his weight, he’d be a HoFer
        
        jsbrendog
        
        well played
    - http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
      
      A “backup catcher that can hit his weight” is an oxymoron.
      
      Catchers who can hit their weight are starting catchers.
      
      No catcher who can hit his weight would have signed a contract to back up Jorge Posada, because he wouldn’t give away the playing time or financial compensation that being a starting catcher elsewhere can get him.
      - http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
        
        1996 Yankees backup catcher: Jim Leyritz (86 OPS+)
        1998 Yankees backup catcher: Joe Girardi (85 OPS+)
        1999 Yankees backup catcher: Joe Girardi (60 OPS+)
        2000 Yankees backup catcher: Chris Turner (61 OPS+)
        
        2009 Yankees backup catcher: Jose Molina (77 OPS+)
        
        Jose Molina defensively >>>>>>>>>>>>> Jim Leyritz, Joe Girardi, Chris Turner
        
        Yankees backup catcher now >>>>> Yankees backup catchers during the title years
        
        Bryan
        
        I would love to see Giardi behind the plate, the funny thing is that he looks like hes in shape to do it.
ARX

I suppose this is what I get for wondering if anything else could possibly go wrong for us injury-wise…
jon

Lets just hope that after this month we get all our injuries out of the way for the year.
- Bo
  
  We say that now every year.
http://www.puristbleedspinstripes.com Aunt Becca-Optimist Prime

I am a little worried that Jorge’s injury is like Phil’s back in 07-he hurt himself in May and was out till August; and I imagine that Jorge would have a longer recovery time given his age.
- Nady Nation
  
  I thought of this as well. I’m hoping that the “grab” Jorge felt is a better sign than the “pop” that Phil heard.
  - Bo
    
    He’s a 37 yr old catcher. There is no good word for a hammy being hurt. And if this was hurting him last week why wasn’t this nipped in the butt then? The Yankee medical staff has to be questioned here. All these keep adding up.
    - Nady Nation
      
      Do you believe in happiness?
      - http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
        
        Whoa, easy, now.
        
        Bo’s making progress.
        
        He’s not Lanny.
        
        Nady Nation
        
        True, although they seem interchangeable sometimes.
        
        Nady Nation
        
        True, although they seem interchangeable sometimes.
        
        Nady Nation
        
        Ugh. Comment duplication FTL
- Chris
  
  Phil also sprained his ankle during rehab which set him back like 6 weeks. His initial injury was only a 6-8 week injury, IIRC. From the sounds of it, this is more like A-Rod’s quad injury last year, where it was 2-3 weeks out.
Pingback: Yankees Continue to Annoy Fans
Axl

This sounds about right.

I mean I know a lot of our players are old and stuff…but even the younger ones are getting injured more than often. We’ve gotten rid of the wellness trainer or coach before…how long before we investigate even further?

Damon, Posada, Matsui…never on the DL…now they’re constantly injured. Yes they’re older…but they’re still athletes and not THAT old. Hughes, Kennedy, our bullpen guys, Arod, etc.

Seems like Red Sox guys get injured for like a week at the longest. Ortiz was out for one month and it was like the worst thing that ever happened to them last year. Arod was out for a month last year and we sometimes forget about it because it was overshadowed by all the other injuries that sidelined guys for pretty much the entire season. In 2004 the Red Sox rotation made every single one of their starts! Didn’t miss one single start. I mean what’s the secret here??

Our guys are injured literally every game. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Rivera go down next. But it will probably be Damon…

Something’s gotta give!
- A.D.
  
  Luck, injuries are luck, medical history, and a little bit training staff, but mainly the training staff can help you get back sooner then really stop injuries, at that the kind that lead to DL time.
  
  2004 would have been luck for the Sox, just like Wang hurting his foot was unlucky.
- http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
  
  Seems like Red Sox guys get injured for like a week at the longest.
  
  Baldelli, Kotsay, Dice-K = all out indefinitely
  Lowrie = probably out for the year
  Smoltz = just had a setback in his rehab
  
  +
  
  Lugo = M.I.A. for most of last year and most of this season so far
  J.D. Drew = Only played in 109 games last year
  Lowell = hobbled for most of last year
  Ortiz = legally dead since 2007
  - jsbrendog
    
    Ortiz = legally dead since 2007
    
    i laughed
  - Chris
    
    Lugo being injured isn’t a bad thing for the Sox. At least that way there’s no temptation to play him.
    - http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
      
      Touché.
      - tim randle
        
        TJSC:
        first the ~~strike~~ and now the accent on the e…you got more typing skills than Arod’s got sliding skills right now…
        
        http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
        
        Robinson Canó
        Ramiro Peña…
        
        If only there were some German players on the Yanks so I could flash the ümlaüt…
        
        http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
        
        If only Hensley Meulens was Hensley Meülens; those fruity Dutch bastards from Curaçao love crazy diåcriticals…
        
        Axl
        
        “Word to your Moms…I got more rhymes than a Bible’s got psalms…”
      - Axl
        
        How do you do all of these things?!? I still can’t even do the “strike” thing…I put the ~~strike in there and everything after it has the strike through…don’t know how to make it stop…Ahhh!!!~~
        
        http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
        
        All HTML tags have an open and a close tag.
        
        The Open tag for strikethrough is (strike), the close is (/strike).
        
        Of course, those parentheses should be “”.
        
        http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
        
        < and >
        
        Axl
        
        ahh I see. thanks! now what about the tilde’s and such? can you copy and paste from word or something? lol
        
        http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
        
        Well, yeah, you can copy and paste from Word.
        
        I’m usually on a Mac, which makes it easier. Diacriticals are built into the typing architecture itself, so it’s just a quick option-E key and the accent mark pops right up.
        
        You can type diacritical marks and all types of interesting things straight into any program.
        
        ¿¡¿¡¿¡¿¡MÚLTIPLE INTERROBANGAS?!?!?!?!?!?
        
        Axl
        
        This is a ~~test~~. Just to see if this works.
        
        Pretty good…although I don’t really understand most of the other ones. abbreviated title? acronym title? cite? Kind of confused…
        
        http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
        
        Meh, I don’t bother with the rest of those. The only tags you really need are:
        
        (b) (/b)
        (i) (/i)
        (strike) (/strike)
        (blockquote) (/blockquote)
        (a href) (/a)
        
        Everything else either duplicates those big 5 in some sort of way, or is restricted to admins in WordPress and hence, won’t show up in your comment (like the underline and embed tags, for example).
  - Stephen
    
    But Boston could do no wrong!! Tim Kurkjian, a nice guy who never really says much other than “wow baseball is great” was drinking the Red Sox kool-aid this morning on Sportscenter. He was effusively praising how great the Red Sox’ depth is, but in the next sentence, noted that Tim Wakefield (while ignoring Lester) has single handedly saved their rotation. Shouldn’t a team with such great depth not have to rely on Tim Wakefield to stay afloat?
    - Chris
      
      Jeff Bailey didn’t look too good last night. And the rest of their bench consists of Lugo, Van Every, and Varitek (I still refuse to acknowledge that he’s actually a starter).
http://actyankee.blogspot.com Matt ACTY

If Posada’s out for a month, the Yankees’ll probably be alright. If it’s more than that, I think the Yankees may be in trouble. I know they’re getting Rodriguez back, I know Teixeira’s heating up, but I also don’t know how long Matsui’s going to stay hot or how long Cano and Swisher will have to wait for their corrections (but Swisher being able to get on base regardless is comforting) so Posada being out for a long time could hurt a lot.
- http://www.teamnerdrage.com leokitty
  
  Cano’s correction should not be brutal if he continues with this approach. I mean yeah he’s not going to be 350/400 at the plate all season but he should be 300/350 if he doesn’t lapse back into his old hacking ways.
Axl

So my question is again…WHY? Why do we always have so many injuries year after year? Is this yet again another coincidence??? Is it always just a bunch of unfortunate coincidences over and over?? The Red Sox have Ortiz out for like a month last year and I never heard the end of it. That was their big loss with injuries. We lost Arod for a month too but it was overshadowed by the other massive amounts of injuries we had to players that were gone for nearly the entire season…if not the entire season. Why though? Every year?? In 2004 the Red Sox rotation made every single one of their starts. Not one of them missed a start due to injury. How? That’s like impossible. Then there’s us who just keep getting injury after injury…year after year. And it seems they exponentially get worse one after the other too. In terms of years anyway.

WHY?!? We got rid of that wellness coach or trainer a few years back…but it still seems like we’re still always getting injured.

Yes, there are injuries in baseball. Players suffer them. But this many all the time??? Every year??? I just don’t get it.
- tim randle
  
  Can anybody compare any other team’s ages/injuries to ours? We are an old team…
- Axl
  
  I know some of this was answered above…but it’s just ridiculous. I forgot I posted the other one to be honest haha. Sorry.
  
  But it’s really mind boggling. I guess what everbody is saying is that we’re the unluckiest team of the new millenium?? I guess that would sound about right…Maybe the Babe cashed out when he heard we were moving his old home…
  - http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
    
    OH NOOES WITH TEH CURSES!??!??!?!??!
    - Axl
      
      Well it’s just as arbitrary as blaming “luck” for the injuries…isn’t it?
      - Axl
        
        Or lack thereof…
        
        http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
        
        No.
        
        Luck is something arbitrary that happens.
        
        A “curse” is a mythical phenomenon created from thin air in order to attempt to make fanciful narrative out of normal, everyday occurences (including skill and luck) which are strung together by mere happenstance and coincidence.
        
        Axl
        
        “Luck” is a word made up to help explain certain coincidences and circumstances. It’s basically an easy excuse for when there is no logical or rational explanation. If I don’t study for an exam…and I’m hoping that what I know is all that is on there…and I get the exam and it just so happens to be everything I know. People would consider that “luck” when in fact that exam had been made for a while…before I made the decision not to study for it.
        
        “Curse” is similar…but now we’re dwelling more into the dark ages and witch trial type lingo. Where as “bad luck” could be a one time thing…a string of events that could be considered “bad luck” is not considered a “curse”.
        
        Like anything else, there are interpretations and actual definitions that contradict one another…but they’re basically both non-concrete non-existent explanations for things that don’t really have an answer…
        
        http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
        
        No, not really.
        
        Luck does not imply the unnatural or intentional, per se. Curse does.
        
        The meaning of the word luck has evolved, I’d say, to a point where there’s a difference between luck and lucky. Lucky is like curse: it implies there are unnatural or unusual forces at work that predict or create a certain outcome. Luck by itself can simply mean the natural and usual randomness of nature.
        
        If you find a quarter on the street, that’s luck (i.e. randomness). Doesn’t make you lucky (e.g. likely to continue to find quarters on the street). (Or cursed).
        
        /hairsplit
Rob in CT

The team took a calculated risk in playing Jorge through what they knew was a mild hamstring strain. We all knew about his injury, and I think the vast majority of us were fine with him DHing right until the moment when he aggravated it. If there were people calling for Jorge to sit out until he was 100%, bravo, you’ve been proven correct. Go ahead and bitch about it. For the rest of us, I suggest we quietly enjoy our shit sandwiches and look forward to the return of ARod.

For those who are howling at the moon about how many injuries the Yankees suffer, I think you’re probably underestimating the injuries other teams suffer. For those citing the Red Sox, I give you the 2006 Red Sox. That team was decimated.
- Axl
  
  Yeah 1 year. In 2006 we lost 2 100+ RBI guys in Matsui and Sheffield ands till made it to the playoffs. We’ve been beaten up by injuries to our star players for years…the Red Sox had ONE year…I’d gladly trade…
  - Rob in CT
    
    I was just pointing out 1 example. It wasn’t intended to be an exhaustive list of teams who have suffered from injuries.
    
    Going back a bit, the Red Sox lost a guy who looked like he was on a HOF path. Instead, he broke down and they traded him away. Remember Nomar before the wrist injury? Before his legs went? He was awesome.
    
    Some of the Yankees injuries are probably a factor of the age of the players. Some of it is just bad luck (Wang’s foot injury, for instance). Some of it could be their training/medical staff, or the team’s decision-making process. Like I said before, they chose to play Jorge through an injury. Jorge is now on the DL. I understand why they did it, but there’s a pretty clear cause & effect here.
Jill Santana

This is one of the best exchanges I have read in the long time. My comment is that I remember when Girardi pulled Posada out the game a couple of weeks ago and Posada was pissed. Posada wanted to play and would play as long as he could. He wants to help the team. However, the down side is that it did not help with his existing hamstring problem. Everyone wants to keep playing, despite pain. Damonis playing now with a sore shoulder and he does not want to have it examined for fear of what he will find out. Smart? Not really. Many of those on the DL now, both young and old, had problems but did not stop playing and those problems only got worse, which always happens when one ignores the signs.