Touch Me I'm Sick - Injuries (and Recoveries) in 2013

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Dickey btw had a good start and his second W yesterday.

[Edgy MD]

Report has eight weeks and no surgery for d'Arnaud.

So I guess we're looking at a minimum of four months, possibly the season, what with the strong possibility of surgery and all.

[Gwreck]

It would be funny if it wasn't true so often.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Or, if we decide to be optimistic and consider that the estimate might be accurate, the soonest we'd see him with the Mets would probably be late July.

[Ceetar]

you know, just judging by the Rob Johnson/Matt Harvey thing last year, I wonder if it's entirely possible we see d'Arnaud and Wheeler the same time. They're not looking to have a ton of exposure to each other at this point, but it's not like Rob Johnson had caught Harvey for years either..

[ashie62]

Missed the D'Arnaud injury..crap..but at least it's not the knees...

[Edgy MD]

Mike Kerwick ?@mikekerwick 1m Collins said Familia won't pitch tonight. DL possible. #mets

What happened to Jeurys?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Biceps tendonitis? Velocity down in last appearance.

[Edgy MD]

Looks like it.

Sounds like a pretext to re-launch the Francisco Missile also.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Achoosin to DL; Colin McHugh recalled.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Northjersey.com : Sports
Mets notes: Zack Wheeler injured

Wheeler hurts clavicle

One day after general manager Sandy Alderson said Zack Wheeler could be in the big leagues before the end of June, the team announced that Wheeler likely will miss his next minor league start. Wheeler has soreness in his right clavicle, assistant general manager John Ricco said. Wheeler will fly to New York to get it examined. Ricco said Wheeler could miss his next start with Class AAA Las Vegas. "It was nothing that happened during his last outing," Ricco said before Tuesday�s 104 loss to the the Cardinals. "It was something he felt a couple of days after." Ricco said the team was erring on the conservative side because of Wheeler�s pedigree. He is considered the organization�s top pitching prospect. "From what I�ve heard today, it doesn�t sound serious," manager Terry Collins said. "But any time you miss a start, it�s for the best interest of the player. Again, we�ll wait to hear the doctor�s report and go from there. But if it�s only one start, that certainly is something we can handle easily."

http://www.northjersey.com/sports/207492951_Mets_notes__Zack_Wheeler_injured.html

[TransMonk]

Hrumph.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Wheeler, Mets� Top Pitching Prospect, to Miss Next Start
By ANDREW KEH

ST. LOUIS � The proper level of concern will become clearer Wednesday, but regardless, it was precisely the type of injury news the Mets and their fans did not want to hear. Those seeking some silver lining from this dispiriting Mets season could always remind themselves that Zack Wheeler, the organization�s top pitching prospect, would be joining the major league team sometime this summer. It was disconcerting to hear, then, that Wheeler was scheduled to visit team doctors in New York on Wednesday after reporting soreness around his right clavicle earlier this week. �I think we�re being a little bit conservative, given who it is,� John Ricco, the team�s assistant general manager, said upon delivering the news Tuesday afternoon. Ricco added, �It�s kind of an odd area, so we just wanted to make sure.� Wheeler, a 22-year-old right-hander, will miss his next start for the Mets� Class AAA team. But, like Ricco, the Mets� coaching staff tried to play down the severity of the issue. It appeared to be a case of a team taking extra care handling a prized asset. �I hate to speculate, but I�ve never heard of anything horrible around that area,� said the pitching coach, Dan Warthen, who noted that the left-hander Jon Niese and third baseman David Wright both complained of soreness around the same area earlier this season, with neither experiencing any significant or lasting problems. �It could be from sleeping on your pillow wrong.� Wheeler has made eight starts for the Las Vegas 51s and has appeared to find a groove of late. During his last start, he allowed only two runs over seven and a third innings. Wheeler�s progress has been closely watched, particularly as the Mets have floundered during this young season. Coincidentally, catcher Travis d�Arnaud, the organization�s top position player prospect, has an appointment to see doctors this week. He sustained a fractured bone in his foot in a minor league game in April and is awaiting clearance to remove a walking boot and begin physical rehabilitation. Referring to Wheeler, Manager Terry Collins said: �From what I�ve heard today, it doesn�t sound serious. We�ll wait to hear the doctor�s report and go from there. But if it�s only one start, that�s something we can handle.�

http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/wheeler-mets-top-pitching-prospect-to-miss-next-start/

[Edgy MD]

Right clavicle? That's too close to the Johan zone for my comfort.

I'll not sleep well tonight.

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: Right clavicle? That's too close to the Johan zone for my comfort. I'll not sleep well tonight.

well, we should hear today.

Sounds like no big deal if it is indeed the clavicle, but you're right, pitchers are often just guessing where the pain is and if they're off slightly..

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

This puts a crimp in my plan to write a post advocating we send down Ike, Carson and Gee for Satin, Leathersich & Wheeler.

[Benjamin Grimm]

One way or another, Gee ought to come out of the rotation. If Marcum poops all over himself again tonight, then he should be gone too. I'd give Hefner a little more rope. Niese, I think, needs some rest. Unfortunately they can't fill all of these spots with just Collin McHugh, and that's about all they have. Hopefully Wheeler's thing is nothing much and he can join the rotation in the next couple of weeks.

[Edgy MD]

It's hard to argue who goes out when three fifths of the rotation is failing. Three and half, to be more fair. But yeah, McHugh is there to take somebody's job.

[Ceetar]

I think it's hard to argue anybody goes out when the three guys all have significant samples that suggest they're better than this. Isn't the chance that they turn it around more consistently higher than picking someone to replace them?

I'm all for Collin McHugh getting another chance, but it's not like he's shone in his opportunities.

[Edgy MD]

Warren Spahn has a significant sample of success too. Eventually it's more about what you've done lately. I imagine any bumped from the rotation won't be planned as a permanent jetisonning, but the plan has to be to win games, so you've got to try something. And McHugh's lack of success as a big leaguer so far is quite comparable to the recent performance of most of the Mets' starting rotation.

This is part of what really made Casey Stengel stand out, I think. The general attitude about managers is to show loyalty by sticking with his guys through rough spells. His notion was that loyalty was best shown by giving his team the best chance to win every day, and he was so quick to pull a starter from the rotation that his starting staff was usually Ford, Reynolds (mostly), and whoever was hot.

That may not be why he won, but he had the greatest run of any manager ever with that policy. So I'm in favor of swapping out starters pretty liberally. I'm with Casey.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Marcum and Gee are recovering from injuries, surgeries, whatever. So even if they were once better than this, they may no longer be. Sure, we can give them each another start or two, but at some point they have to stop pitching to a 6+ ERA or give way to someone else. Even in a non-contending year, they should try to win games. I wouldn't release Gee; I'd instead let him work things out in the minors. Marcum too, I guess, not because he may be part of the future, but because of the $4 million.

[Ceetar]

To some degree. maybe Gee, but he has had some good starts this year and his one before this one wasn't bad. Really a decent offense could've won most of his starts this year, since he gave up 4 a couple of times. Short outings still, but you don't usually remedy that with new callups.

Marcum only has 14 or so innings so far. They've been bad, true, but he's a better pitcher than that.

And John Niese had a 3.31 ERA before the last two starts. In those six starts he had one bad one that they won in a blowout, and another that he labored through 2.1 and taxed the bullpen in that they eventually lost. (ND for Niese)

I'm not buying that these are samples you suddenly demote or release a guy off of. I'm all for giving guys that are performing shots, and if that means displacing someone that may just be slumping, then fine, but that doesn't appear to be the case right now.

If I had to roll the dice for a starter, I'm probably taking my chances with these guys over the other options right now.


The caveat here of course is that Warthen and Collins may know more than is obvious from the stat sheet. fatigue or soreness, issues with arm slots and all that. If they've got evidence that the Jon Niese that they're throwing out there isn't really the real Jon Niese, then by all means slide someone else in.

[Edgy MD]

Well, (1) nobody is realistically arguing for outright releases and nobody is seriously arguing that all three should/could be replaced simultaneously. So let's not distort the issue.

[Frayed Knot]

Whoever gets bumped should be placed into long relief/emergency starter status.
That serves double duty of allowing them to actually jettison one or more of the under-achieving current relievers.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Let's not kid ourselves. Gee has sucked balls this year.

[Guest themetfairy]

Perhaps he should focus on pitching them rather than sucking them.

[metsmarathon]

no, i think that would be far more painful. really.

[Edgy MD]

Andrew Brown short-circuited his potential callup by hurting his oblique. Now Lutz hurts his.

[ashie62]

Maybe Ike has short circuited both of them anyway?

[Edgy MD]

If Flores or Satin strains an obie, we check Ike's locker for voodoo dolls.