Injury News and Analysis: March 19th, 2009

Sorry for the delay but without further ado.

Cole Hamels’ evaluation came back relatively clean.  There was no structural damage after having an MRI and an ultrasound on his elbow and Philly fans can take a collectively sigh of relief.  He’s diagnosed with tendinitis, but Opening Day is still doubt.  The concern I have is the extreme jump in innings last year and the link to injury.  Additionally, I think you can get similar production much lower in the draft.

Regardless, Hamels already has injuries to his shoulder and elbow and this second injury to his elbow is somewhat worrisome.  I would not be surprised if his current injury takes a little longer than normal.

Kevin Youkilis is the latest WBC casualty suffering a mild ankle sprain and tendinitis. Yet another reason why I don’t believe in the WBC as currently constructed.  The sprain and tendinitis aren’t troublesome in the long term, but I expect very little in terms of him playing in games before Opening Day.  The tendinitis is in the Achilles area and with the exception of Nomar and Mark Prior, this is a fairly treatable injury.

Ankle sprains are also easily treated as long as it is not a high ankle sprain.

Hanley Ramirez is now suffering from rotator cuff tendinitis in his shoulder which is better news than he had in the past.  He will likely be out up to a week, but shouldn’t have any worries during the season.  The tendinitis could be caused from either throwing too much too early, taking too many swings in the cage, or having a muscle imbalance somewhere in the chain between his trunk and shoulders.  

This shouldn’t effect his draft status though.

Chris Carpenter is continuing his strong spring throwing six shutout innings in his latest start. It appears his stuff is extremely strong because though, as he threw 15 ground balls.  His recovery from ulnar transposition surgery appears to be going extremely well and he could end up being a great sleeper this year.

The Yankees have more options for a DH than basically any other team, but it appears that Hideki Matsui will be the lone DH until inter-league play begins. He’s recovering from microfracture surgery on his troublesome knee.  This means that his knee isn’t ready to play in the field, but it has a much greater impact than just that.  

Now Johnny Damon and Jorge Posada don’t have that DH as an option to save their bodies.  Damon and Posada will end up getting less at-bats during the year. If they do play every day, then both Damon and Posada are at an increased risk of injury.

Aaron Boone will have heart surgery soon to have an aortic valve repaired in his heart.  This will end his season and possibly his career.  He’ll likely be most remembered for his postseason HR against the Red Sox and will join Bucky Dent in nick-names that can’t be said publicly.

Jayson Nix isn’t having too much luck with his legs this spring.  He re-injured his quad a couple days ago and has likely blown his shot at a starting 2nd base job with the White Sox.  Even if he does regain the starting position, multiple strains of the same injury put him at an increased risk of straining it again.

Max Scherzer finally made his spring debut after recovering from shoulder fatigue. Scherzer has immense potential and could eventually be a  No. 1.  The problem is that he’s a young power pitcher with shoulder issues. He’s likely to be have more injuries until he’s thrown a couple seasons worth of innings at the majors.  

The fact that he had tendinitis last summer and then fatigue over winter break has me slightly concerned and I would treat him as a high risk, high reward pick.