cubfan33
09-23-2002, 01:37 AM
I've seen tornadoes several times, but never this close. I stood out in the new room, watching the sky on Friday afternoon as what looked like a small tornado passed about a mile away. I saw it moving through the sky, looking like the small swirls you see in your drain. Well, that small tornado left a 180 mile path of destruction through central Indiana. It destroyed homes, businesses, roads, a friend of Rach's house, and my mom's apartment building. It never really hits home the important things until they're staring you in the face and almost gone. The lucky thing for the whole state is how few injuries and no deaths. The sirens worked and it seemed to supernaturally move around schools. For me, the worst of it was wondering if my mother's dog and my iguana were okay and being without cable for a couple days. The world spins and in a couple more revolutions, things will be back to normal. Thanks for the emails to those that wrote.
Expect some articles soon on how injuries and injury concerns (like overuse of pitchers and loss of depth) will affect the teams headed into the playoffs. Some will be here as features and some may be on Fox. I hope they help you understand what's going on in the training rooms and making managers make tough decisions. I've focused a bit more on playoff teams here for a while, but expect the focus to move even more through the World Series. I'll still try and catch all the other injuries and the start of off-season surgery season too.
A suggestion came in from a reader that makes sense. I referenced Tim Kremchek the other day and this reader didn't know that Kremchek is the Reds Team Physician. Since I seldom IF EVER refer to these men as "Dr. so and so", I'm going to start noting these medical types with the following abbreviations: Team Doctor will be TD, consulting physicians will be CP, and athletic trainers will be AT. Very easy to follow.
After seeing it one last time, I'll salute Riverfront/Cinergy. Like most of those ashtray look multi-purpose stadiums, I won't miss the spirit of it, but it does stand for one of the great periods in Reds history and I'll miss that. I hope the Reds have better luck in their new stadium than they did in closing this one, an ignomious sweep from the Phillies.
The D-Backs took a bit of a hit today when they lost Brian Anderson for the season. Anderson was expected to be their fourth starter or, more likely, the swingman, since the D-Backs get more off-days than anyone and will likely go only three deep. "I haven't heard any updates," Arizona manager Bob Brenly said after the game. "I think their orthopedic surgeon is going to take a look at him. I don't really know exactly what 'incomplete fracture' means. You hate to see that happen." Well, Bob, an incomplete fracture means the break in the bone doesn't go through the entire bone, but the fracture is clearly visible on X-ray. It's the fifth metatarsal, meaning the outside of his foot. This likely means that Miguel Batista becomes even more important to the D-Backs hopes.
The Yankees still have lots of pitching problems and no clear direction for how they'll line up in the postseason. The advantage they have is depth - even if Torre makes the wrong decision, he'll be able to come back with whoever didn't make the roster and a very deep bullpen. I'll talk more about this tomorrow. On the field side, the Yanks are a bit worried about Jason Giambi's back. It hasn't responded to treatment and seems to act up without warning during games. He can play, but he hasn't been full go in quite a while. Rondell White is getting healthier - or as healthy as he can be with his uneven leg situation - and I'm expecting big things from him this post-season.
The Cardinals are the opposite of the Yankees right now. With Woody Williams done for the regular season and very iffy for the post-season with a re-injury to his oblique, the Cards will have to rely on three guys who are not all healthy and clearly flammable - Matt Morris, Chuck Finley, and Andy Benes. Add to that a shaky pen who may be missing Jason Isringhausen and the Cards faithful have to be nervous. I'm chalking ALL of these problems up to poor coaching, poor management of injured players (ie, rushing them back, overusing players who are known to be injured, etc), and mostly to Tony Larussa. SS Edgar Renteria is also hobbled a bit with a back injury and an observer who saw him play recently spotted that it may be affecting his range. He wrote in almost two weeks ago, but I had nothing to go on. (Sorry - I'll trust you next time!)
The Twins are getting reasonably healthy. You should all know by now that my prediction skills rate about equal with my golf game (in other words, they suck.) but I still don't see the Twins getting far without complete health and some serious luck. Rick Reed's knee is ready to go and he shouldn't miss a start. There's some question about his role in the post-season, but he's been solid. Jacque Jones will likely play on Tuesday to test his ankle, but no problems are expected. The Twins roster is deep deep deep with even more callups, so expect a lot of rest for the key players with just enough time to stay sharp.
Again with the blisters ... would someone please check the baseballs next year? Andy Ashby is on the shelf with a blister and is likely done for the season unless the Dodgers somehow make up a couple games and need his start. The collapse of the pitching did in the Dodgers and the sad part is most of it was foreseeable. We all knew that Kevin Brown would be hurt at some point, that Odalis Perez and Omar Daal were being overused, that Andy Ashby never fully recovered, and ... ok, even Kaz Ishii didn't see his injury coming (sorry, bad joke). If Jim Tracy wins MOY, people are ignoring the facts. Two words: Bobby Cox.
Discretion is the better part of valour and once he'd cleared the 20 win hurdle and knew he'd done all he can to help his team and state his case for the Cy Young, Pedro Martinez hung it up for the season. He'll work again in the offseason with Chris Correnti (conditioning coach - I don't have an abbreviation for that) and I expect him to be fully healthy next year. (BTW, my AL Cy vote goes to Pedro, with Barry Zito a very close second.)
There's lots of business news today, but this isn't a business column, so I'll just touch on the ones I think are important. Peregrine Systems, run by Padres owner John Moores, declared bankruptcy today. This franchise may well be on the market soon and would have to be attractive to many with a new stadium coming in and a great minor league system. Over in Dallas, with the new AA franchise in Collin County (Frisco Roughriders) moving in expected fashion to affiliate with the Rangers - a good move since they're owned by Tom Hicks' Southwest Sports Group - there's some things happening that appear to be moving towards a possible sale of the Rangers in a year or so. Keep your eye on any ties between the SSG and Mandalay Sports.
Bud Smith is facing major labrum surgery and the tear in a bad place, according to sources. With luck and good rehab, he should be back after the ASB. How he recovers will really tell how well the Phillies did in the Scott Rolen deal. I'm willing to bet that they'll really regret not making the deal they had available from the Reds. I'm betting the Cards will end up regretting it as well.
When I heard that Mike Hampton was walking around on Friday in an orthopedic boot, I knew his season was done. More done than it has been since he arrived in Colorado, that is. Word moving around the league is that Hampton's agents are willing to be creative to get him to one of a couple teams. Houston has a clear lead, but he's willing to try things in Texas, Arizona, Los Angeles, or St. Louis.
Masato Yoshii had an anonymous, yet solid season up in ... umm ... that Canadian town. Oh, yeah, Montreal. Sorry, I seem to forget about them. Maybe if they were in Vegas or something. Even Washington. Yoshii's good season ends with the bad - the very bad. He'll have surgery to repair a badly torn labrum later this week and could miss a great portion of the '03 season. He's a likely non-tender, along with several other players. The Expos will need to deal a couple good young players to keep their payroll down. Please, Bud, sell this team.
Tomorrow is the weekly Fox report and Rachael is going to handle the quick update and URL to the Fox Report. I'll see you on Fox and again in this space on Tuesday.
Expect some articles soon on how injuries and injury concerns (like overuse of pitchers and loss of depth) will affect the teams headed into the playoffs. Some will be here as features and some may be on Fox. I hope they help you understand what's going on in the training rooms and making managers make tough decisions. I've focused a bit more on playoff teams here for a while, but expect the focus to move even more through the World Series. I'll still try and catch all the other injuries and the start of off-season surgery season too.
A suggestion came in from a reader that makes sense. I referenced Tim Kremchek the other day and this reader didn't know that Kremchek is the Reds Team Physician. Since I seldom IF EVER refer to these men as "Dr. so and so", I'm going to start noting these medical types with the following abbreviations: Team Doctor will be TD, consulting physicians will be CP, and athletic trainers will be AT. Very easy to follow.
After seeing it one last time, I'll salute Riverfront/Cinergy. Like most of those ashtray look multi-purpose stadiums, I won't miss the spirit of it, but it does stand for one of the great periods in Reds history and I'll miss that. I hope the Reds have better luck in their new stadium than they did in closing this one, an ignomious sweep from the Phillies.
The D-Backs took a bit of a hit today when they lost Brian Anderson for the season. Anderson was expected to be their fourth starter or, more likely, the swingman, since the D-Backs get more off-days than anyone and will likely go only three deep. "I haven't heard any updates," Arizona manager Bob Brenly said after the game. "I think their orthopedic surgeon is going to take a look at him. I don't really know exactly what 'incomplete fracture' means. You hate to see that happen." Well, Bob, an incomplete fracture means the break in the bone doesn't go through the entire bone, but the fracture is clearly visible on X-ray. It's the fifth metatarsal, meaning the outside of his foot. This likely means that Miguel Batista becomes even more important to the D-Backs hopes.
The Yankees still have lots of pitching problems and no clear direction for how they'll line up in the postseason. The advantage they have is depth - even if Torre makes the wrong decision, he'll be able to come back with whoever didn't make the roster and a very deep bullpen. I'll talk more about this tomorrow. On the field side, the Yanks are a bit worried about Jason Giambi's back. It hasn't responded to treatment and seems to act up without warning during games. He can play, but he hasn't been full go in quite a while. Rondell White is getting healthier - or as healthy as he can be with his uneven leg situation - and I'm expecting big things from him this post-season.
The Cardinals are the opposite of the Yankees right now. With Woody Williams done for the regular season and very iffy for the post-season with a re-injury to his oblique, the Cards will have to rely on three guys who are not all healthy and clearly flammable - Matt Morris, Chuck Finley, and Andy Benes. Add to that a shaky pen who may be missing Jason Isringhausen and the Cards faithful have to be nervous. I'm chalking ALL of these problems up to poor coaching, poor management of injured players (ie, rushing them back, overusing players who are known to be injured, etc), and mostly to Tony Larussa. SS Edgar Renteria is also hobbled a bit with a back injury and an observer who saw him play recently spotted that it may be affecting his range. He wrote in almost two weeks ago, but I had nothing to go on. (Sorry - I'll trust you next time!)
The Twins are getting reasonably healthy. You should all know by now that my prediction skills rate about equal with my golf game (in other words, they suck.) but I still don't see the Twins getting far without complete health and some serious luck. Rick Reed's knee is ready to go and he shouldn't miss a start. There's some question about his role in the post-season, but he's been solid. Jacque Jones will likely play on Tuesday to test his ankle, but no problems are expected. The Twins roster is deep deep deep with even more callups, so expect a lot of rest for the key players with just enough time to stay sharp.
Again with the blisters ... would someone please check the baseballs next year? Andy Ashby is on the shelf with a blister and is likely done for the season unless the Dodgers somehow make up a couple games and need his start. The collapse of the pitching did in the Dodgers and the sad part is most of it was foreseeable. We all knew that Kevin Brown would be hurt at some point, that Odalis Perez and Omar Daal were being overused, that Andy Ashby never fully recovered, and ... ok, even Kaz Ishii didn't see his injury coming (sorry, bad joke). If Jim Tracy wins MOY, people are ignoring the facts. Two words: Bobby Cox.
Discretion is the better part of valour and once he'd cleared the 20 win hurdle and knew he'd done all he can to help his team and state his case for the Cy Young, Pedro Martinez hung it up for the season. He'll work again in the offseason with Chris Correnti (conditioning coach - I don't have an abbreviation for that) and I expect him to be fully healthy next year. (BTW, my AL Cy vote goes to Pedro, with Barry Zito a very close second.)
There's lots of business news today, but this isn't a business column, so I'll just touch on the ones I think are important. Peregrine Systems, run by Padres owner John Moores, declared bankruptcy today. This franchise may well be on the market soon and would have to be attractive to many with a new stadium coming in and a great minor league system. Over in Dallas, with the new AA franchise in Collin County (Frisco Roughriders) moving in expected fashion to affiliate with the Rangers - a good move since they're owned by Tom Hicks' Southwest Sports Group - there's some things happening that appear to be moving towards a possible sale of the Rangers in a year or so. Keep your eye on any ties between the SSG and Mandalay Sports.
Bud Smith is facing major labrum surgery and the tear in a bad place, according to sources. With luck and good rehab, he should be back after the ASB. How he recovers will really tell how well the Phillies did in the Scott Rolen deal. I'm willing to bet that they'll really regret not making the deal they had available from the Reds. I'm betting the Cards will end up regretting it as well.
When I heard that Mike Hampton was walking around on Friday in an orthopedic boot, I knew his season was done. More done than it has been since he arrived in Colorado, that is. Word moving around the league is that Hampton's agents are willing to be creative to get him to one of a couple teams. Houston has a clear lead, but he's willing to try things in Texas, Arizona, Los Angeles, or St. Louis.
Masato Yoshii had an anonymous, yet solid season up in ... umm ... that Canadian town. Oh, yeah, Montreal. Sorry, I seem to forget about them. Maybe if they were in Vegas or something. Even Washington. Yoshii's good season ends with the bad - the very bad. He'll have surgery to repair a badly torn labrum later this week and could miss a great portion of the '03 season. He's a likely non-tender, along with several other players. The Expos will need to deal a couple good young players to keep their payroll down. Please, Bud, sell this team.
Tomorrow is the weekly Fox report and Rachael is going to handle the quick update and URL to the Fox Report. I'll see you on Fox and again in this space on Tuesday.