Cliff Lee sidelined with abdominal strain
Seattle may not see much of Cliff Lee in April. Already having been issued a five day suspension for head-hunting, Lee is in danger of starting the season on the disabed list because of a right abdominal strain. He was sent to Seattle and was treated with a PRP regimen, and will be re-evaluated in seven days.
Jeff Sullivan at Lookout Landing checks out Lee's injury history, and notes that Lee has missed a fair amount of time twice previous because of abdominal strains. Between this and the suspension (I think he'll have to serve the suspension once he's activated from the d.l.), he could be out for all of April.
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Saturday a.m. Rangers things (drug edition)
I'm tired of the Ron Washington cocaine talk swamping all the baseball talk, so I'm doing a separate post this morning for the stuff related to that...
Tracy Ringolsby says Washington's managerial career is over, and accuses the Rangers of a "cover up." Craig Calcaterra counters by pointing out that abiding by MLB's confidentiality rules isn't really a "cover up."
Jennifer Floyd Engel says Washington should have been fired.
Tim Cowlishaw says that Ron Washington should have resigned, because the Rangers franchise is tainted by past drug use (such as the "tainted" MVP Awards Juan Gonzalez, Pudge Rodriguez and Alex Rodriguez won), and the team needs to "clean up its act."
Over at the DMN blog, it is suggested that Bill Simmons was out of line for making jokes about Ron Washington's drug use during a chat session yesterday. I'm not offended by Simmons making jokes about Washington admitting to testing positive for coke...I am offended, though, that his jokes and comments were so lame.
Jon Heyman -- the person who chose to break this story -- praises the Rangers for not firing Washington.
Which is interesting. I've been thinking the past few days about this, and about the decision to run with this story. The drug testing process is supposed to be confidential. Of course, so was the PED testing that led to the list of 100+ names of players who tested dirty, and there's been no qualms about outing at least a few of those folks.
But as far as this goes...one of the things that really bothers me about this is why the story ran. Washington tested dirty, acknowledged his use, has complied with the treatment required by MLB, has stayed clean...what does outing him now really accomplish? Is it advancing any sort of "news"? Not really. At least the PED stuff impacted players' on-the-field performance, supposedly.
This, though? This is, despite the high-minded moralizing from certain quarters, simply a gossip piece, a news item designed to titillate.
I am sure I'll be accused of not looking at this rationally because it is the Rangers' manager, that if this were Brad Mills or Don Wakamatsu or someone, I wouldn't have an issue with it. But I don't think that's the case. And I really have to question not just the wisdom, but the propriety, of Heyman and SI opting to go public with this info.
376 comments | 1 recs |
Saturday a.m. Rangers things (non-drug edition)
Brandon McCarthy got knocked around early in yesterday's game, and T.R. Sullivan says that that has hurt McCarthy's chances of making the rotation, with C.J. Wilson and Matt Harrison, according to Sullivan, the leading candidates for the last two spots now.
Ron Washington is quoted in the piece as saying that McCarthy was leaving pitches up early on, when he gave up four runs in the first before recording a single out, and then made some adjustments to get things back on track. The thing about taller pitchers is that, while their height gives them more leverage and allows them to pitch on a steeper plane, there seems to be a sense that they are also more prone to getting their mechanics out of whack, which seems to be a not-infrequent stumbling block for McCarthy.
Anthony Andro notes that Luis Mendoza and Pedro Strop didn't do anything to help their cause, either, yesterday.
Andro also writes about the battle for the last two spots in the rotation, with Ron Washington saying that there's no guarantee that Tommy Hunter, who had the #4 spot pretty well locked up before suffering a strained oblique, will get his rotation spot back when he is healthy.
Matt Harrison says he hasn't been striking out hitters like he has this spring since he was in high school.
Richard Durrett has a brief Q&A with Michael Young up at ESPN Dallas.
Durrett also has some notes from camp yesterday. So does T.R. Sullivan. So does the S-T. So does Evan Grant.
Sullivan has a story about Elvis Andrus doing an impromptu concert using a dugout bench as an instrument during batting practice yesterday.
90 comments | 0 recs |
Giving Southpaws For Thought: Texas' Starting Five Pitchers
Josh Garoon (a.k.a. "Snark") debuts on BBTiA with a look at the purported importance/necessity of an LHP being inserted into the Rangers' starting rotation.
1 day ago
Joey Matschulat
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C.J. Wilson: Starting Pitcher (FanGraphs)
Not nearly as pessimistic as I expected.
1 day ago
philkid3
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