Some more info on the Brandon McCarthy situation, from the Rangers website:
"It wasn't getting any worse but it wasn't getting any better so we decided to check it out," McCarthy said.
A stress fracture normally takes 10 weeks to heal. The Rangers think McCarthy has the worst behind him and shutting him down for two weeks will allow the problem to heal completely.
McCarthy said the problem has affected him more on his off-speed pitches and he hasn't been able to throw the usual bullpen session between starts since the All-Star break. He has a 3.18 ERA in since starts since then even though he hasn't been 100 percent.
He is 5-8 with a 4.79 ERA in 20 games, including 19 starts, and 94 innings on the season.
"I could throw through it and have been [fine] for the most part," McCarthy said. "But I was tired of going out there half-loaded. We'll give it a chance to rest and shoot for three of four starts at the end of the year."
The Rangers see no reason to shut down McCarthy for the rest of the year. Instead, they feel he would benefit from continuing to pitch while building up arm strength and innings.
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"We won't rush him," Levine said. "We don't feel compelled to pitch him but based on our medical reports, we don't see any reason why he shouldn't pitch."
So the guy has been pitching through this for the past three months. Not bad for a guy whose heart and guts were questioned by a few folks the first couple of months of the season.
And again, this would seem to explain why his stuff hasn't been as good as we would have expected this season.
The Rangers have tended to be conservative with their injured players this year, so if they feel McCarthy can pitch through this after a couple of weeks of rest without hurting him, I'm not in a position to second-guess that.
There's also mention of the possibility of Edinson Volquez coming up to take next Tuesday's start...