• Josh Hamilton is back on the DL, this time with a strained hamstring. I figured he would make it a couple weeks before needing to go back on the DL.
• Additionally, Ryan Braun is ailing again, but it is not serious. He will not go on the DL, but it looks like he will need to see the doctor every few months to get his thumb nerve refrozen.
Brewers right fielder Ryan Braun left the team Wednesday to travel to California to undergo a second cryotherapy procedure on his troublesome right thumb.
Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell downplayed the significance of this latest development, saying the procedure was pre-planned and referring to it as “maintenance.” But it was the first public indication of any kind that Braun’s first such procedure in October, during which a specialist injected a needle into the base of Braun’s thumb to freeze an inflamed nerve there, had “worn off” and needed to be repeated.
Dr. Vernon Williams, the same specialist who performed Braun’s first cryotherapy, did this one as well at his clinic in Anaheim. While there is no track record for a baseball player with this issue (technically, a thumb neuroma), Williams has told the Brewers that the procedure can be repeated safely as long as is it not done more frequently than every three to four months, perhaps throughout the remainder of Braun’s playing career if symptoms persist.
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