• Today marks the end of the MASH in its current format.  New writer, B.J. Maack will be taking over all the current injury news. I will not be going away though.

Starting Monday, I will be publishing one in-depth injury article on Thursday on subjects like my PAIN and HURT reports. Also, I will be writing three additional articles for RotoGraphs each week name “Mixing Fantasy and Reality” in which each article will be a short dive into three or four topics like a promoted prospect or a Quick Look at a pitcher. I am not 100% sure what the final format will eventually be, but my goal is to provide in-depth content not available anywhere else. It was not easy taking a step back from the MASH Report, but I am relieved to be moving on to covering a wider range of subjects. I am glad for the nice (kept me going) and harsh (kept me improving) comments over the years. Thanks. -Jeff

• Trevor Story will miss the rest of the regular season with a torn ligament in his thumb.

Story was hoping to be playing now, with his team surging in the National League Wild Card standings, but the injury he suffered Sunday in New York nixed that. Recovery from Thursday’s operation, which will be performed by hand and upper-extremity orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jennifer Kummer, is ex-pected to cost him the rest of the regular season.

But with an eight-week recovery time, Story could return if the Rockies make the playoffs.

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• Wade Davis is back on the DL and this time, it is a strained flexor muscle.

The Royals appeared to receive some good news regarding closer Wade Davis: An MRI perfohttp://m.royals.mlb.com/news/article/192680486/royals-closer-wade-davis-put-on-rmed in Kansas City on Sunday revealed Davis has a low-grade (Grade 1) strain of his right flexor muscle.

“The MRI showed his elbow was clean,” manager Ned Yost said before Sunday’s 5-3 loss to the Rangers in the series finale at Globe Life Park.

While I don’t like to see pitchers get hurt, I do love how this story broke.

This is how you break a story. Good job Casey pic.twitter.com/YPkzZCcH5C

— Jimm (@jimcclintock) July 31, 2016

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• Brett Lawrie has a minor hamstring strain. The White Sox will be playing some interleague games, so to have a bigger bench, he was placed on the DL.

Lawrie hasn’t played since leaving a game on Thursday against the Tigers. Infielder Carlos Sanchez, who was removed from Triple-A Charlotte’s game Tuesday night, was called up to replace Lawrie.

“It just seemed like he was going backwards today,” manager Robin Ventura said of Lawrie on Tuesday. “There’s no way you can go over there [to Wrigley] and play the National League rules with nobody on the bench.”

• Trevor Rosenthal will be out with an inflamed shoulder.

Following an appearance in the Cardinals’ 9-6 loss to the Dodgers on Sunday, Rosenthal asked to have his shoulder looked at, and the right-hander was checked out on Monday.

“It was news to us at the time,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “We let him get it looked at, and he’s going to continue to get some more tests [done].”

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• I should say I am sorry about no MASH Reports last week, but I am not. I took a much-needed vacation and I am now back to work. The report is quite long today as I had to catch up on all the injury information. It is like three-reports-in-one.

• The Rangers sent both Prince Fielder (herniated neck) and Shin-Soo Choo (inflamed back) to the DL. Fielder is dealing with a similar injury he had two years ago.

The herniation is just above a previous injury that was surgically repaired on May 27, 2014, which forced Fielder to miss the rest of that season. Fielder has been bothered by the problem for some time, but did not report it to the Rangers until Monday.

Fielder had an MRI on Tuesday and was examined on Wednesday in Los Angeles by Dr. Robert Watkins, who recommended surgery. Fielder is going to get a second opinion on Fri-day from Dr. Drew Dossett, who performed the surgery two years ago, before a final course of action is decided.

“The way it has been described to me is that a fused vertebrae puts added stress above and below,” Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said. “The initial fusion he had is still intact. The new herniation surfaced above it.

I stayed away from Fielder in 2015 because I was worried about a re-injury. I was a year too early, but I think Fielder owners will from now on need a draft-day backup plan if the draft him.

Choo had been playing through this back injury for a bit and should only need the minimum time until he returns.

Choo has been dealing with inflammation in his lower back for the past couple of weeks. He also had an MRI and examination from Dr. Watkins. Choo received an anti-inflammation injection and is expected to be sidelined 10-14 days.

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• With little news, here is a nice write-up on what Alex Cobb’s minor league rehab days are like.

Four hours before Monday’s first pitch Alex Cobb ordered a Slim #4 Turkey Breast sandwich at a Jimmy John’s, located a few blocks from the stadium.

He removed the top piece of the French bread and quickly devoured the first of his two pregame meals. The second was the peanut butter and jelly sandwich he always eats before leaving the locker room to begin his pregame warmup.

“I try to eat as light as possible before I pitch,” he said. “I’ve been on the mound (after eating too much) and feel like I have a brick in my stomach.”

• Tyler Flowers is out at least six weeks and could miss the rest of the season.

A Braves source confirmed Flowers received this diagnosis via the results of a MRI exam that was performed in Atlanta on Monday. The 30-year-old catcher will miss at least six weeks, but it seems quite possible that he could be out through a portion of the final month of the regular season.

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• The players going to and from the DL are a little wonky with the All-Star break. It seems some player would have been on it if regular games were going on. Instead, teams are going to wait until Friday to make some moves. Follow the news as much as possible to get an idea if a player is going to play or not once the break is over.

• Craig Kimbrel will be out 3-6 weeks after having surgery on his knee to repair a torn meniscus.

Red Sox All-Star closer Craig Kimbrel was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a left knee medial meniscus tear on Saturday. He is scheduled to undergo surgery on Monday to repair cartilage in his left knee and is expected to be out for three to six weeks.

The time table is fairly realistic with the wide range of possibilities.

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It is mid-season prospect ranking time and I don’t want to feel left out. This past winter I introduced a stats only based system which ranks prospects by comparing at their position, age at the level, and production at the level. Since that release, I have made a few refinements to which I think make the results even better.

The inspiration behind these rankings is an industry league I compete in with 19 other prospect experts. These guys are good and read every available source possible, so I needed a source others didn’t have so I created these rankings. The rankings worked great this past offseason, especially when pointing out some players with prospect fatigue, namely Cheslor Cuthbert and Albert Almora. Both were highly touted when they first joined their teams but didn’t move as quickly as other prospects through their team’s system. The system pointed out that I should not give up on them yet.

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• Matt Harvey is on the DL with a sore shoulder, but may have thoracic outlet syndrome. I expect quite a bit more news over the next few days.

Harvey is being examined for suspicion of thoracic outlet syndrome, which is why he’s seeing the top specialist based in St. Louis. #mets

— David Lennon (@DPLennon) July 6, 2016

For fantasy, I would expect him to be out at least a month with missing the rest of the season a real possibility.

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• Right now some lesser known players are looking to come off the DL like Adam Ottavino, Alex Cobb, Justin Morneau, and Homer Bailey

• Zack Greinke was finally placed on the DL with a strained oblique.

Greinke initially injured the oblique in his start last Tuesday against the Phillies and had to exit that game after throwing a few warmup pitches in the third inning. He had hoped to miss just one start — Tuesday against the Padres — before returning next weekend against the Giants in San Francisco.

An MRI taken Saturday confirmed the strain, and the team decided to err on the side of caution and put him on the DL.

“So with all the testing he did and him not feeling any better, he agreed that probably the best thing to do, course of action, is to go on the DL,” D-backs manager Chip Hale said. “Hopefully he’ll be ready for us after the break. That would be important, the sooner we get him back.”

Reading into the preceding quote, it seems like the Diamondbacks are expecting him back soon, but I could see the oblique taking longer to heal. Normally a pitcher takes a month to return from an oblique injury.

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• Clayton Kershaw is on the DL with lower back pain.

Clayton Kershaw will be placed on the 15-day disabled list with lower back pain, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts couldn’t say he was optimistic that his ace will return in the minimum time.

Kershaw received an epidural injection for pain relief, but the club did not release an injury diagnosis or explain whether the pain was caused by a disk issue or possible herniation.

There is just not a lot of details on his injury right now. I went and selected Pitcher, Back, and several possible injuries in my DL time tool and came up with the following values.

The median number of days lost at 36 with the average being 20 days more. I would count on him being out a month with the likelihood it could be more.

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