I have finally finished Jeff Passan’s new book, “The Arm” and have a few pieces of information I found interesting.

• When the ulnar nerve is brought in injury discussion people get excited. Here is why, “… ulnar nerve, a tube of fibers that originates at the spine snakes down the arm and controls fine-motor movement in the hand.” The nerve may need to be moved to get away from bone chips.

Mike Marshall would even take it a step further

“… when a pitcher showed professional potential, he would go in for surgery to transpose the ulnar nerve.”

• The major issue with a second Tommy John surgery is the holes drilled in the arm weakening the bone like it has with Jarrod Parker. Here is a description when the book mentions Todd Coffey’s second surgery:

“Surgery dabbles in fractions of a millimeter. The drill holes from Coffey’s first surgery left his ulna in danger of cracking.”

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• Raisel Iglesias is on the DL with shoulder impingement.

Iglesias, 26, felt a “pinch” in the shoulder while throwing a bullpen session on Friday. It’s unclear at this point how long he’ll be sidelined.

“It looks like it’s an impingement inflammation,” Reds manager Bryan Price said. “We will know a lot more when we see him on Monday. However, it doesn’t sound like it’s going to be a long-tenured stint on the DL.”

I am not surprised one bit with Iglesias’s injury. I own him in several leagues and have noticed his velocity (91.7 to 90.4) and Zone% (50.5% to 46.3%) down compared to last year. Not surprisingly, he showed up my initial PAIN Report as a pitcher with a possible injury.

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Ottoneu Lineup

Here is a simple rule for daily lineups with game played limits:

If a player isn’t playing that day and you don’t need the games, move him to the bench.

I lost a game a few days back when a player who I knew wasn’t playing, hit for one at bat. It was for my utility slot which I can easily fill over the season, so I probably lost a few at-bats.

Boring Team

One fun part of a fantasy baseball auction is the ability to get the players an owner wants. Just like everyone else, I have my favorites. The problem is others like these players and they end up coming at a premium price.

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• Travis d’Arnaud was placed on the DL with a strained rotator cuff

Returning from the DL after 15 days, d’Arnaud added, is a possibility in his mind. But the Mets are not committing to a timeline, fully aware of how many injuries their starting catcher has suffered in his young career. Among d’Arnaud’s library of past maladies are a partially torn knee ligament, a hyperextended left elbow, multiple broken bones and a concussion. He was hitting .196 through 13 games this season, with zero home runs and one RBI.

“It’s always going to be wait-and-see, but there are two positions where arm injuries can be pretty devastating, and one’s behind the plate,” manager Terry Collins said. “We’ll wait to see, rest him a few days, see how he comes out of that. And then when he starts to rehab back, you’ll see how long it’s going to take. It’s certainly something we’ve got to keep a close eye on.”

It seems like d’Arnaud could be out for around a month.

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• The most impactful injury this week is the hamstring injury sustained by Carlos Carrasco.

The severity of the setback is not immediately known, but manager Terry Francona said Carrasco will be placed on the disabled list, meaning Bauer could be poised for a move back to the starting rotation.

….
After his abrupt departure in the third inning, when he sustained the injury while hustling to cover first base, Carrasco headed back to Cleveland to undergo an MRI exam.

Francona said the team will likely have more details on the extent of the issue on Monday, when the Tribe opens a three-game road series against the Twins.

Right now we know he is out at least 15 days with more information coming today (the news might be available by the time this article runs). Just looking back at pitchers with hamstring strains and sprains, they usually return in just over 30 days.

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• I added quite a few updates on players in the spreadsheet like Tyson Ross’s setback. It seemed like the MLB.com beat reporters were each required to write and injury related article over the past couple of days.

• Joe Kelly is on the DL with a shoulder impingement.

“That was all I got right there,” said Kelly. “It was as hard as I could throw the ball at that time. It didn’t feel that great, obviously. Hovering around that 89-90 [mph] range was what I had, and I tried to push through it and got the last pitch up to 94 luckily for the strikeout, obviously. It didn’t feel very good.”

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• Just a handful of players moved on or off the DL over the weekend. Most of the injury information was on return times which are located in the last spreadsheet.

• Daniel Nava is on the DL with knee tendinitis.

Nava expects to return to the majors at the start of May, as soon as he is eligible.

To replace him until then, the Angels called up Rafael Ortega from triple-A Salt Lake.

• Nick Hundley is the first player placed on the 7-day concussion DL this year after experiencing damage to the brain from a foul tip.

Hundley, hurt on a foul tip on Wednesday night, hit in the batting cage and attempted to do 10 sprints on Friday. However, he only made it through four before feeling woozy. It took the Rockies a while to reach the decision because Hundley felt good standing still. It took activity for symptoms to show. He also suffered a forehead contusion from the way the impact spun his mask.

Hundley said his only previous concussion was in 2012.

I could see his return take a while because of the 2012 concussion.

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• Sorry for the delayed report. Real life got in the way. I hope to have the season’s first PAIN report on Monday

• Charlie Blackmon lands on the DL with turf toe. Not a lot of news on his injury yet. I expect more today after the Rockies have a news conference. Looking back at past turf toe injuries, a three to four-week timetable is about right.

• Well, the Pablo Sandoval’s DL situation seems like a great drama, but not much more. Sandoval basically put himself on the DL after hurting his shoulder (probably trying to tighten his belt).

Sandoval, who lost his starting job to Travis Shaw late in Spring Training, made just one start in the Red Sox’s first seven games. He is 0-for-6 with four strikeouts in seven plate appearances.

“I woke up this morning with soreness, so something happened,” Sandoval said. “We’ll see what was going on later on, when the doctor gets here. I had this injury before, in 2011, but that was swinging a bat during the game. I don’t know what happened right now.”

“To give you an exact moment when it took place, I don’t have that, to be honest,” said Red Sox manager John Farrell. “He’s been hitting a lot extra before [batting practice] and during the game and in the cage. He’s got very limited range of motion. That was revealed after he went through a battery of tests with the medical staff. He’s unavailable.”

I think his time as a Red Sox regular is done. The issue keeping a trade from happening will be how much of his contract the Red Sox will have to eat to find a taker. Truthfully, they may need to eat nearly all of it and only a get a 40-grade prospect in return. In shallow leagues, I would move on past Sandoval. In deeper leagues where he can be DL’ed, wait to see how the situation plays out and if he finds playing time on another team.

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• Daniel Winkler fractured his elbow after throwing a pitch this weekend which leads to a bigger story.

Medicine will help Daniel Winkler deal with the physical pain that he will feel over the next few days. But there might not be a remedy for the mental anguish the Braves reliever will feel as he deals with the reality that his promising start to this season was derailed by a gruesome injury that casts some doubt about his future as a Major Leaguer.

…

An X-ray taken at the stadium showed Winkler fractured his right elbow. A MRI exam, which could be performed as early as Monday, will show whether the 26-year-old right-hander incurred any other structural damage to the elbow, which was surgically repaired via Tommy John surgery during the 2014 season.

A fractured elbow is the injury Jarrod Parker is dealing with again. After reading some of Jeff Passan’s book, The Arm, this elbow breakage shouldn’t be a surprise for a pitcher who has had Tommy John surgery. The doctors need to drill holes in the pitcher’s arm and in the case of Parker, his bones may look like Swiss cheese at this point. The bone is weakened to a point where the new UCL is stronger and the old bone just breaks.

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• Ben Revere is headed to the DL with a strained oblique.

Revere injured the oblique during his first at-bat in Monday’s season opener against the Braves. After he struck out, Revere decided to stay in the game, but he had a hard time breathing during his next at-bat two innings later because of pain in his rib cage. After he grounded out, Revere decided to take himself out of the game.

Revere said he felt pain even while trying to make a play on a home run by Freddie Freeman in the first inning.

At first, the Nationals didn’t think the injury was serious but, according to manager Dusty Baker, Revere was more sore on Wednesday even though he came in for treatment at Turner Field on Tuesday.

Looking at return times for hitters with a strained oblique, the average time is 29 days with a median time of 24 days.

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