Yesterday, Alexi Ogando struggled against the Kansas City Royals in his first appearance of the year. While it is not uncommon for a pitcher to struggle during spring training, it was how he struggled which worries me. He struggled with his delivery and maintaining his velocity. His next few outings should be monitored closely to see if he has a possible injury.
Russell Carleton wrote a good article on what traits are common for injured pitchers. The leading cause to no surprise was past injuries.
Recent injury data
• Dustin Ackley had off season surgery to remove some bone spurs which were bothering him. The injury could have been part of the cause of his struggles last season. Marcels projected him to produce .276/.349/.427 in 2012 while he only hit .226/.294/.328. If the bone spurs were really bothering him, he looks to be a player to out perform his 2013 projections.
Recent injury data
• Lance Berkman is at 80% after two off season knee surgeries. The team wants him at 100% before he joins the team. He could easiliy miss at least a couple of weeks at the beginning of the season.
Quite a few updates since pitchers and catchers have reported. If you are short on time, the big four updates are with Ryan Madson, Frank Francisco, Grant Balfour and Howie Kendrick.
Recent injury data
• Grant Balfour is out 4-6 weeks with a meniscus tear in his knee. Ryan Cook could get a couple early season Saves.
• Ryan Madson will not be ready for the season’s start. Don’t pay too much for Saves from him, but he may be a nice buy low candidate as other owners may be completely scared off.
Recent injury data
• Felix Hernandez’s new 7-year contract is under dispute because of an elbow condition the team found. Last season he did see a drop in his velocity mid-season which came back up.
Recent injury data
• Matt Kemp is aiming to be 100% helathy by opening day after shoulder surgery on October 5th. I wouldn’t count on it. I would probably drop him a round when draft day rolls around. As a general rule, I try to start the season with healthy stars.
Just a couple injury updates and a few reports on players returning from injuries sustained in 2012.
Recent injury data
• Corey Hart has stated his return to the field may be in late April instead of late May as originally reported. No matter what the timetable, his owners will need to find a replacement until he returns.
Recent injury data
• Several reports are out about the health of Cole Hamels. First, he denies he was shut down this off season for shoulder soreness. The same article goes on and confirms he experienced some soreness while pitching this past September. No signs (low Zone% or loss in velocity) point to a major injury. Keep early tabs on him, but there is no reason not to draft/bid on him
Today, I will focus on players who played through injuries in 2012 and how those players performed compared to their projections. I found players, who played through injuries, over performed their their projected power numbers the next season. From my last year’s FG+ article:
If a player persevered through an injury during the season, their overall stats probably suffered. Projections don’t know if a player played through injuries, though. The player’s projections might have been better if the player had simply gone on the disabled list to recover instead of trying to play through pain.
Welcome to the first installment of RotoGraphs’ M.A.S.H. Report. This season, I will be putting out 2 injury reports each week (Monday and Thursday afternoons) which will be a one stop shop on injured players. I will contain information like updates on recent injuries, disabled list movement and player return times. Each post will grow in size each week as I add more and more information. This post will be a portion of the size of it during the season. Also, nothing is set in stone and I open to improvements. If there is any information you want added, let me know.
