• Albert Pujols is not able to play first base right now and may not for the season’s start.

Albert Pujols had a normal offseason and has pronounced himself completely healthy, but Angels manager Mike Scioscia will not be playing him at first base on an everyday basis once Cactus League games start.

“He’s not at that point,” Scioscia said.
….

Scioscia said the goal was for Pujols to play first base “on a regular basis” when the season starts but that they would take it slow and have backup plans if the 34-year-old is not ready by Opening Day on March 31.

If Pujols isn’t physically able to play in the field, his offense is for sure going to suffer. He sounds like a station to runner (less Runs) and will be a double play machine. Given other possible options, he will have to fall quite a bit from his current draft position for me to consider rostering him.

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Well, I can tell pitchers and catchers reported, since there’s been about a ten-fold increase in the amount of injury news. Again, I will not be looking at ding and dent information and try to focus on major changes in an injury status. Make sure you check the injury spreadsheet for updates. About half of the players got updated information.

• Cole Hamels will be out until at least mid-April with left shoulder discomfort.

Hamels said he started to feel the discomfort in his shoulder around Thanksgiving. He said that after meeting with Phillies physician Michael Ciccotti and head athletic trainer Scott Sheridan, they decided he should push back his throwing program one month … Hamels typically begins his program on Dec. 1. He started throwing on Jan. 1. He did not have an MRI.

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It is getting into weekly/daily injury report season for each hurt player until the season starts. All of these reports will be in the spreadsheet unless there is a change is status. Otherwise, not a ton of news this week.

• Cory Luebke will miss all of 2014 with Tommy John surgery. Expect longer than a year for him to rehab since it is his second TJS.

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During the 2013 season, I created three metrics to help find possible injuries: PAIN, HURT and SLOW. So far this offseason, I have looked back at the final 2013 values for PAIN and HURT. I have put off SLOW ( Swinging Late or Whiffing) because the data was a mess a to query and work with.I finally simplified the process so the following is a look at the 2013 SLOW leaders. Also, I will examine if a SLOW bat was behind the second half struggles of Jason Kipnis and Jean Segura.

I created SLOW to see which hitters struggle with fastballs right in the heart of the strikezone. The two requirements are:

• Heart of the strike zone (almost 99% of pitches called strikes and damn you CB Bucknor).
• Fastball speed equal to or greater than 92 mph.

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• With Masahiro Tanaka signing with the Yankees, some writers have been comparing his injury chances to Daisuke Matsuzaka and other Japanese-born pitchers. I decided to give a look at the numbers instead of making a guess.

Since 2001, any starting pitcher (min 120 IP) has a 39.2% chance of ending up on the DL the next season, missing 68 days on average. For Japanese born pitchers, 47% end up on the DL, missing 75 days on average.

It may seem like Japanese pitchers are a higher injury risk, but a couple of issues exist with this data. First, only 19 Japanese pitchers are in the sample. Second, the average age was 32.4 years-old for the Japanese pitchers going on the DL. For all other pitchers, the age was 29.7 years-old. If I change the overall sample to just players who would be 32 or 33, the DL chance jumps to 42% and the number of days goes to 74.3. The only reason Japanese pitcher may seem to be more injury prone is their advanced age. Otherwise there is little difference in their injury risk.

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• Manny Machado is ahead of schedule for his return after having knee surgery in the fall. Some good bits of information are available  from the article.

First, he was supposed to be out four to six months. Right now he is at three month point and looks to return earlier than expected.

Orioles third baseman Manny Machado underwent a checkup on his surgically repaired left knee Thursday in California and, according to an industry source, it went well and doctors told the 21-year-old that he was six to eight weeks ahead of a normal recovery period …. Given ElAttrache’s prognosis, if things continue smoothly, the belief is Machado will be ready to play Opening Day.

Second, the date by which Machado needs to playing games and start in the season opener is set.

Showalter said earlier this month that Machado would need to be ready to play in spring games by about March 15 to be ready for Opening Day at Camden Yards on March 31.

As of now, it looks like he may only miss a couple weeks at most.

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• In the comments from last week’s MASH Report, dls asked:

Any info on [Yasmani] Grandal (in particular), and catchers (in general), returning from knee injuries?

First, Grandal will start the season on the DL. Second, here is how the nine catchers in my database with major knee issues performed after the injury.  The values are from the the season before the injury to the season after the injury. Additionally, I included the outfield values I found last week.

The two sets of values are similar and it looks like Grandal should see a drop in production once he returns.

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Not much in injury news over the past week, so I decided to dive mainly into the effects of major knee injuries.

• The Mariners recently signed Corey Hart who missed all of 2013 after left knee surgery. I went through my injury database and found 60 outfielders who either tore or had surgery on a knee. Additionally, I added those outfielders who missed 90 days or more because of a knee issue. In all, I found 60 outfielders who met the criteria. I looked at the weighted average from the season before … to the season of the injury… to the season after the injury. Here are the results:

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It is that time of year when players state they are in the best shape of their lives. I am going to try not to publish any best shape  information unless news exists on the player’s actual progress.

• Matt Kemp (foot and shoulder injuries) had his walking boot removed recently. Currently, he doesn’t look to be 100% by spring training, but ready for the season’s start.

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Just a few updates.

•  Since MLB may possibly banning home plate collision in 2014 (players’ union needs to OK), I was wonder if catcher playing time estimates should be changed.  I went back through the 2013 DL data to see how much time was lost to collisions and Yasmini Grandal was the only catcher with time lost. Foul tips (concussion and hand injuries) caused the most time lost. While other catchers have missed significant time (Buster Posey), it looks like only one or two catchers are affected each season, so playing time estimates should at most be increased a few games.

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