MASH Report (10/7/13)

I haven’t had a chance to until this morning to update any injury information since the end of the season. So today’s report maybe should have came with the title, UNDER CONSTRUCTION. I am making some changes to the (possible) DL list and get an updated status on each player. I am just not done yet, so for now a third list is included with the players who may or may not end up in the final list. Hopefully in a week or so, everything will be cleaned up.

During this off season, I will be listing player in the DL report who may miss time to start next season. I did make a couple of changes. One change was the addition of the date (last column) of the last player update. By clicking on the date, a link is provided to the original article which I got the information from. The second change was a minor league report on some players. These players will be highly touted prospects.

• Chase Headley played the season with pain in his knee. He under performed his projected ISO and his contact percentage was a career low. Headley may be nice buy low candidate next season.

• Jeff Keppinger dealt with shoulder pain all season. Keppinger is not close to Headley’s talent level, but he also may be a nice player to buy low on, especially for some position flexibility in AL-only leagues.

• Another hitter who tried to play through an injury was Marco Scutaro. He hurt his fingers on June 11th from a hit-by-pitch. Before the injury he was hitting .332/.386/.445. From then on, he hit only .266/.329/.301. Expect a nice rebound next season.

• Dexter Fowler dealt will with several different injuries from June 13th on when he was hit in the hand/wrist. Before the injury he hit .298/.395/.488 and he struggled hitting .214/.333/.295 after it.

• Matt Kemp’s ankle sounds like a mess (source).

Kemp, a late scratch Saturday night, underwent an MRI on Sunday, which indicated swelling in the major weight-bearing bone of his left ankle. If Kemp continued to play, there was a possibility the ankle could break.
Kemp was on crutches after Sunday’s 2-1 defeat to the Rockies, and team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache said the outfielder would need to avoid putting weight on his ankle for at least a month.

He is going to be tough to rank in the top 50 players next season. He needs to be on the field to be productive.

• Yu Darvish was pitching through butt and back pain over the season’s last month. I ran PAIN for the last month of the season and he had a value of 124 (values greater than 100 indicates a higher chance of injury). His average fastball velocity was from down from 91.7 mph over the rest of the season to 90.4 mph in September. Also, he was not able to throw as many strikes as his Zone% went from 47.3% to 44.0%.

Darvish wore down half way through the season and he did again before the end of the season. No one should be surprised one bit if he has to spend time on the DL next season.

• Albert Pujols is going to try to be 100% by spring training (source). All should be ready to go by spring training.

“I think we’re all very comfortable and confident that he is going to be at a much higher level of health than we’ve seen, even parts of last year, and definitely this year,” manager Mike Scioscia said. “I think when you put the equation together, that’s going to add up to an Albert much along the lines of what we saw after the first month of ’12.
“Through the lion’s share of the season, he got banged up a little bit, but you saw everything. The power is there, the swing is there, and hopefully he’ll be able to maintain it through a whole season.”
The tear of the plantar fascia accomplished what surgery would have so Pujols will not need off season surgery.
In fact, he anticipates going through his regular offseason routine, which includes weight training and conditioning in November, and hitting in January.

I am not buying it yet. I want to see him run and hit in spring training before I put a value on him.

• As soon as the off season started several pitchers got bone spurs removed including Brandon Beachy, Josh Johnson, Mat Latos and Boone Logan.

Players possibly on the DL to start the season

(*) 15 Day Disabled List
(**) 60 Day Disabled List
(***) 7 Day Concussion List
(****) Free Agent
Red colored entries are updates since last report.

Cleaned up list

Minor League Report

Players I am still working through