MASH Report (3/25/13)

In the general injury material for this week, I have found a couple interesting articles.

Kyle Boddy’s piece at the Hardball Times where he looks at how different injured pitchers at different levels were handled by their coaches.

Second, Bill Petti examined claims by Bill James about groundball pitchers. Bill James claims groundball pitchers are more injury prone while Bill found the exact opposite.

Recent injury data

 • Roy Halladay is not close to the same pitcher we have seen in the past. He got only 7 of 18 minor league batters out in his last start. He hasn’t been able to put together one good start this season, but according to him, nothing is wrong besides a stomach virus. The virus caused him to lose 10 pounds in 2 days. No one should expect to be 100% after losing 10 pounds quickly.

On the other hand, his velocity has been down over 4 mph since the start of spring training. He has begun to compare himself to Jamie Moyer.

“No, to me, it’s a competition. It’s not a boxing match. It’s not strength versus strength. It’s a chess match. It’s competition of the mind, and execution, and being smarter and being more prepared. To me, that’s what I’ve enjoyed. That’s what I’ve liked about baseball. You look at a Jamie Moyer. He could compete with the best of them. He would have gotten knocked out in the first round if he was a boxer.”

I think most fantasy owners will have heard or read of the struggles by now, so no one will value him like in the past. I am wondering if people will go to the other end of the spectrum and way under value him. If the bug was killing his strength, he could be a top 10 pitcher. Or he could be Jamie Moyer. Right now I see him as the highest risk-reward in the draft.

 • Jason Motte is down with an elbow strain. The team looks looks to bring him back quickly according to GM John Mozeliak

“Right now it’s going to slow him down. We’re certainly going to be aggressive with the rehab.”

The preceding quote should stir mixed emotions for his owners. Good: He will be back soon and accumulating Saves. Bad: He may be rushed back and risk further injury. Mitchell Boggs (2.3 K/BB) is a must pick up in Save leagues right now and maybe should be held for a while once Motte returns.

 • Adam Eaton is out for 4-8 weeks with a strained left elbow (small tear in his UCL). A smorgusborg of player have been listed as his replacement including A.J. Pollock, Martin Prado, Gerardo Parra and Cody Ross (injured).

 • Expect Derek Jeter to start the season on the DL since he is playing minor league games. Teams are able to back date the DL start day to the last day played with the MLB team. Players who may need a less than 15 day DL stint to start the season will be playing minor league games (see Sandoval, Halladay, Drew, Markakis etc).

 • Greg Holland’s fastball velocity is down 2 mph from last season (96.5 mph to 94.5 mph). Keep an eye to see if he happens to struggle and look at picking up setup man, Kelvin Herrera, as insurance.

 • Shin-Soo Choo‘s is experiencing back spasms. He is expected to be ready by opening day. I don’t like rostering players with back issues since the problems never seem to go away. David Freese is one such player who just can’t shake his back issue, but it seems Nick Markakis’s back no longer hurts.

 • Add Paul Konerko to the list of players who played through an injury last season.

After a minor offseason procedure to take care of a nagging wrist injury, Paul Konerko said he is as good as new and ready to take on the 2013 season. 

In fact, the recovery time was so short that Konerko seemed to have a twinge of regret about not having the procedure done when the wrist started to bother him last season. 

“The surgery was a lot easier and way less recovery time than what we thought,” Konerko said. “There was no way of knowing that until we went in there and got it out. But within 10-12 days after the surgery, I felt like I could have played in a game.” 

Expect him to possible exceed his 2013 projections since the numbers don’t know he was battling through the wrist injury.

 • Pablo Sandoval is dealing with bone spurs in his elbow. He is missing days here and there for the injury. His owners may look into the depleted 3B pool of players for some possible insurance.

 • Currently, Brian McCann will likely miss all of April because of a shoulder injury.

 • Stephen Drew has been OK’ed to play after his concussion. It still may be a few weeks before he joins the Red Sox.

 • The Cubs Scott Baker will miss at least half of the 2013 season because from a elbow muscle strain. He had Tommy John surgery on the elbow last season.

 • Chad Bilingsley expects to be ready by opening day.

Player Return Timetables

Name	Injury	Injury/Surgery Date	Early Return Date	Later Return date	Status	Source(s)
Scott Baker	TJS Complications	4/17/12	Late July	August	Rest	(1)
Grant Balfour	Knee	2/14/13	Late March	Middle April	Throwing Games	(1)
Brandon Beachy	TJS	6/21/12	Mid June	Mid June	Playing Catch	(1)
Lance Berkman	Knee	10/1/12	Late March	Mid April	Playing Games	(1)
Jeremy Bonderman	TJS	4/24/12	Late March	Late March	Throwing Games	(1)
Craig Breslow	Sore Shoulder	3/7/13	April	April	Throwing	(1)
Tim Byrdak	Shoulder Surgery	7/1/12	Early July	Early July	Bullpen Sessions	(1)
Edwar Cabrera (**)	Shoulder	8/1/12	Mid April	Unknown	Unknown	(1)
Chris Carpenter (**)	Nerve	2/5/13	2014	Retire	Rest	(1)
Andrew Cashner	Thumb laceration	1/25/13	Late March	April	Throwing Games	(1)
Carl Crawford	TJS	8/23/12	Late March	Early April	Playing Games	(1)
Jesse Crain	Abductor Strain	3/4/13	Late March	Early April	Bullpen Sessions	(1)
Chase d’Arnaud (**)	Thumb	2/20/13	Mid May	June	Rest	(1)
John Danks	Shoulder	3/15/13	Early April	April	Throwing Games	(1)
Scott Diamond (*)	Elbow Surgery	10/1/12	Mid April	May	Bullpen Sessions	(1)
Kyle Drabek (**)	TJS	6/19/12	Mid Season	Mid Season	Unknown	(1)
Stephen Drew	Concussion	3/3/13	Late March	April	Rest	(1)
Danny Duffy	TJS	6/13/12	Early June	All Star Game	Throwing	(1)
Adam Eaton	Strained Elbow	3/22/13	Late April	Late May	Rest	(1)
Neftali Feliz (**)	TJS	8/1/12	July	August	Playing Catch	(1)
Frank Francisco	Elbow	2/14/13	Late March	Early April	Throwing	(1)
Rafael Furcal (*)	TJS	3/13/13	2014	2014	Rest	(1)
Mat Gamel (**)	Knee	2/18/13	2014	2014	Rest	(1)
Christian Garcia (*)	Forearm	3/22/13	April	May	Rest	(1)
Matt Garza	Strained Lat	2/21/13	April	May	Throwing	(1)
Curtis Granderson	Right forearm	2/24/13	Early May	Middle May	Rest	(1)
Corey Hart	Right knee surgery	1/26/13	May	May	Rest	(1)
Chase Headley	Broke Thumb	3/18/13	Mid April	Late April	Rest	(1)
Daniel Hudson (**)	TJS	7/9/12	July	July	Playing Catch	(1)
Phil Hughes	Bulging Disk	2/28/13	Late March	Middle April	Throwing	(1)
Drew Hutchison (**)	TJS	8/8/12	August	October	Rehabilitation	(1)
Casey Janssen	Shoulder Surgery	11/1/13	Late March	Mid April	Pitching	(1)
Derek Jeter	Fractured Left Ankle	10/1/12	Early April	Early May	Playing Games	(1)
Ryan Kalish (**)	Shoulder Surgery	1/25/13	Early April	Unknown	Rest	(1)
Jeff Karstens	Shoulder	2/1/13	Late March	April	Batting Practice	(1)
Casey Kelly	Elbow	3/14/13	Unknown	2014	Rest	(1)
Josh Kinney	Side	3/10/13	Late April	Early May	Rest	(1)
Brett Lawrie	Ribs	3/7/13	Early April	Late April	Catch	(1)
Colby Lewis	Elbow Surgery	7/1/12	Late May	June	Throwing	(1)
Francisco Liriano	Broken humerus	12/1/12	Early April	Late May	Rest	(1)
Cory Luebke	TJS	5/23/12	July	July	Unknown	(1)
Ryan Madson	TJS	4/11/12	May	June	Throwing off mound	(1)
Shawn Marcum	Shoulder	3/20/13	Late March	Unknown	Throwing	(1)
Nick Masset	Shoulder Surgery	9/7/12	Unknown	Unknown	Throwing	(1)
Jeff Mathis	Broken Collarbone	2/23/13	Early May	Early May	Rest	(1)
Brian McCann	Torn labrum	7/4/12	Late April	May	Batting Practice	(1)
Franklin Morales	Bulging Disk	3/15/13	Early April	Late April	Rest	(1)
Logan Morrison	Knee	9/1/12	Late April	Early May	Light Training	(1)
Charlie Morton	TJS	6/21/12	June	Unknown	Throwing	(1)
Jason Motte	Elbow Strain	3/23/13	Early March	Late March	Rest	(1)
Daniel Murphy	Intercostal Strain	3/18/13	Early April	Late April	Running bases	(1)
David Ortiz	Achilles	3/3/13	April	April	Hitting	(1)
Juan Oviedo	TJS	9/6/12	September	2014	Rest	(1)
Felipe Paulino (**)	TJS	7/3/12	Early July	Early July	Throwing	(1)
Carl Pavano	Ruptured spleen	1/25/13	Late March	Mid April	Rest	(1)
Mike Pelfrey	TJS	5/1/12	Late March	April	Throwing	(1)
Chris Perez	Strained Shoulder	3/1/13	Late March	Early April	Rest	(1)
Luis Perez (**)	TJS	7/1/12	Early July	Early September	Rest	UNK
Martin Perez	Broken Forearm	3/3/13	Late April	Late May	Rest	(1)
Michael Pineda (**)	Shoulder Surgery	5/1/12	June	Early July	Bullpen	(1)
Carlos Quentin	Knee	10/1/12	Late March	April	Fielding	(1)
Hanley Ramirez	Thumb	3/17/13	Early April	June	Rest	(1)
Wilson Ramos	ACL	5/1/12	Late March	Late March	Catching	(1)
Clay Papada	Shoulder	3/22/13	April	April	Bullpen work	(1)
Alex Rodriguez (**)	Hip surgery	1/16/13	Early July	2014 season	Rest	(1)
Fernando Rodriguez (**)	TJS	3/14/13	2014	2014	Rest	(1)
Cody Ross	Strained Leg	1/6/13	Late March	Early April	Jogging	(1)
CC Sabathia	Bone Spur	10/1/12	Late March	Late March	Throwing	(1)
Johan Santana	Back	2/25/13	Late March	May	Throwing off flat ground	(1)
George Sherrill	TJS	5/1/11	Late April	May	Bullpen Sessions	(1)
Joakim Soria	TJS	4/2/12	Late May	Early June	Playing Catch	(1)
Ian Stewart	Quadricep	2/15/13	April	Unknown	Everything, but run	(1)
Eric Surkamp	TJS	7/24/12	Late July	September	Unknown	(1)
Anthony Swarzak (*)	Ribs	1/25/13	April	May	Throw of mound	(1)
Mark Teixeira	Strained Wrist	3/6/13	Mid May	2014	Rest	(1)
Tsuyoshi Wada	TJS	5/11/12	May	June	Throwing off mound	(1)
Josh Tomlin (**)	TJS	8/22/12	August	2014	Rest	(1)
Joe Wieland (**)	TJS	7/27/12	Early August	2014	Catch	(1)
Brian Wilson	TJS	4/19/12	Unknown	Unknown	Not ready to pitch	(1)
Randy Wolf	TJS	10/30/12	2014	2014	Rest	(1)
Blake Wood (**)	TJS	5/1/12	May	June	Unknown	UNK
David Wright	Intercostal Strain	3/10/13	Late March	Early April	Swinging Bat	(1)
Delmon Young	Right ankle	10/1/12	Mid April	Early May	Rest	(1)

(*) 15 Day Disabled List
(**) 60 Day Disabled List

Players Returning From Injury

No information yet.

Players Playing Through Injuries

Will Middlebrooks	Wrist	(1)
Nolan Reimold	Shoulder	(1)
Russell Martin	Shoulder	(1)

Here is the list of players who should exceed their power projections for 2013:

Ryan Zimmerman, Ryan Howard, Cameron Maybin, Trevor Plouffe, Justin Upton, Paul Konerko, Dustin Pedroia, Luke Scott, Matt Kemp, Joey Votto, Mike Moustakas, Pablo Sandoval, Carl Crawford, Giancarlo Stanton, Jacoby Ellsbury, Evan Longoria, and Troy Tulowitzki. New additions: Dustin Ackley, Matt LaPorta, Howie Kendrick, Paul Konerko