MASH Report (4/11/16)

• 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.

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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.

• Well, it sucks for the Kyle Schwarber owners with him going down for the year with torn knee ligaments. Here is the latest on him.

Kyle Schwarber said he felt sorry for himself for about 30 minutes, and then the Cubs outfielder was ready to tackle the long rehab ahead to repair two torn ligaments in his left knee, suffered Thursday night in a season-ending collision.

“I look at it as, I have a whole year to prepare for a new season,” Schwarber said Saturday. “There’s bumps in the road, but it’s not like I’m preparing for the season with three months to go. I’ve got a whole year. I feel I’ll come back even better.”

Schwarber, who tore the ACL and LCL in his left knee after running into teammate Dexter Fowler in no-man’s land in left center, will fly to Chicago with the team after Sunday’s game and see the Cubs orthopedic specialist Dr. Stephen Gryzlo on Monday. Surgery has not been scheduled, but was expected to be done within the next three weeks.

He is completely droppable in redraft leagues.

• Tyson Ross is trying to take a couple starts off to rest his shoulder.

Ross pitched the season opener on April 4 against the Dodgers, meaning the move is retroactive to April 5. The earliest date he could return to the roster would be April 20 against the Pirates.
Ross is confident he’ll be back at some point during that homestand.

“I’ve got some great minds on my side working with me,” Ross said. “And through the stuff I’ve done the last two days, I’m confident that they’re going to get me out there, get me right and probably even better than ever.”

I think this injury will be ashort stint or could go on for months. I am going to be worried if he spends more than the minimum time on the DL.

• Ender Inciarte will spend the next couple weeks resting his hamstring. It has been bugging him for a while and has not gotten better.

As Ender Inciarte spends the next couple of weeks recovering from a left hamstring strain, Mallex Smith will have an opportunity to prove he is ready to contribute at the Major League level.

Inciarte said he has experienced some improvement over the past few days, but he agreed with the club’s decision to keep him sidelined until at least April 24.

I expect him to be activated after the two weeks.

• Shin-Soo Choo is expected out four to six weeks with a strained calf muscle. I ran the numbers on historical days missed for strained calves and the average is 32 days with the median at 26 days.

• The Rangers have also lost Robinson Chirinos with a fractured forearm. He will be out 10-12 weeks and was placed on the 60-day DL.

• Well, Carl Crawford is off to the DL with a sore back.

Crawford had tried to play through the discomfort, but decided he had to stop on Friday. He will undergo an MRI examination on Monday in Los Angeles. But in the interim, the team decided to shut him down for at least two weeks.

It seems like the Dodgers will continue to mix-and-match their left field spot.

• I was a little more optimistic about A.J. Pollock’s return until I read this description of his operation:

Dr. Don Sheridan, the team’s hand specialist who performed the surgery along with Dr. Gary Waslewski, said Pollock broke through an area of bone that hadn’t fully healed from the surgery he had in 2010 for a fractured elbow. Sheridan put a plate and screws in the elbow and drilled holes in Pollock’s hip and used bone matters of the hip to pack Pollock’s elbow.

“Although this is a very complex problem I am very optimistic about his return,” Sheridan said. “There’s no definite time frame … I’m very hopeful and look forward to the day A.J. runs out of the dugout and takes his position in the playoffs this year.”

I mean, what could go wrong? I am worried about how this operation will affect his long-term production. It would be nice to see him return in 2016 just to get some baseline talent readings (running speed and velo off the bat).

• Yangervis Solarte strained his hamstring and will probably be out a month.

Fastball velocity reading for pitchers returning from the DL

Marco Estrada’s fastball velocity was fine

Players on the 2016 DL

The Red players have had updates since the last report. Click on the “Date” for a link to go to the latest article on the player.