MASH Report (6/22/15)

• Freddie Freeman will have an MRI today to see what exactly is wrong with his wrist which has cost him to miss four straight games.

“[My wrist] is not worse, it’s just not getting better,” Freeman said. “I really don’t have an answer until I can maybe get an X-ray or an MRI. I just want to know what is wrong.”

Freeman is expected to undergo an MRI on Monday, before the Braves travel to Washington, D.C., for a three-game series against the Nationals that begins on Tuesday.

• Jered Weaver is on the DL in with an inflamed hip.

Weaver allowed four earned runs over 5 2/3 innings in a loss to the A’s on Saturday, but he said the hip injury did not have any effect on his performance. He has given up 19 runs in his last four starts, all losses.

Well, at least we will know he will continue to suck once he comes back since the injury wasn’t causing the loss in production.

• Adrian Beltre is still not able to grip a bat.

Beltre said he tried gripping and swinging a bat on Saturday, but it did not go well.

“I was searching for a grip that wouldn’t hurt,” Beltre said. “I am still searching. I have been trying for days, but it’s painful. If it was just uncomfortable I would be fine. But it’s pretty painful.”

The earliest day to expect him back is after the All-Star Game.

• Here is some info from Ryan Braun on the last time he got his thumb nerve frozen.

Braun added, “It’s exciting and encouraging that there is an option that makes it better, and there’s limited downtime and limited recovery time. So from that perspective, I think it’s exciting.”

It was a somewhat more subdued self-diagnosis than the one Braun offered after his first such treatment in October, in which a specialist introduces super-cold temperature to a bothersome nerve near the base of Braun’s thumb. At that time, Braun said he felt 100 percent and expressed great optimism about having a productive 2015 season after fighting pain for most of the previous two years.

“The difference obviously was in October we weren’t playing baseball at all,” Braun said. “When you’re still playing and still dealing with it, it’s a much different set of circumstances than October. But overall it feels really good.”
Brewers manager Craig Counsell cautioned against attributing Braun’s cold stretch to his health.

“Everybody fights through stuff every day. That’s how we have to do it as a Major League player,” Counsell said before Thursday’s game against the Royals. “This is a ‘baseball season’ thing. You have good stretches and you have bad stretches. I don’t think this has anything to do with — I think he’s going through a little rough patch. I’m fully expecting a big game any day, really.

The treatment doesn’t look to 100% remove the pain and Braun’s thumb will be a lingering issue for years to come.

• Juan Lagares has a torn elbow tendon which has been hampering him all season and may require Tommy John surgery.

“The elbow injury is something that it, for sure, has kept him from making the throws that he would normally make on a daily basis,” Collins said. “We’ve asked him to be smart about when he really wants to let it loose. It’s got to be a big situation. It’s got to be a situation where he knows he’s got to make a play. But just to throw every guy out on the bases like he did early last year, we’re just asking for an injury to show up.”

Will the injury remedy itself?

“Well, there’s only a couple of things you can do,” Collins continued. “One would be to have Tommy John and the other would be to rest it and just be careful. They said Carlos Gomez has exactly the same type of thing. If you take care of it, he’s a position player, so he can play with this. A lot of guys have — even pitchers, to be honest. We just have to be careful that he doesn’t get crazy and make an awkward throw or try to overthrow too much. … The throw he made in Pittsburgh was the one that scared me the most, because he threw it all the way in the air, and he threw it a long way, and he threw it hard. Those are the ones we have to be careful of.”

• Yordano Ventura will be on the DL with a numb hand. He was just over the PAIN threshold for having a possible injury in my last report.

• Sergio Santos is done for the season after needing Tommy John surgery.

• Yankees rookie Mason Williams in on the DL with an inflamed shoulder.

• Kyle Blanks is back on the DL with an inflamed Achilles tendons in each ankle.

• Heath Hembree went on the DL with an inflamed shoulder.

Velocity Readings

• Kevin Gausman’s velocity was fine in his first start back from the DL.

While his overall velocity was fine, it did tail off quite a bit during the start (~3 mph).

The Orioles are sending him back to AAA to allow him to keep building up his stamina.

• Doug Fister’s velocity was down ~1.5 mph compared to earlier this season and ~2.5 mph down from last season. He is probably not playable at this point.

• Edward Mujica’s velocity was near a 3-year low in his return from the DL

Players on the DL in 2015

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.