Another Injury-Filled Day

It seems that I spend more time these days writing about injuries than I do about anything else.  Every day it’s disabled lists, injuries, surgeries, lack of pitching….get the picture?  So while the Braves finished up a strong homestand today, why would it be any different?  So let’s get to it and highlight the injuries du jour:

Jo-Jo Reyes - Jo-Jo made the start in today’s game against the Padres.  Reyes didn’t have his best stuff today and left the game in the third inning with a blister on the index finger of his throwing hand.  This is one of those nagging little injuries that you just want to take care of so that it doesn’t become a nagging problem.

Buddy Carlyle - Buddy replaced Jo-Jo Reyes after he left with his injury in the third inning today.  Carlyle however only made it through 6 batters before colliding with Kevin Kouzmanoff while trying to field a ball down the first base line.  He recorded the out but fell to the field in obvious pain.  Buddy was diagnosed with a muscle strain in the left side of his neck and is listed as day-to-day.

Peter Moylan - Moylan underwent Tommy John surgery today and will miss the next 12 months or so.  He will be missed in the Braves’ bullpen.

Brayan Pena - Brayan was placed on the 15-day disabled list today with a back strain.  Pena’s trip to the disabled list made room on the roster for utility man, Omar Infante, who was activated today after breaking his hand in Venezuelan winter leagues. Infante made the start in today’s game in place of Kelly Johnson at second base.

So those are the injuries for today.  Check back in tomorrow and I’m sure we’ll have more to keep you updated about.  In the meantime, let’s hope the Braves can figure out the secret to winning on the road as we head to Pittsburgh.

Moylan Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

Not being seen much as a surprise, Braves’ reliever Peter Moylan underwent Tommy John surgery today when he went to see his doctor in Birmingham.  After the surgery, Moylan’s doctor, James Andrews, confirmed that a bone spur had lodged itself into the UCL in Moylan’s right elbow.  This had compromised the integrity of the ligament to the point that it would not have been rehabilitable.

The Braves are no strangers to Tommy John surgery.  The surgery, which involves replacing the UCL in the elbow with a tendon from the leg, requires at least a year of rehabilitation and recovery time until the individual can pitch again.  Moylan’s hoping that he can return to the Braves’ bullpen around this time next year and continue to help carry the bullpen as a setup man.  In seven appearances thus far this season, Moylan had posted a 1.59 ERA.

The TJ Club

With Peter Moylan on the brink of season ending reconstructive surgery, we here at BravesBlast thought it would be a good idea to profile the surgery itself as well as some of the Braves that have had the surgery: the list isn’t short.
The surgery itself was developed in 1974 when the now infamous Tommy John developed a pain in his elbow as well as a noticeable drop in velocity. After tests, Dr. Frank Jobe diagnosed John with a torn UCL, ulnar collateral ligament. The UCL is the ligament in the elbow that connects the upper arm bone (humerus) to the ulna and radius of the forearm.

At the time, there was no reconstruction and recovery procedure for the injury and pitchers that suffered from a torn or “compromised” (like Moylan) ligament were doomed to sit out the rest of their days. Dr. Frank Jobe decided to try a new, unheard of procedure on John. He hypothesized that if he could use a tendon from another part of the body (most likely the arm or leg) and attach it to the elbow, it would grow into a ligament. Jobe tried the procedure but had to wait an entire year to witness the results of the surgery.

Jobe was delighted to see that the surgery was a success. John went on to a 10-10 record in his first season back, 1976. John went on to pitch 13 more seasons in the bigs and compiled a 288-231 record and had a 3.34 career ERA.

With John being the first to successfully complete a rehab from the UCL surgery, the reconstructive procedure took on his name and to this day is considered a pitcher’s best friend.

Now as far as its ties to the Braves go, several pitchers on our staff have had the surgery already:

John Smoltz – In 1999 Smoltzie started throwing with a side-arm and three quarters-arm delivery. I don’t know if this is what caused the UCL tear or if he pitched that way because of arm troubles, but it was fairly effective. Smoltz went 11-8 with a 3.19 ERA. Smoltz pretty much lost all or part of five years with the surgery as a starter. It’s probably that he would be a 300 game winner, or at least within reach of the milestone. But there’s another one he can get to at this point: 200 saves.

Mike Hampton – Wow…what more is there to say about Hampton. He was off to what looked like a career year for the Braves before having fore-arm soreness in May on 2005. He made one more start that year towards the end, before electing to have the procedure. He sat out all of 2006 rehabbing from the injury, but unfortunately tore another ligament in the same elbow.

Rafael Soriano – Soriano was supposed to be a great relief pitcher for the Mariners. He struck out 68 in 53 innings in 2004 with a 1.53 ERA, but had to have the surgery late in 2004. He pitched well in 2006, but had to sit out the last month with a severe concussion after getting hit with a line drive in the head. The Braves then traded for him and he has had mixed success in his time with the Braves. Luckily the MRI on Soriano’s elbow came back negative for anything serious.

Jorge Campillo – Campillo also pitched for the Mariners (what is with us and getting players from AL west teams, a few from the A’s and a couple from the Mariners and one big one from the Rangers). He debuted in 2005, but quickly required the surgery after just two appearances. He was released after rehabbing because the team was not pleased with his progress. He signed with the Braves this past offseason and has been a great addition to the roster.

Jeff Bennett – Bennett pitched one season with the Brewers going 1-5 in 60 appearances. Bennett required the surgery in 2006 after spending 2005-06 in the minors. Bennett signed with the Braves after the 2006 season and spent much of 2007 in the minors. During the September call-ups, Bennett proved he could pitch in the majors and won a spot as the long-reliever/spot starter in spring training.

Among other pitchers in the Braves organization, Anthony Lerew underwent the surgery after two starts last season and is currently rehabbing.

Kelly Johnson also underwent the surgery after a tear on a throw from the outfield during the 2005 season. Braves personnel decided to shift him to second base (he was originally drafted as a short stop) to avoid any further injuries to his arm. He sat out the entire 2006 season, but has returned the Braves lineup as an asset as the leadoff man.

With more and more pitchers electing to get this surgery on a regular basis, it poses the question, “what’s the best way to pitch?” Pitchers get hurt pitching overhand, side arm, whatever. Is there really a perfect way to pitch to avoid injuries? So far Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux may be the best examples of two pitchers that have avoided pitching-related injuries for as long as they have.

Soriano Showing No Improvement

Braves closer Rafael Soriano’s bullpen session today was cut short with continuing soreness in his elbow.  Soriano began experiencing the soreness in his throwing elbow early in Grapefruit League play and missed roughly half of the preseason.  He only made 4 appearances this season before landing on the 15-day disabled list when the soreness continued to worsen.  The Braves hoped to have him back in the bullpen soon, but his condition seems to be showing no improvement as of now.

Soriano will undergo an MRI and a series of other tests tomorrow to try to determine the continuing cause of the elbow pain.  With Mike Gonzalez and John Smoltz hopefully soon being activated and heading to the bullpen, the Braves can probably survive on the arms they have available, but it would be nice to have Soriano in place to be a solid setup man should Smoltz become the closer.  Here’s hoping the results of tomorrow’s tests are favorable for Rafael.

Prado To Disabled List

Martin Prado was placed on the 15-day disabled list earlier today with a sprained thumb suffered diving into first to obtain an infield single during yesterday’s game against the Reds.  Prado’s thumb is in a cast and the Braves are expecting him to be out a full 6 weeks as a result of this injury.

In other news, the Braves have moved Peter Moylan over to the 60-day disabled list.  Moylan will have season-ending Tommy John surgery later this week.  The surgery requires at least a year of recovery time and I’d like to see Moylan back as soon as possible.  Just more injuries to hamper the Braves.

Hampton Ponders Retirement

After his latest injury in Richmond, reaggravating his strained pectoral muscle, Mike Hampton found himself in a far too familiar position.  On the disabled list with a recommendation of not touching a baseball.  An MRI confirmed that it was just a strain and that the pectoral muscle was not actually torn.  Shortly after the reinjury, Hampton pondered whether or not retiring at the end of his current contract would be the best option.

Hampton’s in the final year of his $121 million contract.  Since 2005, he has made 12 starts in the majors and made $56 million dollars.  On that fact alone, he’ll always have the critics against him.  I don’t think he takes satisfaction in making multi-millions and not pitching at all, but rather he just is injury-prone and has had a series of bad luck.  He’s not giving up on it yet and is planning to continue working throughout the season before making a final decision on what to do after this season.  If he doesn’t pitch this season, however, I feel like he’ll have a tough time finding a new contract somewhere.

More to come on this one as we hear it, but I doubt there will be any developments on it anytime soon.

Smoltz Plans To Pitch From Pen

The AJC is reporting that John Smoltz said in a text message Wednesday that he doesn’t think he can handle starting for the Braves and plans to return as a reliever.

Here’s the quote:

“I am planning on coming back as a reliever first, and more than likely for the rest of this year.”

Can the Braves’ rotation handle Smoltz being in the ‘pen?  Sure, it’ll stabilize things out there, but what becomes of starting pitching?  Do we have to just cross our fingers and hope Jo-Jo Reyes can hold it together at a big league level?  Who picks up the slack?

Can we take it?  What do you think?

Hampton….You Know The Rest

Mike Hampton was injured yet again to the point where he might as well legally changed his middle name to “Injury-prone.” Turns out he re-injured the pectoral muscle he injured warming up earlier this year. They had him on a 75 pitch count and Hampton exited his start after throwing just 71 pitches into the fourth inning. He allowed one run on four hits, four strikeouts and two walks before his premature exit. The injury is not believed to be as serious as it was the first time and may only set Hampton back two to three weeks. Of course, with Atlanta’s injury woes at the major league level, that seems like an eternity.

Chuck James replaced Hampton in the fourth inning, leading fans to believe that Jo-Jo Reyes will get the start against the Reds this weekend in place of the fifth starter. Reyes has been spectacular at Richmond, going 1-1 with 1.17 ERA in 23 innings, his most impressive stat might be that he has walked only eight hitters in the 23 innings pitched.

Smoltz Willing To Leave Rotation

John Smoltz is willing to leave the starting rotation and return to the bullpen, the AJC is reporting.

Smoltz, who just went on the DL today with biceps tendinitis, said in a phone interview Tuesday that he was willing to do whatever was necessary to help the team out.

“Right now I’m sitting at ground zero, taking it day by day, looking at every option to help this team get to the playoffs and end my career the way I’d like to end it.”

The rotation would definitely be hurt by the loss of Smoltz, but the bullpen could use his magic closer capabilities right now with Moylan gone for the season and Soriano out for at least a while longer.  Smoltz converted 154 saves in three and a half years as a closer from 2002-2004.

The trick here is that while we want Smoltz dominating for six innings, he may not be able to handle it.  He apparently has aged and his body can’t take the starting job right now.  If he heals up properly and can return to the rotation, he’ll be much appreciated.  But if he can’t start for the Braves, I’d much rather have him in the closing spot than not at all.  His arm is needed whenever he can pitch.

Smoltz promised he won’t rush back and that the Braves would be OK.

“I will be fine. The team will be fine. And the next time I throw will be because I’m ready.”

What do you think?  How is this going to affect the Braves heading into May and beyond?

Smoltz To The DL

John Smoltz was placed on the 15-day DL today after his shoulder was examined and biceps tendinitis was discovered.  Smoltz, who had issues with control and speed in his last start in New York, visited Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, who found a very inflamed biceps tendon and also inflammation in his rotator cuff.

This is Smoltzie’s second trip to the DL this season - and leaves Tim Hudson to ace the staff while Smoltz is recovering.  The Braves hope that a few weeks now will let Smoltz finish out the season strong, assuming the inflammation doesn’t come back.  The problem with that is I’m not 100% confident it’ll go away - it’s been an issue on and off now since the end of last season.

Can the Braves win without Smoltz?  It’s a good question. We need him and Hudson at the top of the pitching staff in order to allow Jurrjens and whatever other starters are healthy to anchor the back end of the rotation.  The good news is that Glavine is ready to pitch tonight and was activated from the DL as Smoltz went down.  Hampton is scheduled to make a start at AAA Richmond tomorrow and may be activated immediately after that if he can stay in one piece.

Not good for the Braves’ starting rotation, which has seen much more turbulence this season that previously expected.  We’ll keep you posted as we hear more.

Braves Injury Updates

It has been a tough season on the injury-front for the Braves already this season, especially when we take a look at our pitching staff.  I figured we could use today’s off-day to do a quick review of where we stand with a lot of the injuries that are plaguing the team on both sides of the ball thus far.  We need most (and preferably all) of these guys healthy if we want to have a hope at returning to the playoffs this season:

Chipper Jones - Chipper missed the last two games with spasms in his lower back.  This is a tricky injury that could be gone in a minute or stick around for a couple of weeks.  Chipper’s tough though and if there’s any chance of him playing, he’s not going to miss a game.  He’s still having some trouble rotating his body though, so we may see him miss another game or two.  He should hopefully be back by the time the Braves return to Turner Field this weekend.

Yunel Escobar - Yunel cracked his fingernail trying to lay down a bunt in Friday night’s game and missed the games on Saturday and Sunday as a result.  Bobby Cox said there’s an outside chance that we’ll see Yunel play Tuesday night.  The swelling in his finger is going down but he’s still unable to really grip a bat and I’m sure he’ll be severely crippled by the injury in the field as well.  I look for him to be back in the lineup by the time the Braves head back to Atlanta as well.

John Smoltz - Smoltz has been bothered off and on by soreness between his neck and shoulder.  He was strong in his two previous starts before coming out of the game after only 3 innings yesterday.  In his postgame interviews, Smoltz gave a less than positive impression of how he was feeling, saying that he doesn’t know if this is more than just muscle tightness.  Losing Smoltz would be a huge blow to our already crippled pitching staff, but if a month on the DL would keep him healthier through the rest of the season, it’s for the best.  I’m sure we’ll hear more on this soon as Smoltz may head back to Atlanta for medical evaluation.

Tom Glavine - Glavine’s expected to return from the disabled list to make his start this Tuesday.  Tommy has been out for a couple of weeks after leaving a game in the first inning with tightness in his hamstring.  His stint on the DL has gone smoothly however and the Braves are confident that he’ll be ready to go against the Nationals tomorrow night.

Mike Hampton - How can there be an injury report without a man by the name of Mike Hampton.  Hampton’s still looking to make his first start in the majors since 2005 after a slew of injuries.  The latest was straining a pectoral muscle while warming up for a start at Turner Field earlier this season.  Hampton made a start with AAA Richmond this past week and went three innings.  I’d look for at least one more rehab start in Richmond before he heads back to Atlanta to make another attempt at starting.  He joined up with the team in New York this past weekend however and spent some time playing catch pregame.

Peter Moylan - Losing Moylan for the remainder of the season is a scary prospect, but is highly likely at this point in time.  Moylan is currently on the 15-day disabled list with a bone spur in his elbow that has compromised his UCL.  Later this week, he will be reevaluated to make a determination as to whether or not he will need to undergo Tommy John surgery to repair the ligament.  I say that if this is the determination that is made, they shouldn’t waste any time in getting the surgery done to give Moylan as much time to recover as possible.  Tommy John usually requires a year at the minimum for recovery and rehab.

Mike Gonzalez - Gonzalez made an appearance in extended spring training last week throwing 12 pitches.  He still has a ways to go to be ready to pitch in the majors, but hopefully after a month or so more of rehab, we’ll be able to look to him to take a spot in the bullpen.

Rafael Soriano - Soriano’s elbow troubles continue to plague him.  When his stint on the 15-day disabled list was over, he was definitely not ready to come back to pitch.  We need Soriano healthy to take his spot as the closer, especially with Moylan down and out as well.  We’ll have to rely on Acosta for now until we get Soriano back.  Soriano threw a bullpen session last week and experienced some lingering discomfort in the elbow, but will continue to try throwing over the next week.

So there are the current injuries that are hampering the team.  On the offensive side, we desperately need Chipper and Yunel back in the lineup as they are great producers on that side of the ball.  Most of our problems lie in pitching however; 3 of our 5 starters are on this list as well as a number of key bullpen members.  Without pitching, we’re not going to go very far this season.

Hampton Makes Rehab Start

Let me just say before I start that no parts fell off, and preliminary reports are that it went really well.

Mike Hampton made a start at AAA Richmond, and apparently he looked and felt good.  He surrendered only three hits in three scoreless innings - and managed to get off fifty pitches without his arm completely detaching from his shoulder and hurtling towards the plate.  Hampton, who hasn’t pitched in the majors since *checks his history book* 2005, will likely make another rehab start on his way back to the majors.  He’ll be evaluated by the team as he joins them in NY today.

Now, you may find me too negative towards Hampton - and I’m sure he’ll pitch in Atlanta at some point this season - but I can’t find myself counting on him for any number of starts or wins.  I hope against all hope that he’ll be able to start 20 games and will stay healthy the remainder of the season, but it’s a little bit hard to expect that after he randomly injures himself repeatedly.

Mike, get well soon, we’ll see you in Atlanta, and we can’t wait for it.  But please, please, please - have someone else drive you places, have someone else tie your shoelaces, and don’t shave.  It’s just too dangerous.