Is Troy Glaus Headed For The DL?

Through last Friday’s game against the Marlins, Troy Glaus was the only member of the Braves that had played in all 80 of the team’s games.  Since then however, Glaus has missed the team’s last 3 games with swelling and soreness in his left knee, which he has apparently been dealing with for the past couple of weeks.

The swelling, attributed to normal wear from the season, did not immediately respond to a cortisone shot on Saturday, but has since gone down a bit.  Glaus is hoping to make it back to the lineup for the Braves in this evening’s game against the Phillies.

The main question I have is whether or not the Braves should be rushing to get him back in the lineup or if a stint on the disabled list might be necessary for Glaus.  The main reason I wonder is that, in the past 16 games, he has only hit .132 with 1 HR as opposed to .362 with 7 HR in the 16 games before.  It’s hard to tell how much the knee’s bothering him, but I’m okay if we have to let Hinske play first for a couple of weeks to get Troy healthy.

Here’s hoping he doesn’t relapse to the Glaus of April………

All Eyes On Jair Jurrjens… Hudson’s Dominance and Heyward’s Thumb

In his latest “Fried Baseball” audio blog, Kent Covington talks about the return of Jair Jurrjens, Tim Hudson’s dominance, and Jason Heyward’s thumb. Throw in your 2 cents in the comments area below… or leave a message with your questions or comments for a future commentary at 888-669-5368 (ext.701.)

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Heyward To DL; Kawakami To Bullpen

The good news first.  Jason Heyward won’t require surgery on the thumb that has been bothering him since injuring it sliding into third on May 14th.  The bad news? Heyward has been placed on the 15-day disabled list and will have the thumb put in a cast tomorrow for a week.

An MRI this morning revealed a deep bone bruise and a strain at the base of a ligament in the thumb where it attached to the bone.  I’m not considering this to actually be bad news.  Heyward has needed the extended rest for the thumb for quite awhile and hopefully this will get him through down the stretch.  It won’t be until the extended rest of the offseason that the injury fully heals.  Matt Diaz will be activated off of the disabled list to take Heyward’s spot on the roster.

The Braves also indicated that Kenshin Kawakami would be heading to the bullpen when Jair Jurrjens is activated from the disabled list to make his first start since April on Wednesday.

Garret Anderson Is A Bitch

Yeah, you just read that. Garret Anderson is a bitch.

If you missed it, Garret Anderson turned down a minor league rehab assignment (as is his right) and I think we as fans have every right to be pissed off about it.

Before I rant, the official position is that Anderson has every right to turn down said assignment. He doesn’t feel he’s missed enough time to warrant a trip to the minors for a rehab stint. The Braves are believed to be surprised with the decision. Anderson is currently missing time nursing a calf injury after originally missing time with the same injury.

That said, the man pisses me off. Haven’t missed enough time to warrant a rehab stint? How about you look at it the other way, Garret? You haven’t played enough to warrant a stint in the big leagues. 25 at-bats. Seriously. And when you HAVE played, let’s be honest – you’ve only batted .231 with 3 runs scored. No homers. No RBIs. Those are minor league stats. And it’s not like we’d have shipped you off to Mississippi or anything – you’d have to drive 45 minutes north to Gwinnett to play with the Triple A ballclub.

Get a life, Anderson. You’re not the Braves’ star player. You’re not even a fan favorite working his way to stardom. You’re an injured veteran who needs to prove he can contribute to the team. You haven’t PLAYED the time necessary to demand time in the majors – when you have played, it’s been sub-par, and don’t even get me started on easy pop flies into foul territory. I didn’t even know you could be charged with errors on foul balls until you managed to figure out how to do so. Prove you care about the Braves – put that ego away, go to Gwinnett, play with Tommy Hanson and the boys, and stop whining.

Quit being a little bitch. Heal up fast, too. We didn’t pay you to sit on the bench – we’ve got plenty of talent to do that.

Sincerely,

Braves fans everywhere

McCann Trying To Avoid Surgery

Since being placed on the 15-day disabled list in the series against Cincinnati, Brian McCann has returned to Atlanta to be re-evaluated by another eye specialist, Dr. Alan Kozarsky.  Once again, Mac tried a number of different contact lenses to try to correct the blurred vision in his left eye.  McCann and Kozarsky settled on contacts in both eyes to help resolve the issue.

While realizing that he still may have to undergo Lasik surgery once again to repair his vision in his left eye (he originally had the surgery in 2007), McCann will first give make two rehab starts in Class A Myrtle Beach.  With McCann on the disabled list and ineligible for reactivation for the next 10 days, this is the best option to test the new contact combination.  After his two-game stint, starting tonight, a decision will likely be made as to whether or not the surgery should be performed.

Personally, I think the Braves are just prolonging the inevitable with this decision.  Nothing has seemed to work for McCann so far and I just feel like every day that he doesn’t have the surgery is another day that he won’t be playing back in Atlanta.  Granted, the recovery time for Lasik isn’t that long, I think he should go ahead and get it done.  Thoughts?  Am I just completely offbase in thinking that?

McCann Headed to the DL

Clint Sammons has already made the trip to Cincinnati to take Brian McCann’s spot on the active roster.  McCann has been bothered by blurred vision in his left eye since Opening Day and has exhausted all options at this point.  He will be visiting an eye specialist in Atlanta in the next couple of days, presumably once the team returns from the road trip, and will likely undergo laser surgery again on the eye to correct his vision.

Bobby Cox is hesitant to put McCann on the disabled list until he makes it back to Atlanta to be evaluated, but at the same time, it’s hard for the team to play without a backup catcher.  While hoping for some overnight improvement, Cox has acknowledged that he doesn’t expect things to magically change.  McCann has already tried ointments, drops and single contact lenses in his left eye; none of which have really solved the issue.

McCann’s 1-for-20 from the plate in his last games played and he seems to have accepted that having surgery on the eye again in the best route for him to take.  Missing a couple of weeks now to get the problem corrected in full seems like a much better option than fighting with it throughout the season and never really getting it fully resolved.

So what’s the right thing to do?  Go ahead and send McCann to the DL and let him have the surgery so he’ll be good to go for the rest of the season?  Or do we keep trying little things here and there to try to get him through?

UPDATE: It’s official now.  McCann is headed for the 15-day disabled list.

Chipper Likely to DL

Chipper’s not getting better fast enough.  Bobby said yesterday “I don’t think Chipper’s close to playing.”

So he’s likely headed to the DL, at the very least when they bring Kotsay back tomorrow as he completes his rehab assignment.  That lingering quad injury will keep Chipper out of the crucial series this week against the Phillies.  If it continues to bother him, you can be sure he won’t risk hurting it in the All-Star game.

Chipper said in the AJC today “Make no bones about it, I would love to play in [the All-Star game], but if my body doesn’t allow me, that’s just a tough break.”

Chipper also admitted that he should likely have been on the DL before now.  “We probably should have DL’d me right when it happened. I knew it was worse than the previous time it happened. But the competitive side of me wanted to keep playing. I’ve always been a quick healer, and I thought I’d be able to play in five or six days.”

When you can’t run it doesn’t matter how well you can hit.  We’ll pray Chipper heals quickly and that Tex can carry the team while he’s out.  Get well soon, Chip.

Glavine Explores New Territory

For the first time in his 22-year major league career, Tom Glavine will be headed to the DL with a hamstring strain. Glavine left his last start in Washington after facing just four hitters and recording no uts, his shortest outing since 1989.

Glavine joins the long list of Braves pitchers already on the DL. Moylan, Soriano and Mike Gonzalez out of the bullpen to go with starter Mike Hampton, who now makes the disables list his vacation home during the season.

Glavine finished last season in the top three in the NL in quality starts (along with Smoltz and Hudson) and was well on his way to getting there again. He had allowed just one earned run in 11 1/3 innings before the Washington start.

Barring further injury, Glavine will be eligible to come off the DL  Tuesda, May 29 with his placement on the DL retroactive to the 14th.

Starting tomorrow, Chuck James makes his second return to the bigs this season and will take the mound on Saturday against the Dodgers. Hopefully it will be better than his first where he allowed the Rockies to get ahead before the Braves were able to put some runs on the board. If James is ineffective, Jojo Reyes would also be available.

Soriano’s Elbow Sends Him to DL

Rafael Soriano went to the 15-day disabled list with elbow tendonitis today, clearing room for Chuck James to come off the DL and promptly give up six runs in three innings tonight against the Rockies.

Soriano has had issues with his elbow on and off all spring.  He didn’t pitch for the first few games of spring training because his arm was bothering him.  And his elbow troubles aren’t new – he missed most of 2004 and 2005 with Seattle after Tommy John surgery.  Bobby has used him in a limited number of games (only pitched in 4 innings), but he’s still having issues with the arm.

It’s better to get him on the DL now than it is to let him languish on later in the season.  We need him healthy during the heart of the season, and if that means missing him for 15 games now, we’ll take it.

In the meantime, I think we’ll see Manny Acosta as the temporary closer.  He’s been good in spots this spring – a couple bad outings (like the home opener), but all spring has looked pretty good out of the bullpen.

Hampton Lands On 15-Day DL

The disabled list is a place where we all wondered how long it would take Mike Hampton to land.  I think most of us, however, bought into the fact that maybe he would at least make it through a pitch or two in the regular season.  Nevertheless, we’ve lost him for at least two weeks, causing some roster shake-ups in the first week of the season.

During pregame warmups to make his first big league start since August 19th, 2005 last night, Hampton felt some tightness and discomfort in his left pectoral muscle on his 23rd warm up pitch.  He tried to make a couple of more pitches before the Braves made the decision to scratch him to try to avoid further injury.  Hampton apparently had a ton of family and friends in the stands to see his start.  My question to them……Why?

Chuck James, whose shoulder has not been bothering him lately, is the likely candidate to fill the spot in the starting rotation.  The Braves have also made the decision to call up Jo-Jo Reyes from Richmond to take the long reliever start; a move that I’m sure more than just I could agree would have been better filled by Buddy Carlyle.  I’m far from high on Jo-Jo’s abilities to pitch in the big leagues yet.  Maybe he’ll prove us wrong.  Hopefully we’ll see Hampton back soon.