Posts from the Mlb Injuries Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Alfonso Soriano is a fast healer. Last year, when the Cubs centerfielder tore his left quadriceps muscle, he returned from the 15-day DL and immediately had the best September of any Cub maybe, like, ever. It was that good. This year, he's trying to return from a broken hand, and he's already making process:

He didn't look timid as he hit one line drive after another, and launched two balls out of Busch Stadium over the center-field fence. Soriano was batting .283 with 15 homers and 40 RBIs in 51 games before he was injured. This is his second stint on the disabled list; he was sidelined earlier because of a strained right calf.

Soriano won't likely be back for the All-Star game, but whatever. That's not important, no matter what Bud Selig says. What is important -- to Cubs fans, at least -- is that he returns to the Cubs as safely and quickly as possible, so the dreaded Cardinal scourge doesn't creep up and do something truly unexpected in the NL Central. This is getting ridiculous.

Considering that Elijah Dukes is only 24 years old and hasn't even played a full season's worth of games in the big leagues, he's already had quite a career. Unfortunately, just about everything Dukes is known for has occured off the field or after games. We're all more than familiar with his text messaging habits, and we also know that Elijah has a problem with his manager from time to time (seriously, just click on his tag and see all the fun he's had).

Lately, though, Elijah has been getting talked about more for the way he's hitting with the Nationals. After getting off to a very slow start to the season, Dukes hit .292 with four homers and 15 RBI in June. He has carried that play into the first week of July as well, as he's currently hitting .368 with two homers and three runs driven in this month. That's why it's such a shame that Dukes hurt his knee making a catch on Saturday, and he's going to be out four to six weeks because of it.

Dukes tore cartilage and partially tore a tendon in his right knee when he slammed into the left-field wall after catching a flyball in the seventh inning. He grabbed his knee and was taken off the field on a cart.

Dukes will have surgery on Monday. The Nationals didn't immediately replace him on the roster.

Let's all just hope that Elijah spends his time off working his way back from this knee injury, and not taking advantage of his unlimited text messaging plan.

Make no mistake about it, the reason the Chicago White Sox are in first place in their division is their pitching staff. The White Sox have the best team ERA in baseball at 3.39, and it could be argued that the Dotel-Linebrink-Jenks combination at the back of the bullpen is the best in baseball (I heard Joe Morgan say it, so it has to be true).

So with the Twins refusing to get off their backs, the Sox can't really afford to lose any of their pitchers, and they got some good news on Saturday when they found out Bobby Jenks won't have to spend any time on the disabled list.

The White Sox were concerned enough about the tightness in Bobby Jenks' upper left back that they ordered an MRI and CTScan Saturday. The results were negative and Jenks should be ready to pitch in the Kansas City series starting Tuesday.

The Sox bullpen closer has not appeared since last Sunday against the Cubs, when he allowed a hit and walk but escaped with no runs. Though the tightness is not in his throwing shoulder, it was painful enough that it affected his performance.

It was in that game against the Cubs that the team noticed Jenks was only hitting 91-93 on the radar gun, down from his normal 95-96 range, and became concerned. Considering the struggles that Scott Linebrink has had when he's filled in during 9th innings this season, this is very good news for the White Sox, though it's probably a situation they'll be keeping their eye on.

The Fightins' put together a pretty nice little mini-montage of action from the Phillies - Mets game on Thursday night. First you will see awkward descriptions of bat shaving and sexual innuendo. Then you will see Yunel Escobar foul a ball that hits the ground and then hits him in the man-regions. The announcers (admittedly not "doctors") give the wrong diagnosis at first.

For a good part of this season, hearing people talk about the Cubs winning the National League Central is like hearing them talk about whether the sun will come up in the east. It's strange because there are two teams (Cardinals and Brewers) within five games of the Cubbies on the Fourth of July. The Cubs are good, but this thing isn't over by a long shot.

Right now, the Cubs are in a bit of a slide with seven losses in the ten games since their sweep of the White Sox. That makes tonight's return of Carlos Zambrano particularly timely. The Big Z hasn't pitched since June 18th due to shoulder problems. The Cubs have held their ground without him, but the Brewers are charging hard and the Cardinals don't seem to be going away.

If Zambrano's healthy, this is the perfect series for him to be back in because the Cubs are playing the Cards and have a chance to create some space in the division. Now that we're in the second half of the season, series like these start to matter just a little bit more.

And this is not your ordinary catcher "foul-to-face" either, kids. Michael Barrett is the one batting when he clocks a ball off his bat and into his grill. If you're adverse to seeing humans take painful shots to the dome, I suggest you not watch this.

The injuries seemed like they were maybe, possibly, kind of taking a turn for the better for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Then they got the brutal news early Thursday that leadoff hitter and sparkplug of the offense Rafael Furcal will miss another eight weeks after undergoing back surgery.

Manager Joe Torre would not concede that Furcal will be lost for the rest of the season, but neither did he say he's holding his breath awaiting Furcal's return.

"From all the numbers I've heard, he'll probably miss a minimum of eight weeks," said Torre, meaning a return of September at the earliest.

That's probably overly optimistic. Watkins performed a similar procedure in 2002 on Dodgers pitcher Kevin Brown, whose disc was badly ruptured. Brown rushed back after two months, but quickly had to shut it down because he was not fully healed. Reliever Eric Gagne underwent a similar operation by Watkins at St. Vincent's Hospital on July 8, 2006. Like Brown, Gagne was also trying to return from elbow woes at the time and did not pitch again that season.

Like I mentioned the other day (link above), I'll believe it when I see it regarding recovery. Eight weeks is still a looooong time anyway and the odds that Furcal will be completely healthy by the beginning of September is possible but as soon as KB and EG's names get tossed around, I get a little skeptical.

And no, the "would not concede" line does not help anything either.

Fantasy Spin: I'm heading to drop him in a 12 team league right now (non-keeper) and grab someone that can help me now. Bear in mind though, that this is a head-to-head league, so not only will I be able to grab him later, but the loss of steals isn't permanent, so to speak. Still, I think he's done.

Oakland Athletics third baseman Eric Chavez missed the first two months of the 2008 season thanks to surgery he had on his shoulder last November, and now after playing in 23 games for the A's, Chavez's shoulder has put him back on the disabled list.

"It's frustrating," said Chavez. "I just want to get to the point where I can get out there and know I can be a productive player, and right now I'm not."

In the press release announcing the Chavez move, the A's said his right shoulder surgery in November 2007 was "to repair a torn labrum." Chavez, 30, said the surgery "didn't fix anything."

"They just went in and cleaned it up. Nothing was repaired."

The signs that Eric was going to be placed back on the DL have been apparent since the weekend when Chavez sat out the A's entire series against the Giants. He played in the first two games of the Angels series, but did so as a designated hitter since hitting doesn't hurt his shoulder nearly as much as throwing.

Whether or not Chavez is going to need to undergo another surgery isn't known yet, but he did undergo an MRI on it earlier today. Obviously, if he has to go back under the knife, his 2008 campaign is over. The team has called up first baseman Wes Bankston from Sacramento to take Eric's place on the roster.

Sometimes, news isn't exactly surprising. After cruising to 15 straight saves to open the season, Matt Capps is only 2/7 since June 10th. If you think saves are a bad way to measure a pitcher (they are), his ERA is 5.91 in the same span, he's given up four homers in 10 and 2/3 innings, and his WHIP is 1.41. That's some pretty ugly stuff from a guy who's been one of baseball's better relievers over the past few years.

Accordingly, it was no real surprise today when the Pirates announced that Capps is headed to the DL with a shoulder problem. The team has been pretty vague about it, manager John Russell is calling it, "internal range of motion detriment," but they are saying he's going to be out for eight weeks, so it sounds pretty serious. For now it looks like he's going to Bradenton to rehab the injury, so it's not as bad as it could be unless a knife gets involved.

For the Pirates, this is pretty awful news. They've shuffled pitchers like mad in the past two weeks to deal with injuries in their rotation and crappiness in their bullpen and they've already traded two fringe prospects this year to pick up Tyler Yates and Denny Bautista. Losing Capps means that Damaso Marte is the only remotely reliable reliever left in their bullpen. No deficit will be insurmountable for the Pirates' opponents in the next few months.