Two quick updates
Wanted to give my wonderful loyal readers a couple updates that I’m sure you might have heard about by now.
Bill Hall partially tore his left calf yesterday which should keep him out of action for 4-6 weeks. While I don’t think this effects the regular season at all, he could end up having a set back and possibly missing a week at the beginning of the year. I don’t see anything special about this injury, I just think it’s one of those things that happens at times.
Ben Sheets has undergone surgery on his troublesome elbow on Tuesday after it was quite apparrent that no one was giving him a contract until he do so. His surgery involved repairing a tear in the common flexor tendon of the elbow which is awfully close to the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) of Tommy John surgery fame. Luckily when Dr. Andrews was examining him in the operating room, the UCL was deemed to be just fine and only the tendon was repaired. Sheets is saying that he’ll be ready to pitch around August and I don’t disagree with that aspect.
What I disagree or would be worried as a Sheets suitor is how effective will he be. We see time and time again, pitchers coming back from Tommy John surgery when they can physically pitch but it still takes them another 6 months to a year before they’re able to be close to their former effectiveness. Also what concerns me is this is now 6 injuries to the right side of his body and 5 times since 2005. Somewhere there is a bad link in the transfer of force from the legs to the release point (or after) that is causing him to have repeated injuries to his shoulder/arm. Sometimes, changing mechanics can solve it but sometimes once the ball gets rolling you can’t just put it away.
With all that being said, I think Sheets will come back towards the end of the year and potentially make or break someone’s season. I wouldn’t draft him and hold him but I would keep an eye on his progress through rehab. When it starts looking like he’ll return and they start giving you return dates, I would consider picking him up from the waiver wire or throwing a buck out there for him.
Keep an eye out for more updates and I should have a new pitch fx article about Carlos Zambrano up tonight or early tomorrow.
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