June 30, 2008

WTF??!?

Dr. Lewis Yocum woke up this morning and saw his shadow, which as we all know, means 12-18 more months of Chieflessness. Where the f#ck did that come from?

I've often said I think the team's training and medical staff gets a bad rap. Injuries happen to everyone, and athletes are notorious for not being forthright about their health. But this goes beyond that. Now we're well into "Can't Anyone Here Read An X-Ray?!" territory. More than being a problem for the club, this is almost embarrasing incompetence. Cordero's been rehabbing a torn back muscle for months. All that time, and even before that, and no one noticed he had a torn labrum? If that's true, I would think it borders on malpractice. If the team knew and just didn't say anything, what's the point of that?

This isn't a common wear-n-tear type injury, and Chad's not some veteran warhorse. It's also not like Nick Johnson's annual, sure-as-the-summer-solstice season-ending trip to the DL. It's a whole other previously undiagnosed major injury on top of the major injury he was already on the shelf recovering from. For all those folks who have been looking for a litmus test for the Lerner's pocketbook, this is it.

You don't wanna sign big name free agents to ridiculous contracts? Fine, I can get behind that plan. But you've got to keep the players you have, and the youngsters you're trying to develop, healthy. Take the money you're saving by signing Guzman instead of Rafael Furcal and hire some doctors. The Dominican Republic is for recruiting SSs, not MDs.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

It looks like we're on the same page.

Check this out:
http://dcsportsplus.blogspot.com/2008/07/youre-losing-us.html

If you want to join in, leave a comment with your name/link. I linked your post, because it's a similar sentiment.

Steven said...

OK I have an honest question. I agree with y'all that this seems like a problematic pattern. Bottom line, is it Bowden whose to blame? It can't really be that they are cheap skating on medical staff, is it?

Nate said...

Sorry, N-fan, I don't think you can hang this one on Trader Jim. From the outside looking in it's darn near impossible to know what the problem is with this team's training/medical staff. I was being a little tongue-in-cheek when I suggested it was a cheapness issue.

Injuries happen to everyone, we're just naturally more attuned to the injuries to our guys. Even if there is a problem with the medical folks, it might be just as much an issue for Kasten/Lerner as for Bowden.