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Thursday, July 3, 2008

Buried at the end of a Nationals Journal

was this:

Matt Chico, who began the season in Washington's starting rotation, will have reconstructive left elbow surgery performed Thursday by James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala. Chico's elbow injury was diagnosed after he had been demoted to Class AAA Columbus on May 23 with an 0-6 record and 6.19 ERA.



That's Tommy John surgery. Not as scary as it used to be, lots of people come back. But did the thing just snap? Was he pitching with a bad elbow for a long time? I ask these questions because injuries that later turn out to be a lot worse than originally reported are happening a lot - Cordero, Chico, Zimmerman (day to day to we haven't seen him in six weeks and maybe not again this season), I'm sure I'm missing someone.

Is it fair to ask what the hell is going on?

8 comments:

Steven said...

I haven't read anything to convince me that there's anything going on. Pitchers are among the most fragile of all sports commodities.

To me it just highlights how thin we are in terms of talent. In most franchises, this injury would be almost unnoticed. But for us, we have so few guys in the pipeline, anyone with any hope carries an unreasonable share of the fans' expectations.

The better question is, "why are we still so talent-challenged?"

To me it's simple: take the 04 Expos + 2 years of giving up draft picks and trading young for old + wait two years = the 2008 Washington Nationals, and fans so desperate for reasons to hope that we care about Matt Chico.

Don't blame the docs. Don't blame Manny. Lenny? Please--makes as much sense to blame the parking attendant.

JimBo did this to us. We're reaping what he sowed. Like Tony Soprano says, we need to channel our anger at the people who deserve it.

Anonymous said...

One question worth asking is why this isn't (as of this writing) on the Nats' official website, even though it was in this morning's Post.

Maybe they didn't want to worry anybody?

MikeHarris said...

I thought it odd that it was kind of just tossed in at the end like, "Oh, remember this guy?" He did have a significant stay with the big club. I thought it was a bigger deal but maybe that's just me.

Anonymous said...

Obviously I've got nothing against playing kids, but Bernadina doesn't seem capable of hitting the ball. Could it be because they've let Lenny coach him for a few days?

Anonymous said...

and I think I asked it a few weeks ago, but why is Jesus still pitching in the bigs?

Unknown said...

Bowden read about Jesus on Wikipedia and figured that he might need two Jesus(es?) to save the Nationals. Apparently more are necessary.

Anonymous said...

Mike, it is a big deal, at least to some Nats fans if not to the team itself.

For crying out loud, Chico was the #2 starter! And now he gets tossed aside as a footnote in a couple articles?

When Chico (the writer, not the pitcher) seems to care more than the Nats FO, it's time for serious head-scratching.

MikeHarris said...

My question was more geared toward why these injuries always seem to be worse - no biggie to catastrophe - rather than any questions about the coverage.

When does Millege return, by the way?