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Tuesday, June 2, 2009

A move IS made - St. Claire gone

See Nationals Journal (cool links to the right).

I'll leave my poll up, most were in favor of this among the 30 votes thus far.

Manny stays, St. Claire goes. Interesting world. I'm eager to hear some of the explanations. As usual, Chris Needham has a good take on why Manny may still be around. And you can still blame Chris for me writing my nonsense. He stopped his old blog and I started mine.

I don't have much of an opinion on St. Claire. I always bought into the hype that he was pretty good, never really questioning that theory like it should have been questioned. But I asked not long ago (as many did and have since): WAS he really any good? What pitcher can he brag about having developed? He's had Bergmann every season the Nats have been in D.C. Is Bergmann any better now than he was then?

And I still want news on Flores.

Well, maybe I should have just shut up on Flores. Here is a cut-and-paste of the latest Nationals Journal and it has flat-out ruined my day. How did someone miss a stress fracture? And, if the ball that hit him caused the injury, is that not something other than a stress fracture? A stress fracture, I think, is an overuse injury. So does this have nothing to do with that ball nailing his shoulder? Whatever - we won't see him again this year.

Flores Out At Least Three Months, Maybe For Season
Just got the word on catcher Jesus Flores's status. It'll be a long time before the Nats' first-string catcher -- and a big part of the future -- is back on the field.

Flores has a stress fracture in his right shoulder. The team is saying he will be out three months, maybe the rest of the season.

Flores has been on the disabled list since May 15 with a right shoulder contusion. As recently as last week ago, the Nationals were anticipating Flores to be ready within days. But while rehabbing with Class AA Harrisburg, Flores aggravated his injury, and was sent to Birmingham, Ala., for a consultation with Dr. James Andrews.

2 comments:

An Briosca Mor said...

"And, if the ball that hit him caused the injury, is that not something other than a stress fracture? A stress fracture, I think, is an overuse injury. So does this have nothing to do with that ball nailing his shoulder?"

I would imagine that a stress fracture in a shoulder bone would be a hard thing to pick up on without some sophisticated X-ray/MRI tools and some serious doctor smarts. Not nearly as cut and dried as looking at a leg bone X-ray. Also, I bet a lot of catchers have budding stress fractures in their throwing shoulders and don't even know it. The ball might have hit Flores's shoulder in just the right spot to exacerbate an existing minor stress fracture, or the fact that he got hit with the ball and suffered the pain/bruising from it might have focused the doctors on that area of his body and resulted in them finding a stress fracture that otherwise would have been overlooked. Back in the day a catcher might have just toughed something like this out, and ended up cutting years off the back end of his career because he basivcally didn't know any better. Modern medicine can be both a blessing and a curse sometimes.

MikeHarris said...

That's as reasonable an explanation as any - the shot finished the job. You posted your reply as I was typing today's post.

Still a little baffled that Dr. Andrews seems to be the only one who can pick up these types of things.