Daily Notes: Five Notable Injury Situations

Ack.

With the beginning of Spring Training comes actual reports of actual baseball players. Today’s edition of Daily Notes looks at five injury situations from the earliest days of spring camps.

Tampa Bay’s Moore Has Slight Abdominal Situation
Rays left-hander Matt Moore missed his scheduled batting practice session on Monday due to a mild lower abdominal strain, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Apparently — again, per Topkin — the strain become evident on Friday, while Moore was throwing a bullpen. Moore, as FanGraphs readers likely already know, has been among the top three players on basically every top-whatever prospect list and also signed a decidedly team-friendly contract this offseason. Moore struck out 15 of the 40 (37.5%) major-league batters he faced following a late-season promotion last year.

Howard Does Not, Not, Not Suffer Setback
Matt Gelb and Bob Brookover of the Philadelphia Inquirer, updating a situation that was described a day earlier by Phillies manager Charlie Manuel as a “setback” in Ryan Howard’s recovery from Achilles surgery, report that Howard has a condition known as seroma — a pocket of clear fluid that sometimes develops in an area after surgery. Phillies head trainer Scott Sheridan suggests that seroma is a common occurrence — especially after Achilles tendon surgery — and doesn’t necessarily impact Howard’s projected return date. In conclusion: this doesn’t not not change Howard’s situation.

Hanson Recovering Well from Concussion
The results from Atlanta right-hander Tommy Hanson’s second ImPact concussion test are promising, reports David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Hanson suffered a concussion as the result of a minor-ish February 19th auto accident, but is reporting no headaches or other concussion-type symptoms and could return to camp as soon as today.

Closer Wilson: “I’ll Be Ready for Opening Day”
Giants closer Brian Wilson told the San Francisco Chronicle’s Henry Schulman after a bullpen session on Monday that he (Wilson) would be ready for Opening Day. While dealing with both hip and elbow pain in 2011, Wilson’s stikeout dropped (29.9% to 22.2%) and walk rate climbed (8.4% to 12.8%) from his 2010 season, pushing his xFIP- above 100 for the first time since 2006.

Royals Paulino Dealing with Minor Hamstring Strain
Right-hander Felipe Paulino was held out of throwing batting practice on Monday due to a slight strain in his left hamstring, reports MLB.com’s Dick Kaegel. Per manager Ned Yost, however, the move was only precautionary. “If we were in the season or late in Spring Training, this wouldn’t have slowed him up,” said Yost. Paulino posted a 93 xFIP- last season, although features a considerable ERA/xFIP difference (5.28/4.04) in his 347.2 career innings — the product of a career .340 BABIP and 66.1% left-on-base percentage.

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