M.A.S.H. Report

Sprain vs. Strain

Baseball players are always going down with a sprain or a strain. The difference between the two is pointed out by Dr.  Benjamin C. Wedro:

“A sprain is an injury to ligaments, while a strain is an injury to muscle or tendon tissue. “

I don’t have an easy way to easily remember which is which, so a little brute memorization is needed.

Minor League Injury Report

Baseball America looks at the injury status of several minor leaguers. The most notable update is the one that shows Desmond Jennings returning to the Rays AAA team sometime in May. When I did an average of 13 different prospect rankings a while back, Jennings came in 9th overall.

Discussion of the A’s and the DL

Athletics Nation looks into why the team is investing in often injured players. Are these injured players a market ineffiency Billy Beane has discovered or just a chance he has to take being a small market team? Looking at some of my past work at Beyond the Boxscore, Oakland actually stands up pretty well to the rest of the league being in the top 10 in least trips and days on the DL from 2002 to 2009.

Jose Guillen and Blood Clots

Jose Guillen spent 20 days in a hospital over the winter getting blood clots removed from legs. This hospitalization happened during the same time Dayton Moore went out and signed Brian Anderson, Scott Podsednik and Rick Ankiel to major league deals. It seemed like the Royals weren’t planning on having him back for the season, but they are happy he has returned. Tomorrow, Jose is going for a tie of the Royals record of home runs hit in consectcutive games with five.

MLB Teams Drafting Injured Players

In his blog, Andy Seiler, looks at how teams, like the Yankees, are begining to take more chances on injured players in the draft. The amount of data available is minimal right now to see if this strategy works, but as more become available the exact risk/reward will be more known.

Labrum Surgeries

If any pitcher is recommended labrum surgery, I can see why they put it off until they are sure it is the only option. It is pretty close to a career ending injury.