Damon's shoulder problem is actually tendinitis. Hard to say how big a deal this is, but it's certainly worse than I thought. I love this line from the AP article: "His ailment is exactly the kind of issue New York owner George Steinbrenner was referring to when he spoke out against the Classic." Yes, that's right, his 8 plate appearances in the WBC gave him tendinitis.
Update: It's begun. According to New York Daily News, "Cashman said definitively that the injury happened while Damon was with Team USA."
Update 2: From the NYT: "Told of Damon's setback in Puerto Rico, the Yankees' Bernie Williams said, 'I better get my arm ready.'"
This is total BS.
ReplyDeleteGiambi was popping off yesterday about how he spoke to Damon and he felt the injury was due to Damon rushing to get ready for the games and they were doing a lot of throwing.
The real question is if Damon really does have tendinitis in his throwing shoulder, one anyone really notice?
Seriously, the Yanks have a bit of recent history in buying players either with a history or coming off injury (Damon was hurt most of last year, Pavano, Wright, Brown, Gordon - which kind of worked for them).
Meanwhile, Derek Lee apprarently hurt his shoulder diving for that ball in the JPY game and is going to be examined by Dr. Yocum. That to me sounds like much more of an issue. But since its not a Yankee and Stenibrenner is a dick, well, this is a headline.
The real question is if Damon really does have tendinitis in his throwing shoulder, one anyone really notice?
ReplyDeleteNice. Or maybe, he's had tendinitis this whole time, and only now has it been diagnosed.
Well, it looks like Jeter will have to run to deep center to be the cutoff guy. Lots of room in those gaps in NY...
ReplyDeleteWhat I am saying is that more people will run on the Yankees than last year. If Jeter has to go way out for the cutoff then the next guy in line is Giambi...or let it go through. This is a wet dream for Sveum...
And yeah, the Lee thing is a much bigger deal. It's also a preexisting thing, though: he missed a couple days last season from it.
ReplyDeleteThe main thing I'm rooting for this tournament is that no one gets seriously hurt. And yes, this includes the Yankees.
Actually, I think Matsui can be the cutoff man from deep center. It seemed to work well with Manny last year.
ReplyDeleteOne distinction with Lee is also that you can point to one specific play when it occurred (whether of not it was preexisting). With Damon we have no such thing. For all we know, it was there (actually we do know he was hurt) and of course he does not want to say anything about it while negotiating for atonoffuckingmney. And now he can say "oh I hurt it at the WBC." He knows that Steinbrenner will eat it up and not thinnk "hey I might have been screwed out of $50 MM by that hairy apeman" to "I told everyone that this WBC sucks oh and by the way, don't think I won't remind everyone of that later this year when we are having CBA/revenue sharing discussions."
Too bad Sveum is in Milwaukee this year.
And I still believe that before this year is up, we will hear more complaints from gys that they did not get enough work in due to the WBC than we will hear about injuries. Unless of course Damon plays like .270/.337/.346 and all of NY will blame the *decline* on the WBC (and ignore the fact that is what he hit in AUG-OCT last year).
Yeah, you're right about Lee. Hopefully his injury's the worst of it.
ReplyDeleteWhat're the odds we get a George King article on the WBC hurting Damon tomorrow?
I still haven't figured out what the Japan-Korea game means for the US. My guess is: if Japan beats Korea by a lot, the two advance the semis, regardless of the US-Mexico outcome?
King is on vacation, but yeah when he gets back to writing he is definitely going to unleash on the WBC. Steinbrenner has probably offered to bring him back to Tampa on his private plane just so his own personal TASS can get back to work.
ReplyDeleteIts amazing that during football season there are something like fourteen gazillion articles that break down every possible playoff scenario:
Pitts win or Indy loss or a Pits loss coupled with a SD win AND a TENN win by more than two TDs, gives Pittsburgh home field advantage...
And we can't even figure this one out - or actually we do have to figure it out since there are no articles.
As near as I can tell, if Japan beats Korea the US is out if Korea scores 5 runs or less. Assume the US wins and then all teams would be 2-1. Going into the final games, the US has given up 10 runs, while JPY and KOR are at 4 and 3, respectively. If we all finish tied, head to head we are even at 1-1 so it comes down to runs given up. So assume that game is 6-5 JPY, then we are all at 10 runs, but the US still loses the tie breaker - because JPY gave up that unearned run in the 9th to USA.
If KOR wins, they are in at 3-0 and then we advance (with a win) since we beat JPY.
What would be crazy is if JPY wins 7-6, then both of them would be at 11 runs given up with some serious pressure on the US (read: Roger) to have to win by shutout. This goes back to my theory that I find it hard to root for the US.
And of course this is all qualified by nothing weird happening b/c all calculations are based on per inning. so there is the possibility of something freakish in that if JPY beats KOR by the 10 run rule. Like say 15-5 in 6 innings, then the US could sneak in b/c their average runs per inning would go up.
Got that.
Well done. I like that you not only figured it out, you figured out the freaky, what-if scenario that the IBAF probably never even considered.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually cheering for the 8-7 JPY win tonight. That would put some real freakin pressure on the boys tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you think about it a bit more, if JPY is crusing to toward that 15-5 victory, you could have a scenario where it would be in their best interests to let up and not win by the mercy rule. Of course KOR is their mortal enemy and they may not have the balls to do it, but wouldn't they rather have the US eliminated than KOR? I know that on any given day....
Oh, snap. Cuba just put up a 3 spot.
ReplyDeleteGo Cuba.
Commie.
ReplyDeleteNow wait a minute. ou can call me a traitor. I have already established that. But lets not punish the whole nation of Cuba because they are at the mercy of a commie dictator.
ReplyDeleteAlso one clarification on an earlier comment. The 8-7 game actually would put the US in. The run differential is only between the tied teams (which I had right in the earlier numbers of 4 and 3 for JPY and KOR. So there is not a scenrio where the US HAS to win by SHIO. Too bad.