No baseball fan should want to see injuries, even if — yes — they happen to the New York Yankees. If you want to see the Yankees lose, you want their star players to underperform, such as Mariano Rivera, Johnny Damon, Bobby Abreu, and Alex Rodriguez, (whose silly home runs aren't helping. He should try something else, the selfish bastard).
Likewise, you'd rather not see Mike Mussina, Chien-Ming Wang, Jeff Karstens, and Carl Pavano — well, okay, you sort of have to see Pavano hurt, because no season is complete without that — shelved because they're hurt, you want to see them benched because they suck.
The latest injury to the Yankees' pitching staff is young Phil Hughes. At just 20 years old (he was born after the Challenger explosion, people), Yankees fans have high hopes for him, the franchise's top pitching prospect. He was pitching a fantastic game against the Rangers last night. So great, in fact, that we in the sports watchin' circle call it a "no-hitter through six innings."
All of a sudden, in the seventh inning, Hughes' hamstring felt funny. As it felt pulled, so was he from the game. Early reports are saying Hughes will miss four to six weeks. (As a parting gift, the Yankees won 10-1, and Hughes was credited with his first major league win.)
So now everyone has to wonder if general manager Brian Cashman brought Hughes into the spotlight too soon. The only reason Hughes was called up to the majors was because of the aforementioned injuries to Mussina, Wang, Karstens, and Pavano. His pitch arsenal was certainly capable enough, but was his mind and body ready for an entire major league season? Could adrenaline have tweaked something in his hammy?
Granted, last year the Detroit Tigers were able to depend on kid pitchers — Jeremy Bonderman, Justin Verlander, and Joel Zumaya — and win the entire American League. And Cashman saw that success first-hand, because the Yankees were the victims of said youthful exuberance.
But for every Verlander, there are multiple cases of a Francisco Liriano. A Mark Prior. A — hopefully not — Felix Hernandez. Fantastic, naive pitchers who don't realize they have the potential to get hurt.
I have to admit Sal Marinello's onto something. But you also have to admit, you'd hate to see Phil Hughes become the next Mark Prior. You'd rather see Phil Hughes healthy, and just pitch badly.
Article comments
1 - syracuseyankee
He blew out a hammy because he got too far out in front of the curveball.
Even if poor conditioning was the cause, there's really no argument to be made about him being brought up to soon. Mark Prior has problems with his arm. This is nothing at all like that.
2 - Tuffy
With a hamstring injury, the recurrence will be the measure of the training staff. Jose Reyes strugged for years with hamstring issues and finally conquered them by finding the correct training and maintenance regimen. Junior Griffey, never one to enjoy the benefits of the training staff until after an injury, turned a series of hamstring injuries into a career cascade.
Also, Will Leitch is a fulsome young man with a bright future and bangs to die for.
3 - sal m
i wouldn't blame adrenaline for the injury, but given the beat of the daily injury drum conditioning tactics of major league baseball players have to be at least looked at as being responisible in some way for these injuries.
despite all the advances in the field of conditioning it seems as if this knowledge hasn't gotten to the best baseball players in the world. MLB players seem to be the most fragile group of pro athletes in the world.
4 - Tan The Man
Liriano had a history of arm troubles before he was called up. The said reasoning why the Giants traded him to the Twins in the first place (usually called one of the worst trades in history).
And sometimes injuries are just the result of REALLY bad luck. Some people don't realize that luck is one of those intangibles in sports.
5 - Tuffy
Sal, other sports are more abusive, but few require 175-190 days at the office. I've always wondered how much that has to do with baseball injuries. (Also, there's few things more insane than throwing a baseball 130 times in a night.)
However, I just want to throttle each player as they go through their stretching progressions in a half-assed fashion. Injured? Really? Maybe you could have shown a little range on the outfield grass an hour before the game.