Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
May 08, 2006
Damaged Goods

Victor Zambrano's elbow was a disaster waiting to happen:

Zambrano said persistent elbow trouble prevented him from matching fans' expectations. "I can win 15-20 games," he said. "I never was feeling good to prove what I can do. ... Maybe they can understand a little bit more and have a better relationship."

Mets staff insisted Zambrano never acknowledged the full extent of the elbow troubles, with Minaya calling the result of the lack of disclosure "a lesson to others." Still, the GM noted that players pitch through nagging injuries and suggested Zambrano may have merely underestimated the severity, saying there's a "fine line" between soreness and pain. Zambrano said he felt he could pitch through discomfort.

Given Zambrano's record, I'd say he couldn't pitch through discomfort. Also, it's one thing to want to keep pitching when the season is underway, but did he ever go to a doctor during the off season? It's possible that his elbow could have been fixed without him missing any time.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:01 AM | Injuries | TrackBack (0)
Comments

well you see, Real Men don't go to no doctors.

men today just babies. dontchu never read none of the articles all talkin bout how Real Men used to play and they pitched over 300 innings and didn't have no pitch counts and you didn't see then seein no doctors. why they would pitch both games of doubleheaders and then come in to relieve the next day. and throw hundreds of pitches every start and not even notice. i think these was the guys who walked 10 miles thru the snow to school every day.

Posted by: lisa gray at May 8, 2006 09:24 AM

The trade for Zambrano has never been popular. It still remains probaly the most controversial ever,(except for Jim Frogosi for Nolan Ryan). So, I think the management is still trying to defend it no matter what.

Posted by: Mark Cappuccio at May 8, 2006 09:28 AM

Couldn't teams just require all their pitchers to have MRI's before and after each season or something to that effect? Sounds like a perfectly reasonable request for such huge investments.

Posted by: Anthony at May 8, 2006 01:06 PM

Zambrano needs to play in a city where he won't forever be in Scott Kazmir's shadow.

Posted by: Crank at May 8, 2006 01:16 PM

Anthony,

The Phillies do that. A friend of mine is a radiologist there and goes down to spring training every year to scan the arms of the pitchers to see if anything changed.

Posted by: David Pinto at May 8, 2006 01:22 PM
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