Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 07, 2006
Injury Roundup

The Arizona Republic rounds up the latest on the injury front. Mark Mulder gets rotator cuff surgery, Everyday Eddie Guardaro will miss a season after ligament replacement surgery. HIdeki Matsui is rehabbing and will be the DH for the Yankees once he's back. Francisco Liriano should be back next week against the Indians.

Not injury related, Dmitri Young was cut loose by the Tigers. Dombrowski said it was performance related, but he's hit well since his return from the DL. He hasn't hit well the last 10 games he's played, but it's just 44 at bat, much too small a sample size to draw any conclusions. It seems the Tigers were looking for an excuse to cut him loose.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:42 AM | Injuries | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Longtime Tiger beat writer Danny Knobler cites "club sources" as saying that Young was a distraction in the clubhouse, that the players were complaining about him, and that he was having trouble dealing with all the issues he's had to face this year.

That's certainly a more reasonable explanation than the official "purely performance" line. Might even be a partial explanation for the team's August swoon; DY was reactivated on July 21.

Certainly, during this period of expandable rosters, if the Tigers thought he'd be any help at all, he'd still be around. Even if he was only used as a decoy who could force opponents to burn their lefty relief specialists. (Young pinch-hits; lefty reliever called in; somebody else pinch-hits for Young.) But if he's disruptive in the clubhouse, his release is fully warranted.

Posted by: johnw at September 7, 2006 10:24 AM

i got a REAL hard time believing "disruptive in the clubhouse" from a guy who has been great in the clubhouse for his entire career.

i would think the "club source" is the team's PR guy

Posted by: lisa gray at September 7, 2006 04:32 PM

I would guess it's true, Lisa. Otherwise what's the reason for letting him go? If you've ever been around abusers (alcohol, drugs, women) you know that they can be insufferable to be around. Young may have been "great in the clubhouse" his previous years, but this is an entirely different team, one on which he is no longer the star player (or even a regular). That's gotta figure into the equation somehow, right? And batting 292 is, in no way, proof that Young is a quality player. He can't defend or run, and he has just average power.

Posted by: david at September 7, 2006 05:40 PM
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