Comments on: Ailing Back Hurts Haren’s Velocity, Effectiveness

By: 39Bailey

39Bailey — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 17:53:22 +0000

By your standards, Mickey Mantle should have retired after Game Two of the 1951 World Series, when he tore his ACL and MCL in his right knee. He had to play while tolerating a lot of pain from that day forward.

Every athlete plays his sport with some level of pain or discomfort. And when a player who is enduring pain is forced to sit out a few games or go on the 15-day DL, the fans, sportswriters, and even his teammates and management may accuse him of being a pussy. The athlete can’t win.

By: MikeM

MikeM — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 17:20:14 +0000

I understand where you’re coming from, but wouldn’t the results of playing with significant injury (reduced effectiveness, poor stats) make it more likely to lose one’s job and less likely to be rewarded with a big contract?

By: steex

steex — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:58:01 +0000

I think the blame often falls both ways on this, it just depends on the situation. Sometimes the players try to cover up their injury, but other times players are misdiagnosed or a known minor injury is improperly handled to the point that the condition never improves or it becomes a major injury.

Often times, a team knows a player is injured, but is in favor of letting him try to play through it because the thought is an injured superstar is still better than what replaces him. Sometimes it’s true, and sometimes you get this situation – Haren is probably no better than his replacement would’ve been for three months, and now is STILL injured and will miss time. In these cases, it could be argued that the better route would’ve been to suffer through the replacement earlier to get good Haren back sooner. But we never really know who knew what and when, so it’s hard to ever pin down blame.

By: jfree

jfree — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:19:13 +0000

Because players constantly lie about their health (fear of losing their job, big contract, arrogance of any competitor, ignorance of themselves, high pain threshold, etc). Unless the team has random mandatory spot-physicals, the team can’t spot the problem.

By: MikeM

MikeM — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 12:34:18 +0000

Why do players/teams keep doing this? Player hurts self, continues to “play through it”, player sucks balls, team finally announces injury and decides to deal with it months later.

By: Ryan Bones

Ryan Bones — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 22:05:49 +0000

I recommend you join a deeper league.

By: Polka

Polka — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 21:30:02 +0000

I was thinking about offering Corey Hart of Fowler for Haren while is stock is down?
I already have CarGo, Choo, Adam Jones and Holliday in my 4 OF spots, with Berkman and Ellsbury on the mend, and recommendations?
Thanks,
Polka