6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: UTK Quick Hits

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Monday, April 10, 2006

UTK Quick Hits

From today's UTK:

The more I hear about Eric Gagne, the more confused I become. The Dodgers’ spin on the surgery is perhaps predictably the most positive one: that the peripheral sensory nerve that was cut in the half-hour operation will necessitate a four- to six-week recovery before he returns as a still-dominant closer. Allowing that the nerve loss won’t affect his pitching motion--and I’ll agree that it wouldn’t seem to--I’m still not getting all the facts to add up here. Gagne had a neuroma (a benign tumor) on the nerve, and it was removed during the half-hour surgery. How did this just now start hurting? My best source says that Gagne only experienced the pain once he started throwing at 100%, something that only happened about two weeks ago. If we call this surgery a minor complication of last June’s elbow surgery, Gagne’s essentially at the same point as many people coming back from Tommy John surgery, without the nominal certainty those survivors have. He’ll need all of those four to six weeks to return, if only to build up arm strength; certainly not to recover from the surgery, which was minimally invasive. Was his reduced velocity in spring training the result of the pain from the neuroma? That’s less clear, much like Gagne’s future.
Kelvim Escobar threw the ball well in his first start, but will likely miss his next start due to a broken fingernail. He was effective against the Yankees even with the split nail, but this early in the season, the Angels can afford to skip him due to off days. It’s not a long-term concern.
The Angels and their fans should definitely be more concerned about Francisco Rodriguez than Escobar. Escobar might be asked to shift out of the rotation if K-Rod were injured, either closing or slotting in where Scot Shields is pitching now. Rodriguez’s motion is degrading even further, and with the control problems he’s showing in the first week, red lights, red flags, and rocket’s red glare are all going off regarding the health and stability of his pitching elbow. Rodriguez is a similar case to that of Felix Hernandez in that they have great results and terrible mechanics. A team is smart to ride them hard and get what they can while building a backup plan behind them, as the Angels have done. The klaxon for a Jered Weaver callup becomes even louder.

// posted by Rob @ 12:53 PM link // 2 comments