Bad news on Albers
A magnetic resonance imaging test taken on Matt Albers' right shoulder has revealed a tear in his labrum.
Albers must now decide whether to rehab the injury, which could cost him two months of the season, or undergo surgery and deal with a recovery-rehab period of eight to nine months.
I'm no doctor, though I often played one as a kid, but you can't make the tear go away by exercising and eating your vegetables. He'll need the surgery.
First Troy Patton, now Matt Albers. I'm so mad at Ed Wade, I could strangle him!
OK, I'm kidding.
A storm is rolling in and fans are being told to seek shelter. Meanwhile, I'm sitting in an open-air press box and papers are flying everywhere.
The good news is we're above the clouds.
Comments
Torn labrum. Must be a disease among those former Astros. Anyone checked out Papa Sarfate lately?
Posted by: ron | June 27, 2008 6:47 PM
Let's hope both Albers and Payton recover. What's with all the arm injuries? Did we do our homework on these pitchers-Albers only threw 40 innings and Payton was apparently damaged goods from day one.
I guess you have to factor in that pitchers in general seem to have more injuries these days as looking around MLB, the DL is full of injured pitchers.
The only good part of the injuries from an O's standpoint is that it gives us a chance to see other arms out there but how many more injuries are lurking? It's not even the half-way point of the season and half our projected staff is off( Ray, Baez, Payton, Loewen, Albers).
Maybe we need to hire some kiniesologists/physiotherapists etc to work with our pitchers on proper mechanics/conditioning.
Posted by: TerryP | June 27, 2008 6:51 PM
He needs to go under the knife - there is no way around it. Unfortunately, this tends to be a career killer: http://www.slate.com/id/2100895/ . I would be very happy if either Patton or Albers comes back 100%, but I am not holding out much hope. I had this surgery three months ago. It's a relatively simple arthroscopic procedure, but the rehab is fairly intense.
Posted by: O's fan in DC | June 27, 2008 7:02 PM
Trying to rehab it only avoids the inevitable with most pitchers, it seems. I beleieve Nolan Ryan had a torn labrum and rehabbed it. Of course, he was a freak of nature so surgery ASAP seems the proper course of action. Tis a shame since he was developing nicely.
Posted by: Daydreamer | June 27, 2008 7:03 PM
I didn't know boys had a labrum. Ouch, must be painful.
Posted by: Jason | June 27, 2008 7:15 PM
Ouch. He needs to do the surgery to get back to full health. That is bad news.
Hopefully, we will have somebody else step up and replace him. Get better, Matt!
Posted by: Ben W | June 27, 2008 7:19 PM
Sorry, Roch, but I'm not sure I see the humor -- at all -- in the Ed Wade joke.
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Did the guy suffer a serious injury in the scuffle? Come on, D, lighten up.
I did see a typo that I corrected. Thanks to the reader who pointed it out. - Roch
Posted by: Dimitrios | June 27, 2008 7:47 PM
Not that this will cheer anyone up, but you can't keep a so-so, injury-plagued lefty down: John Parrish is back in the bigs with the Jays. I don't think anyone cares, but it's unlikely that Sebastien Bouchier, the slap-hitting OF that the M's sent to the O's for him, will ever be considered big-league talent, not even as the 5th or 6th OF or a recurrent AAAA callup on an organization's depth chart.
Posted by: bill l | June 27, 2008 7:51 PM
A SLAP tear -- the one thing I said the other day that i hoped it wasn't.
That's stinks for Albers.
Posted by: O's Fan in Nebraska | June 27, 2008 8:21 PM
...wonder how long he's had this tear. He's pitched really well - if he's had it awhile, imagine how good he might be otherwise?
Posted by: Boomer | June 27, 2008 8:52 PM
This means it's pretty much over. Too bad. If he comes back without pain that is in itself a major comeback.
Posted by: Eddie in NYC | June 27, 2008 10:45 PM