Zack Greinke has fractured rib; Latest-- May miss more than 3 starts, possibly all of April

[tyguy20204]

Didn't know where to put this.

Marcum said he has felt shoulder tightness in spring, but added that wasn't his problem against the Diamondbacks.

"A little tightness that developed early in spring," he said. "It's nothing alarming, nothing to worry about. Everybody gets a little tightness in spring training.

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/brewers/117868549.html

Not to be alarmist, as he says his arm felt good in yesterday's outing. But still.

[DannoMac21]

And it was John Smoltz who burned his chest while ironing a shirt that he was wearing.

Also, wasn't it Mike Mussina that broke his hand punching a wall after a bad inning?

[Invader3K]

Who was the pitcher who nearly severed a finger trimming hedges? I remember reading about that years ago.

[derflotr]

Remember Matt Wise cutting himself with a pair of salad tongs?

[nate82]

Didn't Hunter Pence run through a glass door?

[endaround]

Keep in mind there are stupid injuries and "stupid injuries". Jeff Kent almost certainly did not hurt himself washing his truck (did he finally fully admit to the motorcycle crash?). I don't believe the venison hauling story for example.

[mothershipconnection]

So in reality no pitcher should be allowed to do anything. I guess that is why they seem so lazy and hate to run any time they hit the ball. And they act all winded if they were to move a little faster going from mound to dugout.

 

That's the problem, we want them to come into camp in great shape, but if they do anything athletic in the offseason it's labeled a foolish risk. I'd rather take my chances with a fit, active player than Sidney Ponson.

[GormanHarvey]

I think there is a BIG difference between doing the non-baseball athletic stuff during the off season and doing it once ST has started.

[Menace II Sobriety]

Didn't Hunter Pence run through a glass door?

From what I read he took a running leap from his kitchen area into his jacuzzi at his condo. Unfortunately he didn't open the door first.

[cheesecup22]

http://sportsillustrated....reinke-injury/index.html

 

This article scares me a bit.. on the other side I dont see this being something that will linger all season, you would think that once the fracture heals it would be difficult to re-aggravate it.. I am sure the Brewers will be smart with him.

[AdvantageSchneider]

Maybe I missed it, but is anyone going to find out who broke his rib, or does ZG not know exactly when it happened while playing basketball?

[Dragonbait]

He slipped coming down with a rebound... landed on his side pretty hard.

[joepepsi]

And it was John Smoltz who burned his chest while ironing a shirt that he was wearing.

Also, wasn't it Mike Mussina that broke his hand punching a wall after a bad inning?

I think that was Kevin Brown. I can't imagine Mussina ever being the emotional or upset.

[soloist57]

Bob Ojeda. Was playing for the Mets. Doing his lawn.

[And That]

FWIW, Will Carroll says he's "relatively confident" that Greinke will only miss 2-3 starts. Tweetums.

[PrinceEatMeat]

I think everyone's relatively confident that Greinke will only miss 2-3 starts. That's been the feeling all along. Hopefully it's only 2, and not 3, though. There's a 10-day gap between those starts.

[HiAndTight]

http://sportsillustrated....reinke-injury/index.html

 

This article scares me a bit.. on the other side I dont see this being something that will linger all season, you would think that once the fracture heals it would be difficult to re-aggravate it.. I am sure the Brewers will be smart with him.

Not me. They tend to do this with a player who had an injury that lingered. It's a broken rib, this isn't some obscure injury that nobody's had before. That Ellsbury struggled to come back strong is of little consequence to me.

 

I agree that I don't see this being an injury that's going to linger all season. We're not talking about a muscle in which there is no clear cut way to identify when it's healed, ie, Sheets shoulder muscle that he hurt a couple times the last couple years in Milwaukee.

 

I think he'll be back strong after he misses his 3 starts and this will soon be forgotten.....unless we miss the playoffs by one game..........

[HiAndTight]

We are officially in the stage of spring training where baseball writers run out of useful stuff to write about - the regular season needs to start, so all the overreaction by national "experts" about minor injuries can stop. The only team that's sustained a critical blow to their chances in the NL Central this spring is the Cardinals by losing Wainwright for the whole season...Greinke missing a few starts early in the year to build his arm up after the silly rib injury is hardly a season-breaking disaster.

 

What these spring training injuries do show is that while the Brewers have a talented roster, it really does lack depth in key areas - a couple of significant injuries could occur during the regular season to derail their chances, but that has hardly happened yet. I think injuries are the only thing that could turn this season into a complete disappointment, this team is too talented to not contend in a winnable division. Hoping for all the walking wounded to get healthy and stay that way as much as possible during the whole season!

I completely agree. We've put ourselves in a situation this year where we've got a lot of high end, blue chip talent on this roster, but in order to acquire that talent, rather than trotting out the Randy Wolf, Doug Davis and Braden Looper types as, we've got top end starting pitchers. Obviously Wolf is still there, but he's there as our #4 now, not #2.

 

I think it was a fantastic strategy, in particular because I think Greinke's a guy who is as talented as any pitcher in the last 10 years, but as you say, we cannot afford to lose any of the top 7-8 players on this roster. Not only in terms of replacing that talent from within, but in terms of having the minor league talent to trade for in the event that someone went down.

 

All we can do is cross our fingers, hope things go well, and hope that we can take the departure of Prince next year and try to pick up 3-4 other players in an attempt to try and improve our depth a bit despite the big loss atop the roster.

[bullox]

[quote author=HiAndTight wrote:

[/b]

unless we miss the playoffs by one game..........

Everyone seems to assume that the starts he misses are a guaranteed loss that would have been a guaranteed win had he started them. Would it help if he was there? Of course, that's why the farm was decimated for him. It's not a binary type of situation however.

[HiAndTight]

bullox]

HiAndTight wrote:

unless we miss the playoffs by one game..........

Everyone seems to assume that the starts he misses are a guaranteed loss that would have been a guaranteed win had he started them. Would it help if he was there? Of course, that's why the farm was decimated for him. It's not a binary type of situation however.

Well obviously I said that in jest, and nobody's claiming it's a "binary" type situation.

 

I think it's reasonable to assume that over 3 starts, there is a high probability that throwing...whomever we throw over Zach Greinke could cost us a win.

[endaround]

Over 3 starts? Not really close to a win. Let's assume that Greinke has a great season and over 33 starts his WAR is 6.5. Now let's replace him for 3 starts with a below replacement level player say -1.0 WAR over 33 starts. That comes to about 2/3 of a win. And that is pretty much at the maximum.

[monty57]

end, I think HiandTight was talking practicality and not theoretically. Theoretically, you are correct, but if we lose all the games which Greinke would have started, then I think it's reasonable to believe that we would have won at least one of them had Greinke started. Of course it could just as easily go the other way, and we could win all three starts, but it is definitely reasonable to believe that we could lose an extra game because of the injury.

 

Also, wouldn't it be more than three games? Because we are skipping some starts and putting the "replacement" in the 5 spot, that pitcher will likely get three starts. However, if Greinke was in the 1 spot and wasn't skipped, wouldn't he get more than three starts?

[endaround]

No, they are giving those extra starts to Gallardo. Before it sounded like they wouldn't skip Narveson at all (though I thought it was foolish not to) so there isn't a move up. Again the pitching is only about 45% or so of winning a given game.

[And That]

Per McCalvy, Greinke is throwing again. Pain free session on Friday. Great news.

[PrinceEatMeat]

Yeah, that's great news. He's still pretty far from throwing in a game though. He'll have to move to long toss, then probably a few bullpen sessions. Might still be awhile, but at least he threw with no pain. Big step. I'm still thinking he'll make that start on April 26 at the earliest.