Athletics righty Jarrod Parker will visit Dr. James Andrews next Monday to determine the severity of his latest elbow injury, writes John Hickey of the Bay Area News Group. Parker fractured the medial epicondyle in his right elbow over the weekend in what was supposed to be one of his final rehab appearances before being activated off the disabled list. The medial epicondyle is one of the two bones to which a replacement ligament is grafted in Tommy John surgery, and the A’s do not yet know if Parker’s new UCL remains intact. We at MLBTR wish Parker the best in the wake of what must be a heart-sinking setback.
Here’s more from the AL West…
- Marc Krauss, whose contract was selected by the Angels earlier tonight, has the opportunity to stick with the club for awhile, writes MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez. The Halos are in dire need of some left-handed pop to help balance out a lineup that has struggled at times against right-handed pitching. “We need offense,” manager Mike Scioscia said to Gonzalez. “The balance of left-handed and right-handed isn’t quite there with us, and it’s showing up statistically.” Krauss is something of a journeyman, but he was hitting quite well at Triple-A this season, having slashed .281/.405/.458.
- Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor wasn’t entirely surprised by his demotion to Triple-A, he tells Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. “I was swinging at a lot of bad pitches. I know that,” Odor said to Grant. “I was not like me. I didn’t feel like me. I wasn’t hitting good.” GM Jon Daniels said he expects Odor to return to the big league club shortly once he corrects some of the issues he developed en route to a cringe-worthy .144/.252/.233 batting line.
- The Rangers will have a crowded situation at first base upon activating Mitch Moreland from the disabled list this week, and it might cost outfielder Jake Smolinski his roster spot, according to Grant’s colleague, Gerry Fraley. Smolinski, 26, has just five at-bats over the team’s past eight games and did not get the start tonight, either. Moreland will join Prince Fielder, Adam Rosales and Kyle Blanks as first base options, and Blanks has begun working out in the outfield, Fraley notes. Smolinski has options remaining, so the team wouldn’t need to expose him to waivers in order to send him to the minors.
Has anyone ever had 3 Tommy John surgeries and still pitched afterward ? You figure that there has to be a limit to this to some extent. Parker will sadly be forced to retire most likely
Jonny Venters is attempting to come back from #3
I don’t know much about the procedures involved in this kind of stuff, but I *heard* the initial reports are he “just” fractured something in the same elbow and possibly didn’t tear his UCL again. Either way, I saw the video and that injury was awful to watch for the guy.
In cases like parker you start to wonder if some people just weren’t born to throw a baseball. You see guys like randy Johnson and Roger clemens for example who never had arm trouble at all during their careers and they both pitched for around 20 years. Meanwhile parker isn’t even 30 yet I believe and he’s possibly getting his third Tommy John already
Jason Isringhausen did. He’s the only one I know of.
This is nitpicky, but epicondyle isn’t an individual bone, it is a part of the humerus. It means knuckle, basically. It is the part of the humerus that looks like a knuckle and sticks out the bottom. If you curl up your index and middle finger and split them into a y shape, that’s pretty much what the epicondyle looks like. The bone has kinda a bump, then an indent, then a bump. It looks like two knuckles. You can think of one of those knuckles being like the pinky, on the pinky side of your arm (when your arm and wrist are palm up), that’s what he broke, the medial epicondyle. Then there is another bump on the opposite side, which I guess you could imagine as a thumb? Anyways, that’s the lateral epicondyle. In between goes the olecranon (literally means elbow head) of the ulna.
The ulnar collateral ligament (also known as a medial collateral ligament) connects the medial epicondyle (which is on the pinky side of the humerus) to, I believe, the medial coronoid process (on the pinky side of your ulna). To surgically repair this, they drill two holes through the medial epicondyle, and put a loop of tendon through it to create an anchor, then loop it through two holes drilled in the medial coronoid process . In the end, I believe the tendon ends up going around those loops to create a circle. Or maybe they weave it, I’m not sure. Either way, it is obviously really important that those holes they drill heal properly to create a strong anchor. If the holes open, create a crack, and the bone breaks, that’s bad news bears.
And that’s everything I know about TJ surgery.
Thanks ^
“Matt Krauss, whose contract was selected by the Angels…”
Can we stop with this “selected” nonsense?
No. How would we know that it wasn’t just a coin flip whether a player is called up.
Can’t have a thread about the Angels needing left-handed pop and the Rangers having an OF/1B crunch without mentioning the name “Josh Hamilton” at least once. There.
they might trade for adam lind
How about the third baseman the angels picked up from the braves in the offseason? He’s lefty and putting up good numbers in AAA has to be better than Freese!
I wish the best for Jarrod.
Sad, he had such a promising future, godspeed to Jarrod Parker. Hope he recovers and can still carve out a relief role in the big leagues one day.
“Odor wasn’t entirely surprised…” So he was partly surprised to be sent down after slashing sterling lines both this year and last?