A look at some notable injury situations around the league…
- Ominous news for Astros fans tonight, as both Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman exited the game with injuries, per a pair of club announcements. Altuve was lifted from the game due to discomfort in his right oblique, while Bregman exited early due to right hamstring discomfort. Julia Morales of ROOT Sports tweets that both players will be re-evaluated on Friday — the Astros have an off-day tomorrow — but manager A.J. Hinch isn’t optimistic that either will be able to play in the series opener in Seattle on Friday. Houston topped the Rangers in an 8-4 win tonight, but the loss of either Altuve or Bregman would be devastating, particularly with a critical series against the Mariners on tap. Seattle is currently ahead of Houston in the Wild Card standings, though the Mariners themselves are currently two games back in the race.
- Orioles infielder/outfielder Steve Pearce has been shut down indefinitely after receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection in his ailing right elbow, reports MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko. Manager Buck Showalter revealed little about the injury to reporters, though Kubatko writes that the Baltimore skipper stated that Pearce could still return “in some capacity” later this month. The Orioles currently hold one of the two AL Wild Card spots, though having a bat of Pearce’s caliber in the mix would increase their chances of retaining that lead and of advancing in the postseason. Beyond that, Pearce is a free agent following the season, and September elbow troubles don’t figure to do him any favors in terms of earning power. The 33-year-old’s production has tailed off since being traded back to the O’s, but he still owns a terrific .288/.374/.492 slash on the season.
- ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin reports that Mets rookie right-hander Robert Gsellman has been playing through some degree of a labrum tear in his left (non-throwing) shoulder. Gsellman’s injury prevents him from being able to swing a bat, which obviously poses a problem for a National League pitcher — specifically one that has made three starts for the team late in the season. Per Rubin, doctors will wait until the offseason before determining if Gsellman needs surgery to correct the issue or if an offseason of rehab will allow the shoulder to heal. The 23-year-old Gsellman has a 3.92 ERA in 20 2/3 innings for the Mets since debuting earlier this summer.
Gsellman has really been a pleasant suprise for the Mets, ever since he was drafted in the 13th round of the 2011 draft.
Slowly but surely he has climbed his way up the ladder through the Mets system. Although it took him just about a year at each stop through complex ball up to the majors, he has consistently progressed and truly has developed nicely.
Along with Seth Lugo, Logan Verrett, and Brandon Nimmo the Mets are getting some decent production from that 2011 draft this season.
The point really is the Mets, when healthy, have found a way to truly possess an excellent stable of quality, fairly young hurlers…
Again, health is definitely a big issue here, but even when someone goes down it just seems like the Mets just keep pulling arms out of nowhere…Being a Braves fan, I’m quite envious and definitely jealous lol…
I mean you have Harvey, DeGrom, Matz, Syndergaard, Wheeler, Gsellman, Bartolo Colon, and even some young promising talents like Montero, Dunn, and Szapucki…
I mean, if they keep Colon next season, not too many teams can boast that they have 8 starting pitchers as talented as the Mets top 8 starters…
Heck, you just look at Harvey, DeGrom, and Syndergaard and those 3 alone, individually could each be at the top of several rotations in baseball, by themselves…Add in Matz, Wheeler, Colon, and Gsellman and good lord that is just an embarassment of riches!!
I know they probably will not be able to keep all of Harvey, DeGrom, Syndergaard, Wheeler, and Matz, due to their future raises, but even if they get rid of one there is Gsellman ready to step in, who is just putting up about a ~3.00 ERA by the way lol…Absurd…
Congrats Mets fans, normally I completely root against you all, but as a baseball fan you cannot help but just being completely in awe of the talent available when your pitchers are all healthy…
Maybe some combination of Teheran, Wisler, Foltynewicz, Ellis, Newcomb, Soroka, Allard, Fried, Toussaint, Weigel, Sims, Povse, Jenkins, or Whalen can step up and help the Braves truly compete, or even new HS draftees Anderson, Wentz, Muller, and Wilson can develop and help out in 4 or so years lol…Until the Braves can actually develop their young pitching talent, I’m afraid the Mets will really be the cream of the crop in terms of starting pitching talent and depth…
And don’t forget – Whalen (and John Gant) are ex-Mets draft picks that were traded to the Braves last year partially because they were blocked at higher levels!
As a Mets fan, I’ve lived through Generation K once already and was extremely skeptical coming into this year – but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the fact that it seems as soon as one pitcher goes down, another slides into his place and barely misses a beat. Seth Lugo, especially, has been an incredible revelation, coming out of nowhere.
Yes, Lugo has definitely come out of nowhere!! This is just off the top of my head from looking previously, but wasn’t he like a 23rd or 32nd round pick…something like that??
Ohh, and yes I did leave out those two, both pitchers have truly been a pleasant suprise. Whalen has dine pretty well, and I really wish the Braves would stop bouncing Gant all around back and forth from starting to the bullpen.
I think Gant has some promise as a possible #4, or number 5 most likely, but the Braves just will not consistently give him an opportunity to solely start and see what he has got. Instead they are throwing out guys like De La Cruz and Williams Perez…
Purely as a starter at the ML level, Gant has done fairly well, in a very limited sample size. I mean by no means has he lit the baseball world on fire, but he’s been suprisingly pretty solid.
Whalen could also definitely become a legit #5 option somewhere down the line, but he just needs a bit more time in my opinion. He should start off next year at AAA, and hopefully he can work his way back to the bigs and the Braves can see what they truly have in Whalen. The guy doesn’t have excellent stuff, doesn’t blow away hitters, but he is definitely a gamer and keeps his team in the game with a chance to win..and as a fan that’s really all you can ask for out of your number 5 starter, unless you’re a Mets fan of course..haha…*sigh* lol
The guy we got from the Mets that I’m actually really excited about is Akeel Morris. Right now he is at AA, helping Mississippi try to win a championship…But by all accounts the kid looks pretty awesome!!
Morris and Minter, along with Dirks, Shea Simmons, Mauricio Cabrera, Vizzy, Paco, Withrow or Hursh etc. very well could help anchor the Braves bullpen towards the middle or the end of the 2017 season. The Braves should have a very solid bullpen come 2017 and especially 2018, and I’m sure Morris will be right in the middle of that success.
Although, I have to admit AJ Minter will almost be gaurenteed to be the Braves closer of the future; even so, Morris looks to hopefully have solved whatever control problems he was having…
Is that why the Mets traded him away?? Was it in fact control issues??
Either way, it seems like everytime I look at a MS box score, with Morris pitching, he puts up a line of 2 IP, 0-1 H, 0-1 BB, and normally 3 K’s…
Do you know if maybe he could be stretched out as a starter?? Or does his arsenal fit best for the pen as a set-up guy who can go more than an inning??
I’m just asking because I’ve never actually seen him pitch in person. I’ve only seen a limited amount of video, and we all know how high quality those minor league videos are!! lol..Which, unfortunately, they are typically grainy at best!
I’m just curious as to what your thoughts on Morris are?
Can’t Gsellman (I messed that up) just put down bunts on 3 straight pitches? I had a colleague play with a labrum tear in his non throwing shoulder and he just laid down bunts until he was convinced to go under the knife. So I’m guessing it’s possible
OK – now I understand why Gsellman was bunting with two outs and runners on first and second yesterday. Still, in that situation maybe try swinging with one hand and hope to get lucky.
Another example of AL teams having a development edge on NL teams.