Pirates reliever Nick Burdi has been diagnosed with a nerve injury in his pitching arm, team director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk told reporters including MLB.com’s Adam Berry (Twitter link). He’ll remain shut down until at least early June.
That’s relatively promising news for the 26-year-old righty, who left his most recent appearance in agony after suffering an arm injury. It had emerged already that Burdi had avoided the worst-case scenario of a torn ulnar collateral ligament, though initial indications were that there was some physical damage around the elbow joint.
Now, it seems the primary cause of the pain in Burdi’s biceps was this nerve issue — the details of which are not yet known. Several pitchers have undergone procedures in recent seasons to address nerve ailments in their pitching arms. It is not clear that a surgical approach is a consideration at the moment.
It would be heartening to see Burdi bounce back physically and return to the MLB hill this year. His career trajectory has been hampered to date by injuries, but he was throwing quite well before the game in which he went down. Burdi produced 17 strikeouts against just two walks with a 20.1% swinging-strike rate over his ten prior appearances on the season.
hiflew
Why do you guys constantly write about Addison Russell if you are going to turn the comments off of every post?
dray16
because we all know what those comments will be, and they’ll bring absolutely nothing of value to the discussion
hiflew
There are useless troll comments on every single posting on this site. I understand that some of those comments can be stronger than others, but if a story is going to illicit a large number of those types of responses, then why post it? Or at least bury the news in one of those bullet point articles. I just wish that instead of hiding from the story, people could have a frank discussion about his impact on the Cubs. Yes, he is controversial right now, but he is also a player being called up to a first place MLB club that could create a negative impact on them. If you can’t discuss something like that, then why have comments at all?
It’s not the end of the world by any means and I’m not going to cry myself to sleep because of it. But I was just legitimately curious.
casualatlfan
They’ve tried that before with a number of controversial topics like that, with Steve Adams specifically noting that it became a complete cesspool of troll comments and flaming when they left it open on the article discussing his suspension. Like it or not, they’ve found that just outright closing the comments section on it works best.
thegreatcerealfamine
With all the vile things people post on Marlins threads it’s quite hypocritical too close any article.
DarkSide830
TBH most of those commenters are Marlins fans
Cat Mando
hiflew….Why do you care?
hiflew
I’m not even going to waste my time on such a ridiculous question.
Cat Mando
You yourself stated the reason for closing the comment section in your response to dray16. You then closed by saying “I was just legitimately curious.” when the answer to the question “why report it” is abundantly clear… it’s a baseball news site. You know this but insist on asking to elicit responses. Congrats…you succeeded and considering it will go nowhere form here I won’t be responding again. Have a nice day.
hiflew
In fairness, it went nowhere long before here. You have a nice day as well.
Monkey’s Uncle
Articles pertaining to Russell and his being activated, promoted, etc. are still newsworthy on a baseball site regardless of whether the comments are active or not.
Priggs89
1) I don’t agree with closing the comments.
2) If you are going to close the comments, you probably shouldn’t put the Pedro Strop info on the same post. I don’t care to comment on that subject either, but I’m sure some people would like to.
Jeff Todd
As we have explained constantly, it is an untenable drain on our resources to police those comments sections. We have tried and it ends up absorbing the entire attention of one of our writers. Since we are concerned first and foremost with conveying the substance of our coverage area, as opposed to hosting discussion of it, we are just no longer bothering to try.
So, we’ll continue posting about Russell when we deem it relevant and will handle the comments aspect as we see fit. Your choice whether to accept it, but we’re not going to continue to host discussions on whether or not we should allow those comments.
todd76
Leave all comment sections open!
Cat Mando
Explain why they should. While you are at it explain why your other obsession, the down-vote, is so important.
DarkSide830
there’s plenty of reasons why they dont. I think you’ll live.
Jeff Todd
Last warning on posting your views on the commenting policies all over the comments section. Please stop. We understand your positions.
sportsfan101
Jeff Todd, why is the Addison Russel feature not allowing posts?!
Robertowannabe
Most likely because it would be too labor intensive to moderate the thread and not worth the time of the staff. Some people tend to ruin the fun for everyone.
hiflew
Then they should ban those offending individuals instead of taking away the legitimate discussions for everyone else.
Robertowannabe
On these types of articles, idiots come out of the woodwork and people go from conversing to arguing and they get tired or moderating……People that get banned just reincarnate under a new name and keep at it.
Frisco500
Hiflew, dont you think that would be a cowardly way around this issue?
Monkey’s Uncle
Those who run this site have answered that question multiple times after previous articles where the comments have been closed. But if you really want to know the answer, I suggest sending Jeff or Steve the question directly instead of having your question become lost in the comment section of a different and unrelated article.
Robertowannabe
Here is to Nick Burdi and hope that he heals well and returns to the bump later in the year.
Robertowannabe
Had to get at least 1 comment on here that was about poor Nick.
fisk72
Get well Nick, I’m rooting for you. Watched you many times at DG South as well as your brother. Hang in there Mustang.
Frisco500
This is where we are as a society. Sooooo PC and scared of open dialogue. Pathetic. MLBTR, what are you so scared of? And to the people who say that doesnt belong here…. you’re just as bad as the rest.
O Conchobhair
Then bore off Frisco. Bye bye
DarkSide830
it has nothing to do with being PC at all. its about all the idiotic and trolling comments the moderators would have to deal with.
Mendoza Line 215
This site is simply about baseball.It is where people want to go to get away from all the crap that goes on in the world.Kudos to MLBTR in keeping discussion about domestic violence off a site that is dedicated to baseball.
Like America,love it or leave it.
66TheNumberOfTheBest
“26 comments. Seems like an unusually high number of people commenting about a Rule 5 reliever….”
(Oh, they are just upset that they can’t defend a domestic abuser. Poor things.)
Get well, Nick.
hiflew
Asking why comments are turned off is not defending a domestic abuser. Anyway, thank you for answering so vividly why the comments were turned off in the first place.
brodie-bruce
it’s not about defending him it’s about the work mlbtr staff should go though filtering the inappropriate comments that the 5% of idiots post. me personally i think all comments should be open but i understand why some are closed so instead of being mad at mlbtr about closing the comments and get mad at the 5% that screw it up for everyone one (note the 5% is just a number i used not based in facts)
66TheNumberOfTheBest
Is your life being materially impacted by being unable to comment about the baseball related implications of Russel’s reinstatement and the corresponding move?
If so, how?
jd396
Get well, Nick Burdi, topic of this article!
joblo
I don’t give a fig about Addison Russell. The article at hand is about Nick Burdi and I’m hoping all the best for him.