Vlad Rehab Update

May 15, 2009 · Paul Raymond · Jump to comments

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Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim slugger Vladimir Guerrero is progressing along nicely in his rehab from the torn pectoral muscle that put him on the DL. There isn’t much word on what the team is doing for the player but manager Mike Scioscia has announced that he’ll take batting practice before Friday night’s game. On the fip side, Scioscia would not give a timetable for return.

“He’s got a ways to go,” Scioscia told the Orange County Register. “You want to safely get a guy to where he can turn the bat loose. There’s a lot that goes into that. He’s going to be taking batting practice for awhile. Then we’ll take it to the next step. How long is that going to be? Hopefully, it’s going to be shorter term than what you’d be looking at in spring training when you first start swinging.”

So how to look at this?

The good thing, he’s taking batting practice earlier then expected. He was originally scheduled to start sometime next week. So it seems that he’s healing faster and could be ready a lot sooner.

The negative, we still don’t know when he’ll return. Scioscia isn’t even telling us if he’ll rehab will include a minor league assignment or extended spring training. That alone keeps me wondering if he really is able to take batting practice yet. Maybe they’re waiting to see how he holds up after the BP?

Initially, I said Vlad would be out six to eight weeks with this injury. If batting practice went well today and this weekend then that time frame looks like a reality. His went on the disabled list on April 17th and a six to eight week time frame would put him on a late May, early June return. So he’s right on pace.

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