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Berkman leaves with injury

Houston Astros’ 1B Lance Berkman left today’s game against the Chicago Cubs in the fourth inning. The official diagnosis is neck spasms. Not a good sign that Berkman is already feeling little ailments. This should be small thou and only a day-to-day injury. Darin Erstad replaced Berkman at first and should start should Berkman need Sunday off.

Hot corner a concern for the Dodgers

Third base has turned into an area of concern for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The team has already lost 3 of them during the course of spring training. Where does that leave them? With minor leaguer Blake DeWitt as their Opening Day third baseman, barring a last minute trade. I’m sure Dodgers fans are even going who the hell is DeWitt?

DeWitt played at AA - Jacksonville last season but only logged 168 plate appearances there, with a .281 avg 6 hr and 20 rbis. No doubt, the guy put up some decent numbers but with so little experience there the plan was to start him off there and let him to continue progress. General Manager Ned Colletti has conceded he won’t be an offensive threat at all but should play good enough defense to warrant him being at third till players start to return from injury. The Dodgers wounded include Nomar Garciaparra, Andy LaRoche and Tony Abreu.

Due to the injuries the team has been exploring trade options. They’ve tried to contact the Houston Astros but were told Mark Loretta was unavailable. They’ve also contacted the Kansas City Royals regarding Esteban German. The Dodgers were willing to move pitchers Jonathan Meloan and Miguel Pinango for German, but the Royals held out and demanded Chin-Lung Hu. Thats a price the Dodgers weren’t willing to spend for a stop-gap third baseman. Especially, with German being more of a second baseman and Hu being a valuable back-up for the shortstop position.

This doesn’t look good for the Dodgers who have high hopes this season. The first one expected back is LaRoche but thats not till early May as he recovers from surgery on his right thumb. DeWitt did flash some power Saturday night homering off Jonathan Papelbon at the Colisseum, but don’t expect much of that yet from the 22-year old.

Today’s MLB injury update, Part 1

Alright ladies and gentleman, here’s todays part 1 update on various baseball injuries, it’s a long one. This one contains updates on the St Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros.

• St Louis Cardinals - Chris Carpenter, Matt Clement, Joel Pineiro, Mark Mulder, Juan Encarnacion. This team has a full laundry list and almost a full rotation hurting one way or another. All of the preceding players have been placed on the 15-day disabled list, all retroactive to March 21st. Here’s the breakdown of when they may return. Carpenter is still recovering from Tommy John surgery. He resumed throwing earlier this month and his looking to make a mid-July return to the rotation. Don’t hold your breathe thou. Clement is still rehabbing from shoulder surgery and should miss the entire month of April, his status in May will all depend on his performance in minor league starts.
  
  Pineiro threw two innings in a minor league game today as he had to take some time for inflammation in his left shoulder. He’ll get three or four more minor league assignments then rejoin the rotation. Mulder is also recovering from shoulder surgery and should miss the month of April as well. He just started facing live hitters today. Now, Encarnacion he has a fractured left orbital bone and isn’t expected to play at all this season. In fact, his career may be over.
• Tampa Bay Rays - Scott Kazmir, Ben Zobrist. Kazmir was placed on the 15-day DL as well, also retroactive to March 21st. He could return in April but his return has to be up in the air, as the Rays have been very cautious and keep slowing him down. Rays’ manager Joe Maddon said Kazmir will start throwing catch from further distances later this week, 90 to 120 feet. He’s still not throwing off a mound or facing live hitters yet.
  
  Zobrist, the Rays utility man, will be on the DL for the first weeks of the season with a broken thumb. Andy Cannizaro or Elliot Johnson will cover his duties in the meantime.
• San Francisco Giants - Aaron Rowand. Rowand was hit by a pitch in today’s game by Rich Hill. He took the pitch off his right ankle and spent a minute or so on the ground afterwards. He was able to walk off the field on his own, and the injury is most likely day-to-day variety.
• Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim - Kelvim Escobar, Chone Figgins. Escobar experienced discomfort in his pitching shoulder and had to shutdown his throwing program once again. This can’t be a good sign for you Angels fans, as this was just playing catch he hasn’t even gotten back on the mound yet. He was looking to return by mid-May, as long as its not to serious you could expect this to be pushed back to June now.
  
  Figgins has been sidelined with cramping in his left hand. The injury is day-to-day, and its more of a precautionary thing as the left hand is the one he had surgery to remove the hamate bone. He’s expected to return to the lineup Thursday.
• Seattle Mariners - Adrian Beltre. Beltre is still having problems with wrist pain. The injury has followed him since last season, and he wasn’t diagnosed with a torn ligament till December. Being so close to training camp, he opted not to go with surgery. “It hurts to hold the bat, it hurts every time,” Beltre said. “There’s always pain.” If he’s able to make it through the season I wouldn’t expect much via the way of power.
• Houston Astros - Kaz Matsui. Matsui is on the 15-day DL retroactive to March 21st. He recently had surgery to repair an anal fissure. I’m not going into the details for you on what that details, but if you’re interested you can look it up on Google. He’ll miss the first couple weeks of the season. Mark Loretta should get most of his playing time while he recovers.

Part two of this should follow shortly.

Inge trade talks involving the Dodgers

It looks like the Detroit Tigers may have finally found a market for third baseman Brandon Inge. The Los Angeles Dodgers recently contacted the Tigers about acquiring the third baseman but talks have not really progressed, at this point. Dodgers manager Joe Torre and third base coach Larry Bowa are very fond of Inge and would love to have him stabilize their hot corner. Inge also wants out of Detroit now that Miguel Cabrera is the full-time third baseman.

The Tigers would love to make a deal to clear some salary from their now bloated payroll. If no players are dealt they are going to start with a team salary of over $134 million. Inge is scheduled to make a tad under $6.5 million this year.

This deal could go either way for the Dodgers. They do have Nomar Garciaparra whom Joe Torre would like to play third, as well as rookie Andy LaRoche. Both are solid options but like i said LaRoche is a rookie. Is he ready for prime time? Is he able to play 164 games yet? All good questions. You would think then hey they have Nomar who would be available to spot start or take over if Andy isn’t ready. It’s confusing I know.

Personally, I feel nothing happens between the Tigers and Dodgers and that this rumor is just that. According to one baseball official, there is another possible destination for Inge and that could be the Houston Astros. My guess, Inge starts the season as a Tiger but gets dealt mid-season as injuries take their toll.

Astros Berkman already hurting.

Not even into spring training games yet and Houston Astros Lance Berkman already has an oblique strain. Good thing for the Astros is that Berkman is a switch-hitter. “I can hit righthanded,” he said. “I can throw. I’m not going to hit lefthanded for a couple days and let it calm down.” Berkman will sit out Mondays intra-squad game and will miss a few early spring training games as well.

For Astros fans this injury shouldn’t be to serious since it did happen in camp. If this happened during the season it would be another story. Oblique strains tend to nag for a while, and if it was regular season he’d try to play some games. While during spring training he can pretty much sit on his butt and let it heal. The past few seasons Berkman missed part of spring training due to knee rehab, so it’s not a big deal to him. “I’m hopeful I can milk it for at least another week and a half,” he joked.

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