When Joba Chamberlain pointed to the posterior-lateral aspect of his arm last night, I immediately thought ‘It’s probably a minor rotator cuff tweak’. After the game, the injury was coined as "shoulder stiffness."
Fast forward to today, and he is now seeing Dr. Andrews, which is usually not a great sign. However, this is Joba Chamberlain, the Yankees prized young arm, and they will take every step and measure necessary to ensure that his shoulder is sound before having him return to the rotation.
There is some good news, however. Apparently, manual muscle testing was performed and there was no apparent weakness of the shoulder. Said Chamberlain , "They did some (resistance) tests and nothing is weak."
What this tells us is that this could be a minor muscle strain or tendonitis - small enough to create a sense of tightness or stiffness, but not enough to be grossly weak. Or, it could be a posterior capsule irritation. The results of his MRI are not being revealed, so we won’t know anything definitive until he meets with Dr. Andrews.
This could be a situation where he misses one or two starts before returning, but I could just as easily see the Yankees sending him to the 15-day DL regardless.
As was fully expected, Eric Chavez will miss the remainder of the ‘08 season following his latest right shoulder surgery, which is expected to take place next week. Given how thoroughly damaged his shoulder appears to be, there is likely going to be a need for some serious debridement (cleanup), in addition to the repair of the labrum that is known to be needed. It seems logical that when Chavez returns to baseball, it will either be as a DH or first baseman. Expect Chavez to be back by the end of April ‘09.
When Adam Jones fouled a ball off his left foot on Saturday, the Orioles were hoping he would be out only a short time, perhaps only a few days. When he woke up the next morning and could barely place any weight through the foot, he knew something more substantial was going on. After having x-rays and a CT scan, the news was not as promising, as it was revealed that he had a fractured foot. This will put him out of action for at least the next 4 weeks, possibly upwards of 6 weeks. I would expect him back sometime around September 1. After a rocky start to the season, Jones was starting to round into form. He was hitting .326 over the past 31 games and has raised his batting average noticeably to its current .279 mark. It looks like the Orioles won the Erik Bedard deal.
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