When it Rains, it Pours

May 18th, 2009 | by Ray Flowers |

There were two ginormous injury reports today, and yes not only do I love that word, I honestly believe my friend invented it back in college though I guess he didn’t file a copyright on the word so he’ll never get the credit he deserves. Let’s get to it.

Carlos Delgado has been suffering from a hip issue for a while now, and therefore no one was too surprised to see him end up on the DL as a result. However, his right hip impingement is apparently a much more serious condition that was originally thought. In fact, Carlos will be forced under the knife on Tuesday to repair a torn labrum and remove a bone spur from the area. The team hasn’t released when Delgado will return, though early estimates are that he will miss two months.

What will the Mets do? It looks like they will try a three-headed monster at first of Daniel Murphy, Fernando Tatis and Jeremy Reed. First off, I can’t see Reed being involved to heavily, not after picking up just 28 at-bats in 32 games. After all he owns just a .260 batting average and just 11 home runs in 1,089 career at-bats after some solid minor league work that he just hasn’t been able to convert into big league production. Tatis has returned from oblivion and has hit .299 with 13 home runs and 56 RBI for the Mets in his last 338 ABs dating back to the start of last season. During that time he has posted a .854 OPS while being a terrific option all over the field. Still, he hasn’t been an everyday player since 1999, the last time he had more than 385 at-bats in a season. That leaves Murphy as the most likely option in my mind, especially considering that the dude has never been confused with Torii Hunter on defense in the outfield. This likely means that Gary Sheffield could be in the lineup every day in the outfield, just in time as his bat has come alive as he has gone 9-for-22 (.409) in his last five games.

As for the loss of Delgado, that’s obviously a significantly blow for Delgado owners considering that he has gone deep 24 times with at least 87 RBI in each of the past 13 seasons. No other big leaguer can match that level of offense during that time.

A little to the east is the other big-time injury news of the day, this one to my “breakout” star of the year Rickie Weeks who was, not surprisingly (only a little bit of modesty here), on his way to a true breakout campaign. Weeks was hitting .272 with nine home runs, 24 RBI and 28 runs scored, meaning he was on pace (I know its unscientific) to go roughly .270-35-95 with 110 runs this season more than making up for the fact that he has stolen only two bases (putting him on pace for 8-10 steals). Alas, Week’s injured wrist is worse than initially feared, and it now appears that he will be forced to undergo season ending surgery on his left wrist to repair a torn tendon sheath in that left wrist. This is actually the same injury that Weeks had in his right wrist in 2006. “Dr. Sheridan said he never had a patient who had that in both wrists,” said Brewers’ trainer Roger Caplinger. Apparently, the operating belief is that Weeks swings with such ferocity that he basically injures himself on his swing. Don’t know how you fix that other than to wrap those puppies really tightly.

It appears that Craig Counsell will take over in the short-term at second base and he is hitting .339 right now, but dude hit just .223 in 2007-08 over 580 at-bats, so you should be very wary, as should the Brewers, of Craig continuing to be remotely this effective moving forward. Minor league shortstop Alcides Escobar will spend some time playing second base, but he will not be called up for a while yet as his offense his still lagging (.268-2-12 with a .677 OPS in 153 ABs at Triple-A). Perhaps the team will re-sign free agent Ray Durham who hit .280 in 107 late season at-bats with the club last year after he was brought in from the Giants? Time will tell, but the loss of Weeks is likely one that the Brewers will not be able to overcome barring some big-time trade – which seems unlikely to occur.

By Ray Flowers

Tags: Alcides Escobar, Carlos Delgado, Craig Counsell, Daniel Murphy, Fernando Tatis, Jeremy Reed, Ray Durham, Rickei Weeks