While last-night was a good night for the O’s, the news yesterday afternoon was a bit more sober.
It was announced yesterday that Jason Berken’s MRI showed a slight-tear in his right-labrum, and shoulder-cuff inflammation. While it was ‘good’ news that Berken currently has been told he can avoid surgery, you hate hearing about pitchers suffering labrum injuries. My understanding is it is quite common for pitchers to have existing labrum tears, but when a ‘slight’ tear becomes ‘complete’ this can be a devastating injury to recover from.
While there have been some advances in recent years, historically the results have not been good for pitchers who have had to have the corrective surgery.
I would imagine that O’s will eventually announce Berken is done for the year. Let him go rehab his shoulder starting now, with the hope he can return healthy when Pitchers and Catchers convene next February.
I am excited to see VandenHurk out of the pen for awhile. He has existing ML experience, and has been on a pretty solid run this last month as a AAA starter. He should be able to give Showalter another option for multiple innings at a time. There are those that would like to see VandenHurk get a shot at the rotation if the O’s can find a home for Millwood, but I’d prefer to see him get an extended opportunity in the bullpen.
I wonder if the questions that now surround Berken, will lead the O’s to being more aggressive about resigning Uehara. Certainly Uehara’s contract was extravagant given the limited amount of innings he has been able to pitch these past two-years (though you can argue that part of his salary was always about increasing the O’s name recognition in Japan). Still, Uehara has been extremely impressive out of the bullpen in his 22 appearances this year.
Uehara 2010: 1.88 era, 24 ip, 21 hits, 0 homers, 5 bb’s, 28 k’s, .531 OPS against.
These are numbers that remind you of what Uehara produced out of the bullpen in Japan during 2007, and 2008.
2008: 89.2 IP, 90 hits, 72 k’s, 16 walks
2007: 62 IP, 47 hits, 66 k’s, 4 walks, 32 saves
I guess you still have to see if Uehara can finish the year strong, and show a desire to return. If he does, I think the O’s strongly have to consider bringing him back.
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Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.