It’s Alex Torres.
ETA: Torres is currently sporting a 2.11 ERA after nearly 43 innings of relief, so one presumes it isn’t bothering him too much.
Thanks, glad to see the wall is broken at least slightly. The more guys you see wearing them, the less funny it will look. All it will take to make that happen is for Torres to get beaned, unfortunately.
Or someone else to get hit and actually die, unfortunately.
MLB only took 30-40 years after Ray Chapman died to make batters wear helmets. Always at the forefront of player safety, those guys.
Speaking of getting hurt, Blue Jays infielder Brett Lawrie not only had to leave his first game back after missing over a month, but he’s now out a month or more due to an “oblique strain.”
Two thoughts.
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Seriously, fire the trainer already. The team has more guys hurt pulling things doing routine stuff than seems possible.
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OK, I’m not a major league ballplayer or a professional athlete, but I have played a lot of ball and done a lot of sports, and played with a great many ballplayers, and honestly, is it THIS common to pull a muscle so badly that painkillers and a few days off can’t fix it? I can only remember two injuries that actually prevented me from playing baseball for an extended period of time and neither was a “pulled” something. One was an impact injury to my knee that caused it to swell to the size of a basketball and the other was a concussion. In 30+ years of playing baseball at varying levels I’ve never met anyone who missed 3-6 weeks to “pulling” a muscle. I have experienced and seen many pulled muscles, and all are pretty much healed up in a few days - you might be careful for awhile, but not miss a lot of time. TEARING a muscle, sure, you’re olut a long time. Sprains, absolutely. Damaged joints and ligaments, you betcha. But really, “I pulled a muscle, I need three weeks off”? Isn’t that what Advil is for?
Not for an instant am I saying Brett Lawrie is a wimp or a bad athlete. This is his NINTH injury in three years; granted, two were his hand being broken by a pitch and there ain’t anything you can do about that. But seven injuries in three years? Jesus, sports are supposed to hurt some, aren’t they?
The standard practice today is for players to listen to their agents instead of their teammates, and not to play at all unless they’re 100%. That gives them better numbers to go into free agency with, and to hell with the team.
What can a team do when a player says he’s too hurt to play, other than put him on the DL?
They can send him out there. The player still has a financial incentive to play to the best of his ability, such as it is.
Of course you’re very likely right anyway. Without firsthand experience of the dynamic between player, agent and team management we don’t really know what’s going on, but there is certainly SOMETHING weird about the Blue Jays being league leaders in minor injuries year after year.
RickJay:
And only 40 years after Pete Rose destroyed Ray Fosse’s career did they ban home-plate collisions.
This is kind of a bee in my bonnet… Pete Rose did not “Destroy Ray Fosse’s career.” Fosse came back from the All-Star Game injury and played quite well. After coming off the DL he hit .297 the rest of the season, and in fact he was closen for the All-Star game the next season, too.
Of course Fosse did not have a long career - most players don’t - and it’s wholly possible the collision, which did hurt his shoulder, contributed to that, but he was also hurt in two separate incidents in 1971 (in one he was, bizarrely, kicked during a brawl) that probably did more to slow him down than the Rose thing, and then when he went back to Cleveland in 1976 he started out great and was injured in another collision. It’s not true, as people seem to believe, that Rose knocked Ray Fosse out of MLB. He played well after that, but kept getting injured.
Makes a better story the other way, for those of us who hate Rose already. 
I despise Pete Rose.
Ugh, Josh Donaldson, I like you, but please quit complaining on every single pitch. Suck it up.
The Orioles are putting a major pounding on St. Louis right now. It’s 12-0 in the seventh, and Baltimore has hit six homers in the game. It’s been quite fun to watch, although not if you’re a Cards fan, i guess.
Frankly, given the environment today, if his agent is telling him that, he should be fired post-haste. No team is going to risk serious money on the “injury-prone” player. Too many teams have been burned by players a LOT better than Brett Lawrie.
Caught a couple of innings on the radio. Was not finding it fun to listen to 
Nats “ace” Stephen Strasbutg chokes again. I’ve said it before, Jordan Zimmermann is the real ace of the Nats.
I think we can now throw Nathan on the massive pile of shitty, failed attempts by the Tigers to find a closer. 
The Orioles offense has exploded in this series against the Cardinals. After a 12-2 win last night, Baltimore reached double figures again today, and won the game 10-3. They’ve hit nine homers over the two games.
The Orioles are now 24-10 since the end of June.
Nelson Cruz has been quite a pickup for the Birds. He hit his 30th homer today, and has the best OPS of all regular position players. Catcher Caleb Joseph homered in his fifth straight game today.
The best way to describe the starting pitching would be solid. There are no sub-3.00 ERA superstars, but none of the starters are up around 5.00 either. In fact, of the six starters, only Ubaldo Jimenez, who just came back from the DL, has an ERA over 4.00. All the other five are between 3.60 and 3.90. So it’s not Detroit or Oakland’s star rotation, but all of them have been doing well, and the bullpen has also been really good recently.
I wish I was in Seattle tonight, at Safeco Field, as the Mariners induct Lou Piniella into the Mariners Hall of Fame. I’ll resort to listening to the ceremony on the radio.
LOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUU!
And w00t, I got to watch the whole thing live online!
The A’s gave away Tony LaRussa bobbleheads tonight. I wish I was there. 