Hamate bones headline long injury report, Multiple fresh signings, FT Network announces 3 new shows!

00:00:03
Speaker 1: I'm excited about today, scrats. I like your putting sweatshirt. It's big T shirt like a sweatshirt foul territory shop dot com. I am going to promo as hard for the first minute of the show. It's a big day, not one, not two, but three new shows and one.

00:00:25
Speaker 2: Is all news to me. I just found out right now.

00:00:27
Speaker 3: Well, that's what we're here for. We do you want to read these? Read the screen? And I love this graphic always?

00:00:35
Speaker 2: Which are I starting with Bluebird Territory?

00:00:37
Speaker 3: Yeah? And what is that?

00:00:39
Speaker 2: That's the c N Tower with the map.

00:00:41
Speaker 3: Do you like these logos really?

00:00:43
Speaker 2: So you can have a beer and watch ball? That's right, you got an injury territory one I'm not really a big fan of, just because you're not supposed touch crutches and I didn't want to see the never wanted to go in the training room. So it's not nothing against will, but it's just more about the fact that, like you know, there's a band aids, red crosses and crutches or things you never wanted to see.

00:01:03
Speaker 3: It's a beautiful logo.

00:01:04
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and the Tommy John and the Jay I forgot. I barely can see that you like away. Yeah, but yeah, but everyone has one of those. No, every pitcher has one of those, so they all know what it is. I never have that, so I don't know what it is.

00:01:16
Speaker 1: I'm trying to connect with them. Kevin Pillar, Ricky Romero both former Blue Jays, very popular. And Mitch mannon who covers the team for the athletic episode one out now KP said, new adventure with some cool dudes. That's gonna be really good. You get the position player and pitcher perspective. Plus Mitch is following the team every day. Love it Brewers, Corey Canabel, Mike Mustakis, Kurt Hoague.

00:01:41
Speaker 3: It's a strong team. Yep, yeah, Krats. Would you like to say hello to your new family members?

00:01:48
Speaker 4: I already said hi to them on the real world Twitter. Okay, everybody eats. Everybody eats when you're part of the family, Like, come on in, I'm a big fella. I got lots of love for everybody.

00:02:00
Speaker 3: Boom.

00:02:00
Speaker 1: And one of those names is actually our first guest of the day, a breaking news, last minute guest because of the rash of injuries hitting our sport. It is Will Carroll joining us right now. He's got an awesome newsletter, which we'll talk about, and of course we'll cover the show. Injury Territory will great to have you on. But first let's start with hammett bones, because they are taking over the day spring training begins. And usually it's pitchers that dominate the beginning of spring training, but this injury has now popped up for Francisco, Lindor Surgery, Corbyn Carol Surgery, and Young Jackson Holiday of the Orioles. All of them look like they'll miss the beginning of the season. Maybe Lindor makes it back in time.

00:02:48
Speaker 5: But what do you think, Yeah, this is a terrible run of bad luck clusters. We often see these, and because it's all stars, because it's players that are super fantasy relevant, it makes it seem like, oh, no, what is going on? Is it something? It just pitches inside and guy's not wearing a path. The hammt bone is right here, it's right basically under the pinky, and it's got kind of a hook on it, so it doesn't heal well, doesn't get a lot of blood flow. That hook never comes back on. So the easiest thing is just to go down in there and either cut that hook off and pull it out or take the whole bone out. They don't love doing that whole bone removal at this point, just because we realize now how complex the wrist is. There's a lot of structure in there, not just bone, but you know, cartilage and ligaments and tendons and blood vessels and nerves, and if it's not all right together all those little tiny structures, sometimes it gets out of whack. And that's why these injuries are so tough. It's not that bones don't heal, it's that we often see a power drop. It used to be for six weeks after why six weeks, no idea, but for six weeks after, guys would just not be able to hit. It was Pablo Sandoval that really epitomized this. He had both of them knocked out, and in both cases six weeks almost no power. Suddenly something clicks and he's hitting the ball out of the park again. So for Holiday, for Carol, for Lindor a little bit. His is a little bit different in that he was a stress reaction rather than an acute injury where he took a pitch off it. So there is still some question about that and we're still trying to figure out exactly what's going on there with Carol on holiday. It's as simple as can be, but still terrible because these could have been prevented.

00:04:43
Speaker 2: Okay, well, I'm gonna we're gonna have a little quick not argument, but I'm gonna go against what you said. Actually, I broke my handmate, ninety nine percent of the time, and I have this car to prove it. You break it on the knob of your bat swinging. It has nothing to do with getting hit by the pitch. What happens is it's actually you're handmaid is right here in your hand and a little hook and they go in and they take that hook out. But most of the time it's from because most guys, I'm sure krats used to have it too. You get we used to call him a turdy. I don't know what the technical term is for it, but you get the little blood things built up from with the knob of your bat. So here, if I grabbed his bat right and you put the knob, most guys hit with their the hand off the bat like this, and so that knob sits right where my handmai bone is right. And so after swing after swing after swing after swing, eventually you hit one it breaks that little, that little hook off and it hurts like hell. Trust me, it hurts like hell. And you know what else says this a lot? Golfers do this a lot because then when they hit like a root or they hit a rock or something, it breaks that little hook off. And when you say six weeks, yes, six weeks is about right now. I did mine at the end of the year, so I was in the off season, didn't matter. But I saw David Ortiz try to play through this, and he could. He lost a lot of his power. But it's not because you the pain or whatever it is. You lose it because you lose strength in your hand because your hand is basically immobilized for three to four weeks, and then you lose strengthen your wrists, so it takes you a little bit of time to get that back. So yeah, six weeks is conservative. But I tell all these guys, will take your time. It's the beginning of the year. Take your time, make sure you're right. If you missed the first week of the season, it's worth it to get the rest of the time. But yeah, yeah, it's just it's a weird je no one's ever heard of.

00:06:25
Speaker 5: It's a great point because I think this does contrast what happened between these acute injuries and what happened for Lindor that stress reaction. Like you were saying, there are a lot of terms for it where you get that irritation. But now that we have the scanners that can go in there and get the image and see, oh it's not broken, but something's happening, it doesn't like this. You felt that you knew something was going on there and then it finally goes. They're catching this on thendor before it goes. So what do we do. Do we go in there and just take the thing out, be done with it, make sure it doesn't happen again. Do we change something he's doing, you know, the back handle itself. There's the whole axe bat thing and grip changes and things that purport to help with that. So we'll see where it goes. But again that there are ways this could have been prevented, including just wearing a pad over the hand. Ajay.

00:07:25
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00:07:27
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00:07:31
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00:07:33
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00:08:25
Speaker 4: Well it'll kill your show if we prevent all injuries. But there's no such thing as preventing all injuries. Francesco Lindor out of all these three, is a switch hitter? Is there any chance that they search out the possibility of maybe taking the other one out while he gets the same one done while he gets so that he never has this on the other side.

00:08:47
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, that's an interesting idea, but I don't think most doctors would consider it because it's healthy in theory, he's been healthy this whole time. You could do that with any player, you know, we could go in there and replace everybody's ACL and UCL and pull both hammets and do all that at the start of the career and make sure they never happened. But usually doctors are very, very reluctant to do surgeries before they're medically necessary. So I would say no on.

00:09:17
Speaker 2: This though it's a great idea, yeah, but it would still hurt. I mean, listen, even if you switch hit okay in a pad, the pad on here does not help from breaking inside. Like you can wear a pad here all day long. Yeah, but you actually do this from swinging. I can tell you the exact swing I did it off of one. I mean I remember I swung and I was like, that's not right. Okay. So but for Lindor switch hit or so he broke his left one okay, which is his bottom one. Usually break your bottom hand, So I would say, theoretically, did this hitting right handed? Okay, so then to go and switch left in and it's not the problem of the pain. When I did mine, I could barely move my fingers. My hand was literally stuck like this until they went in. And it's some stuff because yes, so he like, technically, they go, why don't he just hit left handed? Well, if he didn't have his top hand strength, then it still won't work. Plus he also catches left handed with his glove, so he would have to have the feeling in his hand. So it's not as simple as that. I mean, it sounds great on paper, like just only hit left handed, but you still need that top end and you still need to catch the ball as a shortstop. You know, he's not an outfielder or someone that doesn't get the ball every play, so it's it's not the best thing. And then for like Corbyn Carroll and Jackson Holiday. Jackson Holiday, they broke their right hand on the bottom hand Corbyn Carroll's lefty, so it's a little different now Jackson Holiday. But like I told you guys yesterday, we talked about I couldn't throw the ball back to the pitcher when I did. Mind, I had to have the umpire. It hurt that. I was like, please throw it. He's like, what's wrong with I'm like, just throw? Get to this sitting right, So Jackson Allday playing second base, the throw would become an issue.

00:10:53
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, that nerve is very, very involved. The other thing was switch hitters. It is a two handed game, so there's there's not a place where you can kind of hide it. There is some theory we've had more switch hitters have this injury. So because they're doing two different things, is there an imbalance? Is it taking different forces? Nobody's terribly sure of this, but it's something we're getting more of again, just because we have better scanners, and I do want to lock in on lind'or his is not fractured. Stress reaction is something we're hearing more and more of because again better scanners, we're seeing these things earlier. Can we prevent them maybe? Can we learn from them? Absolutely? So figuring out what the best practice for that is something that's still really being figured out.

00:11:44
Speaker 1: Hey, well, let's move to some other injuries. I'm actually going to pick a team for this next one. The Toronto Blue Jays Anthony Santander shoulder surgery that was a problem for him last year. It looks like he's going to miss most of the year. Shane Bieber is a little bit delayed, Boden Franks with surgery that'll knock him out for the year.

00:12:03
Speaker 3: So what do you think of these.

00:12:04
Speaker 1: Early Blue Jays injuries on a day where yeah, unfortunately or fortunately we launched a Blue Jay show and an injury show.

00:12:10
Speaker 3: They're all colliding.

00:12:13
Speaker 5: Yeah, maybe it's you. It's one of those things where I think we need to take a real hard look at this in the way the pattern went for these three injuries, because they're three very different. You got Francis, which is one of those where you know, unfortunately, this is the time of year where we're going to see a bunch of UCLs where guys had an off season where maybe they didn't ramp upright, maybe they're they're a little too early. Maybe that thing was on a thread and was going to go. But now they get back out there, get the adrenaline going, they're going for a job and it snaps. Just unfortunate with Bieber, remember that he was coming back from Tommy John surgery last year when he was traded, so he went a little bit further than they ever expected, though certainly the Jay's are glad they had him and he was very good, so they just kind of slowed his off season. So this was planned. So this isn't really another injury. This is just sort of they're saying forearm fatigued to give a reason for why this is a late ramp. On the other hand, Santander ran into a wall last year and it was a padded wall. It was just one of those things that happens in baseball. You can't take a look at the Blue Jays medical staff and go, this one's on you. But the days and the dollars are going to count, not just last year, but now after having the surgery. After this labor became really really problematic for him and symptomatic and painful. They've got to go in there and repair it. And this was an injury that ten years ago we didn't do well with. If you can remember Matt Kemp, it took him years after his surgery. Now another one, Cody Bellinger. He struggled the year after but has been very very solid since. Even pitchers that have the surgery, doctor Dio Latrosh the Dodger surgeon kind of changed the way the surgery was done, different nodding, different anchors that are put in, and just those different techniques have made the return a lot better, a lot quicker. So Santander should have a good chance of coming back, but that doesn't not help the Jays in twenty twenty six.

00:14:16
Speaker 4: Is that why it's happening now, because they were like, we're going to rehab the absolute crap out of it, and Santander just could not get to the point where the rehab was enough because like, is it an injury that's more extensive rehab because of the fear that you'll never get quite get back with the surgery.

00:14:38
Speaker 5: No great question, though, Eric. The answer is they rehab the heck out of it because they try to avoid surgery. And this is always the answer. Logan Evans up in Seattle was rehabbing trying to avoid Tommy John surgery. Couldn't had to have it and had it in late January, and people are like, well, why didn't you just have it? Because surgery hard, Even as automatic as something like Tommy John surgery is, it's still only I think the last study was eighty three percent of pictures come back from it. What if you're one of the others seventeen? What if something goes wrong? Which happens. So you always try to avoid injuries always, no matter what. For Santander, he rehabed the heck of it, hoping that he was going to be able to come back from it. He was out pretty much the entire second half, missed the playoffs when they really could have used him, but were pretty darn good without him. This is one where they tried. They tried, and once he dialed it back up, it broke down. That laborhm is just that it's that tiny piece of cartilage inside the Glenoyd fossa there in the shoulder, and when it's torn and becomes symptomatic, it's just tough. It's one of the most painful things you'll ever have. That's one I could show you the scar on for me. And when Frank Jerones tried to put mine back together. There are three times he did that operation should me Oral Herchcheiser and one other college pitcher, and then he stopped doing it because it didn't work. How do you think that makes me an oral feel?

00:16:09
Speaker 4: That's not a sentence that I really want to keep repeating. So I'm going to go to Bouden Francis. Bout in Francis the UCL. One of the things you said, and this isn't necessarily about boud In Francis, but it's about what's the percentage of UCL injuries from February March compared to any other two months during the season. Is that percentage absolutely that much higher? And if we have asked for low hanging fruit with the UCL injuries that we're always trying to get, how.

00:16:41
Speaker 2: Can we fix that?

00:16:42
Speaker 4: Doesn't that feel like if that's a twenty five percent of them, Man, if we can just cut that in half, you're cutting out so many UCL or Tommy John surgeries.

00:16:52
Speaker 5: Yeah, you're exactly right. It was about forty percent. We would have half the injuries before I think it was May first. And we see this pattern over and over. The NFL used to be that fifty percent of their injuries happened before week two of their season, and that's changed a little bit with changes they've made to contact in camp, but it is the same thing. In baseball. We've seen a reduction of this because we understand ramps now, Guys used to shut down and you would start throwing again in late December early January and work your way back up, and even spring training is still structured that way. And if you'd go out there for a couple of innings and three innings and four innings and five innings and build your way back up, we understand a lot more of that right now, and you can very scientifically build these ramps and keep your workload in that green zone. So we are seeing a reduction in this. The problem is we're seeing those not just go away, but stretch out, and we're seeing more into June, July, and August.

00:17:56
Speaker 2: Well, we're talking about injuries before the season even start, really before the first day of spring training. And Chris Bryant is already on the sixty day IL because of a lower what is it, lower lumbar?

00:18:08
Speaker 3: What on?

00:18:09
Speaker 2: Lower lombard degenerative disc disease? Yeah, can you explain what the heck that is? And he's gonna miss fifty seven games already. He only played what in eleven last year? So I mean, can he come back from this because he still has like two or three more years left on this massive deal he signed.

00:18:28
Speaker 5: Yeah. I said last year that I didn't think we'd ever see Chris Bryant play again. I'll stand by that we may see a game or two here, but he has a degenerative disc in his back. He's going to need some level of surgery at some point. He's already had it. If you can think another Denver athlete, I guess he didn't think that way. It was Peyton Manning who had two surgeries on his neck before he had to have a fusion, was able to come back win a Super Bowl after that. So you can't come back from it. But it's difficult cult baseball players with all the torsion. I can't think of a player that's had a fusion that it didn't in their career. Prince Fielder obviously comes to mind. His was in his neck, but when those discs in between the vertebrae go, bad things happen. There are too many nerves in there, there are too many problems. The fact is he just can't twist. And if you can't twist, you certainly can't hit a baseball, let alone throw a baseball.

00:19:28
Speaker 4: A lot of the rhetoric coming out of Colorado is guys don't recuperate. Is this an injury that was happening and now like oh, he's in Colorado, he's always in the higher elevation. It's you know, it led to a faster decline or a faster like impact of this injury.

00:19:46
Speaker 2: Or is that not? Is that all?

00:19:49
Speaker 4: Is that all fake and just something people say?

00:19:53
Speaker 5: No, I think certainly there is a high altitude effect. Not necessarily this because this is anaerobic. It's not like his spine is breathing. I assume he gets a decent amount of oxygen and he's breathing in and out. The disc is one where it's structural. We often hear, you know, it's not structural. What is structure? And when it comes to it, that disk is damaged, it's herniated, it's hardening, it's calcifying. Those nerves that go through there are being pinched. So he's having numbness, probably pain down his leg. A lot of people out there have probably experienced some sort of sciatica pain. As you get older, your body basically calcilfies, which is one of the things we're learning with all this anti aging research that's going on right now and biohacking. But for this, there's not really a whole lot they can do. You know, you put in a cage you fuse those vertebrae together. We've seen some advances. There was attempts to trans plant discs. There's some external discs that they can put in there, but we haven't had a lot of success from it. And again it comes down to can he twist and when he twists, what sort of pain is he going through? At his age, he's looking at very extensive back surgery. Again, it's a very very common injury. It's just devastating for the skills of baseball.

00:21:24
Speaker 2: Okay, well that was my question. Is I just recently had a friend that had back surgery and felt better, like right away, maybe had numbness in their leg. Boom had back surgery and they're gonna I mean, they don't play baseball, but they're just a normal person and they're going to be back to normal, they said in four to six weeks. Is that not something that Chris Bryant could do or he just needs something that's so much more in depth that it would not it wouldn't work.

00:21:52
Speaker 5: Now it comes down to the very specific skills of baseball. I mean, you understand better than most what kind of forces go into a swing. So if you're not able to twist if you're putting that much pressure on it. Even if they go in there and fuse those vertebrates together, now suddenly his spine doesn't move the same way. His vertebrate don't have that same cushion they're locked back in. It just doesn't turn. Could he still hit? Maybe? But again I've got an absolute blank on players that have had that and come back from it. If you're a regular guy, can you go back to work? Yep? But can you go back and play baseball? The simple answer is no. The real answer is probably not.

00:22:40
Speaker 1: Let's see, hey, sometimes we do a little game on Foul Territory called role play.

00:22:47
Speaker 3: It's not what you think.

00:22:49
Speaker 1: We're just picking up our phones and we're talking as if we're somebody in baseball. But if you'd like that phone to be a little bit cheaper for making phone calls, who should you call?

00:22:59
Speaker 3: Krats?

00:23:00
Speaker 4: Mintmobile because you get all the same speed with a tiny little.

00:23:05
Speaker 1: Price, same coverage, tiny price. Ready to stop paying more than you have to? New customers can make the switch today and for a limited time, get unlimited premium wireless for just fifteen bucks per month. Switch now at mintmobile dot com, slash territory that's mintmobile dot Com slash territory. Upfront payment of forty five dollars for three months, ninety for six months, or one eighty for twelve months. Plan required fifteen dollars a month equivalent taxes and fees extra initial plan term only over fifty gigabytes. May slow when network is busy. Capable device required, availability, speed and coverage varies see mintmobile dot Com Save Money, Get after It ftfam. Hey, well a clever tweet this morning. It's again unfortunate when you're talking injuries. But when we threw out there that we were launching three new shows, someone replied to the Injury Territory one and said, Oh, I didn't realize you guys rebranded Hammer Territory, which is Brave show.

00:24:01
Speaker 3: They went through it last year. I said, well played.

00:24:03
Speaker 1: I mean it sucks, but well played, and they're already going through it this year. So I wanted to get your thoughts on the three names that I think are standing out for them too. Very recently, even this morning, Walt Weiss, new Brave's manager, mentioned how the situation for Jojanmenez is very complex. He's already on the sixty dail. He used to be a valuable part of the bullpen. Spencer Schwellenbach very valuable part of the rotation. Dave O'Brien, who covered the team up until this year, was working for the Athletic covering the team and said, you know, there was a Bilo uptick for Schwellenbach. He was speculating that's soon after that fractures. Z elbow now has this issue that might lead to bones pur surgery. And then lastly we can finish with Hassan Kim slipping on ice. It's kind of like slipped on ice, but it's pretty serious because he's going to miss serious time for them too. So your thoughts on those three.

00:24:49
Speaker 5: Yeah, with Kim, it's unfortunate. You know, these sorts of things happened. These people, we forget they're human and things happen. You know, we'll laugh about you things. Who was it Clint Barmas that fell down the stairs with a deer or something. There's always those those quirky injuries that we can talk about and fill my column with laughter. But you know, people do fall. People, what was Jonathan Lucroy dropped a suitcase on his hand? Things like that. Slipping on ice is just slipping on ice. It's unfortunate. Put that ankle back together and hope that again he has his skills with all that later emotion that he needs, which.

00:25:29
Speaker 1: Well, back hold up real quick. Well, just because I think I think the ankle was last year. I'm just and I blitched you with this one, so sorry, but I think it was. I have your surgery to repair torn tendon right middle finger, right, I think.

00:25:43
Speaker 5: That you.

00:25:46
Speaker 3: Got a lot of injuries slow, and so I'm throwing it.

00:25:48
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly, Sorry, I was thinking about the ankle from last year.

00:25:51
Speaker 2: I forgot me.

00:25:52
Speaker 5: It was the hand. My bad. But it's a tendant, so again you got to worry about the grip. You gotta be able to put that back together. And we do see that. It's just unfortunate how it happened for schwampact. With the bone and the bone spurs. This is a difficult one to understand because bone spurs are really simple. We've all played operation. If you've got a bone chip, it's come off the bone. With a bone spur, it's just a little piece of bone, kind of like a blister that's come off. But what's it touching? Is it touching the ucl is it touching the owner nerve, is it touching one of the other things, and is it hurting something. There was a whole debate in the orthopaedic sur surgery community about whether you took bone spurs off where they a reaction of the body that were telling us something was going on with the UCL We still don't know a really good answer to that. But if the bone spurs out there poking a nerve, you've got to take it out. But it's probably the body's signal telling you something's going on. With Jimenez and a lot of these players with the sixty day, these are nones. Most of these roster moves, honestly, and you're getting a guy off so you can bring somebody else onto the forty man, get somebody, get another NRI on the roster. These were knowns coming in that they weren't going to be back until long time. Corp with Burns we know isn't gonna be back until midway through the season. There's a number of other guys on Tommy Johns who they're gonna go to the sixty. So that's one of those situations where I'm not sure it's quite as meaningful. It's just one of those roster things.

00:27:34
Speaker 1: Hey, before we get to Burns there, I see him on the screen, just on de Menez, just to provide context for that one and the reason I'm asking about it. He's been out of baseball for a while now. So after twenty twenty four left knee surgery, ended up missing all of last year, and he said it happened to this issue with his knee during the season in twenty four. Didn't realize until after went for further evaluation in November. Right then that spills into twenty twenty five misses the whole year, shows up to camp. They calling this one for the sixty dayil left articular cartilage injury. So I'm guessing that's still related to the need. And that's when wile White said it's very complex and it almost seemed like he could miss the whole season again.

00:28:14
Speaker 3: And that's where brays Frans, I don't know.

00:28:15
Speaker 1: I think that's because they expected much, but they're like, damn no, Joe Hamannz for two years.

00:28:21
Speaker 5: Yeah, because that degeneration. You think about how much pressure you're putting on your knees, either knee. The first knee surgery was to clean it out try to get everything going, but that articular cartilage, which is basically a covering over the bone behind the knee cap. As they come together, it rolls, and if that cartilage is torn or rough or gone, you start getting bone on bone. That gets really bad. If the meniscus is torn, if he's had a previous issue with that, I don't know in this specific case, but it used to be they just pull that meniscus out and you'd move on with life. But we realized that probably wasn't the best ideas that, you know, they take out as little as possible, or they try to stitch it back together, which has about a fifty percent rate. We've seen that Mason Wynn coming back from a very minor menace act. To me, a lot of people were saying, you know, why is he coming back in six months from this because there was an off season. So with Hamenez, articular cartilage is tough, and honestly, the long term answer is going to be knee replacement, and we see that a lot. Lindsay Vaughn, who's obviously been in the news a lot for Hernie, had a partial knee replacement on one knee when she retired, and that would be a very similar solution for someone with the condition that Hamanas has.

00:29:40
Speaker 4: Hi last one for me, Josh Hater, the lead closer for the Astros, once he went out last year, they kind of faltered at the end. Not all his fault because he wasn't there, but you lose a big piece. Now it's saying he is bicep Inflammation's that bicep ten to nightis are we talking about actually in Scott Braun's biceps or are we talking about like the connected part closer to the shoulder.

00:30:07
Speaker 5: Yeah, we're likely. We haven't had confirmation. Been trying to lock this down after initially seeing that he was having this problem. A lot of people think bicep. They think, you know, the big muscles like you and aj have, But it's often in the shoulder. The bicep does attach the two muscles of the bicapp hence the name, come up into the shoulder. Same with the pector alis major. We think of a pack being chessed, but it also comes up and attaches in a very similar place. They actually cross. So if you've got an inflammation up there, is this an arm injury or is this a shoulder injury? I would argue it's more a shoulder injury. He had that left shoulder strain in the back, So is he offloading, has he changed his mechanics. There's a lot of different ways that this could happen, but the fact that this is occurring at the point where he should be well up in his ramp guys come into camp very easily. We know he's been throwing since at least January, so the fact that he's getting inflammation this early indicates those forces still aren't balanced, that something is going on at his shoulder can't handle and what's the underlying cause for that. Well, they're gonna have a ton of data. They're gonna have the bottom mechanical data in game and out of game. The astros are going to have their hands on him. They're gonna have however many scans he's had, which is probably a lot, and that's a very good medical staff down there, So it'll be interesting to watch how this goes and how available he is and how much this early, hopefully minor situation can be managed and get him back on the field.

00:31:34
Speaker 1: Wow, we covered a lot and yet there are still a million other injury notes from the last forty eight hours so I'm just gonna mention them, but really as a teaser that if you want to ask Will about them, then follow his newsletter. You can also send him a message in a number of ways. You can watch injury Territory. But just to name a few. Corbyn burns saying that he expects to be background the All Star break. Rheese Olsen out for the year shoulder surgery for him for the Tigers, which helps to explain why they signed from Rivaldez and and Justin Berlander over the past week.

00:32:02
Speaker 5: He kept it secret till they.

00:32:03
Speaker 1: Could exactly right. I mean there's a leverage game. The results too, That's what I just said.

00:32:09
Speaker 3: Resultson, Yeah, result Jackson job.

00:32:11
Speaker 2: Sorry, Oh well.

00:32:12
Speaker 1: Jackson Job's out too, right, so job, I don't know if he's coming back.

00:32:15
Speaker 2: Everyone's like results and Resulson and he's like, by the way, he's off for the hear Yeah, shoulder searcher.

00:32:20
Speaker 1: They had that news. Plus they were fighting Schooble. They wait till that our battle's done. Then they signed two pitchers for pretty good cash. Good move, good recovery by the Tigers. But Will last most important question for today is to just give everyone a little lowdown of what to expect with Injury Territory, because you know, we've had many shows that are team oriented, Prospect Insider, et cetera. I think this one's probably the most surprising to join the network. But people are pretty excited to learn what you're going to do on there in terms of talking about injuries, which can help fantasy real life following your team, and some of the guests you're expecting to have too.

00:32:53
Speaker 5: Yeah. Absolutely, I'm really excited about this for precisely the reasons we did today. We're going to be talking about exactly this, the injuries that have happened, why they happen, and hopefully give you some context. I'm gonna have a lot of people from inside the game, athletic trainers, doctors, sports scientists, people doing data behind the game. How are they looking at it? What is AI going to do to the inside of a training room. We'll have to do a whole episode with aj about superstitions and there I can tell you the whole stories about Sammy Sosa not wanting to talk to me, or why he injured his back sneezing when I was there. So it's one of those things where there's so many different ways this can go. And everybody knows that injuries can change a season how many different times. And we said, if we just had this guy, what would have happened if And I'm going to explain the context behind the injuries, not just list the injuries.

00:33:45
Speaker 3: Though.

00:33:45
Speaker 5: I'm always excited to come on here and hang out with you.

00:33:47
Speaker 1: Guys, will you and the man great segment here very timely to open up the show, Krat said conspiracy theory that this show has been planned to launch on this day and then all these injuries pop up. We are not doing that voodoo stuff. Well, thank you, appreciate you. We'll be talking.

00:34:04
Speaker 5: Thanks all, guys.

00:34:06
Speaker 1: And there are the new shows for the Injury Territory in the right Middleist Brewer Territory, Canable and Hogue on that first episode, Polar Romero and Bannon on Bluebird Territory. We'll talk more about those as the day continues.

00:34:19
Speaker 2: Having in fast.

00:34:27
Speaker 3: We're moving today.

00:34:28
Speaker 1: Evan Phillips one year, six and a half million bucks, kind of forgot that he was still on the market.

00:34:32
Speaker 2: I don't know he's a free agent because he got hurt, so we missed so much time.

00:34:37
Speaker 3: Dude's good though, Yeah.

00:34:39
Speaker 1: He was closing for them two years ago for part of the year, so he's back. Dodgers really needed an arm, Yes, I'm kind of joking.

00:34:51
Speaker 2: They well they used them all, so they need all the arms they can get. When you say they need an arm, yes, they actually do because they've you know, I guess crap Ground are all back. Copex still a free agent.

00:35:02
Speaker 3: True.

00:35:02
Speaker 2: Kevin Phillips is nasty when he's right trying and they don't know what they're going to get. Tanner Scott was not very good last year when they have Edwin Diaz and they you know our next guest, Justin Roubleski. He helped him out huge. But they need all the Listen. One thing about the Dodgers, they have DiPT because they go on sign guys for debt.

00:35:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean they DFA had Anthony Bonda, who is probably gonna get traded to a team that can really use him. They just dfa'd Ben Rurtvett, who was a big part of the third catchers Yeah right right, but ended up getting some PT because of the injuries. So nice little pick up here. Phillips is thirty one and he's not back right away. Just for the record, he's still recovering from TJ. The expected to return is mid season around July. Next up, yep, Jose Kintana, thirty seven year old, fifteenth big league season, Colorado Rocky's coming in hot in February. They were sleeping on us for most of the offseason and here they come. I mean they need to get some.

00:36:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, but this is the signings the Rockies do.

00:36:03
Speaker 3: But they need this.

00:36:04
Speaker 2: I mean, these are smart signings. They are because guess what if Jose Kintana goes out and pitches, well, they trade them. They trade them in June, in July, and they get a prospect they can possibly help it out. This is Paul de Podesta, the new head of baseball. They're making smart moves. These are the guys you sign because then you can hopefully turn them and it's not going to cost them a ton of money. Then you hopefully turn them into something that can help you down the road. So great, I mean you, I'm sorry you have to go pitch in Colorado, but I love you. But these you're getting paid and you get to pitch again.

00:36:35
Speaker 1: And nowadays they evaluate on what your stuff looks like. So even if the era is high, I mean they're well aware of what's going on there. Six million bucks for Kintana, and you figure Colorado is going to pay about half of that and then they're gonna flip them. But ye know, last year had some injuries, but still with Milwaukee, just shy up before Thera a little over one hundred and thirty innings, I mean, still can eat innings. And he's had an above average ERA plus for a long time now, going back to twenty trying to find the year where he wasn't at that mark.

00:37:10
Speaker 3: I think it's twenty twenty one.

00:37:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was the last time he wasn't above any RA plus of one hundred eight innings.

00:37:18
Speaker 4: Effectively, can't find a job because he doesn't throw ninety five plus. He's going to go out and continue to give to his team. There's this is a guy that's very locked into each one of his starts. I think it'll be interesting to see how these last two signings. I'm forgetting who the Rockies just signed Savali? Was it Savali?

00:37:40
Speaker 3: No?

00:37:40
Speaker 4: He signed with the A's anyway. Not getting strikeout guys, thank you Higano. Not getting strikeout guys. How is that going to play in Colorado now? I'm not worried about the Homers. Not worry about the Homers. I'm worried about balls in play. Just a lot of area to cover, So we'll be interesting. I'll be interested to see because he had below a four ERA, you'd think a guy like that would be a nice little pickup for somebody's fourth or fifth rotation spot. But I guess it wasn't meant to be until Colorado came a knocking.

00:38:15
Speaker 1: All right, let's keep going with signings. There's two more to get to that broke today. Jordan Montgomery has agreed to a one point two million dollar deal with the Rangers. There's also one point seventy five million potential bonuses. He is still working his way back from Tommy John surgery. Target is around the All Star break, reunited.

00:38:35
Speaker 2: And it feels so good. Last summer they got Jordan Montgomery back around the All Star breakday won the World Series. So are we doing the over under today? I vet MGM for the Rangers, so we can. I'm take the over now that monkey's back. I can't believe they're running it back. I can't believe it. It's unbelievable running it back. What idiots they are.

00:38:55
Speaker 1: You sound like a fan of another team that's not happy you when the same players returned to the team. Now Jordan Montgomery has been away from this team. Now he's returning to this team. Maybe it brings the mojo back, because ever since Jordan Montgomery left, they.

00:39:09
Speaker 3: Haven't been as good.

00:39:10
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying.

00:39:12
Speaker 1: I actually think he's going to return and pitch well for them, you know, like something.

00:39:15
Speaker 2: He's got to get back. Well. It's funny, as I forgot last year he was with the Brewers. Do you guys remember he was he was with the Brewer. He was with the Brewers, right. So I go in to do Milwaukee do a Brewer game, and I'm like, wait, he hadn't been to Milwaukee. He was there for some community service award, even though he wasn't really on the team. He was on the il when he got traded. But I walked in and he walks in, and I was talking to Vasalo and the and some of their reporters and I was like, oh, monkey, and they're like, we've never met him, Like, oh, he's out on the tunnel with his wife and they're like, oh, So he walked in the clubhouse nobody had ever met him because he never was there.

00:39:54
Speaker 3: Did anybody interview him?

00:39:55
Speaker 2: I don't know if anyone. I think somebody probably did it. It was one of those like strange things, things that you never thought you because you think, like, oh, you forgot that he got traded to the Brewers, and then you forget that he was technically on their team even though he never pitched. But then he shows up for the first time and nobody knew. Nobody like was like, what's up, dude, Like, so good to see you, man. How's the Rehabit was like going around like I'm Jordan Montgomery. Nice. Everyone's like.

00:40:26
Speaker 1: It was weird for a rehab time, not for a long time because he wasn't going to pitch with them.

00:40:32
Speaker 2: No, I know. That's why it was so strange.

00:40:34
Speaker 3: It was weird.

00:40:35
Speaker 2: But anyways, welcome back to Maybe he learned a.

00:40:37
Speaker 3: Thing or two out in Milwaukee.

00:40:38
Speaker 1: But for the Rangers, even on the pr side, him being around the organization, they love him in Arlington.

00:40:46
Speaker 3: And all of that, they love him. He was a dog.

00:40:50
Speaker 2: That's the American missile.

00:40:51
Speaker 3: Years ago.

00:40:52
Speaker 4: That's the American missile. He came to spring training the one year when we had chappion. He was like, you know what, if he's the Cuban missile, why can't I be the American missile? And then COVID hit and his velocity went down. So but forever he'll be an American missile in my heart.

00:41:09
Speaker 3: He can have that nickname. I'm fine with that. I like it. I hadn't heard that one. So you just mentioned the Brewers. They're up next.

00:41:17
Speaker 1: They signed someone hmm, an old friend, Gary Sanchez one point seventy five mil.

00:41:23
Speaker 2: Who is going to be their backup? Is this your first big league signing they've had.

00:41:28
Speaker 1: I think it is. Am I missing someone? Chat helped me out or make me look stupid? Am I missing someone?

00:41:34
Speaker 2: Well you do that on your own.

00:41:35
Speaker 1: You don't need the chat, thank you. Am I missing someone that the Brewers signed?

00:41:42
Speaker 4: I thought they signed somebody. I just talked about it yesterday. I thought they signed somebody early, like a picture that. But anyway, eh, Gary, my ex teammate, I mean you got it.

00:41:55
Speaker 2: You can't.

00:41:56
Speaker 4: I guess William Contreras can't play every day.

00:42:01
Speaker 3: I don't even know.

00:42:02
Speaker 4: I don't even know who the other backup was supposed to be. I honestly thought there'd be a Jonaheim sighting in Milwaukee because they value the receiving part of the game a lot, and Jonaheim, you know, I think could have could have fit into this roster in a way as a as a switch hitter. Contreres can DH a little bit more, but el Gary could go try to hit some dingers.

00:42:28
Speaker 3: He's gonna be the backup catcher.

00:42:30
Speaker 2: You have it clearly.

00:42:34
Speaker 3: I mean he didn't play much last year. He was hurt.

00:42:36
Speaker 2: He was hurt a lot.

00:42:38
Speaker 1: He only ended up I was looking, I'm like man even less than I thought. Twenty nine games, one hundred and one played appearances with the Brewers bad and with Milwaukee the year before, eighty nine games two hundred and eighty played appearances six ninety nine ops below average OPS plus.

00:42:54
Speaker 3: So it's fine a lot that year. Yeah, well not for a catcher, but for a catcher, it's above average.

00:43:05
Speaker 1: It is above average. I think it was ninety four, so it's a little above average. Fine, crats, it's fine. I mean it's fine. It's a it's a backup catcher who's got some pop for you. I mean he should be an above average backup catcher.

00:43:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, more hitting, Yeah, but he hasn't really been.

00:43:26
Speaker 3: I mean, he hasn't been Gary a long time.

00:43:28
Speaker 2: It's been a long time.

00:43:29
Speaker 4: It has Knowing backup catchers, I was one. If El Garry is your backup catcher, it's an upgrade. Sorry, I get it. He's not gonna hit he's not gonna hit twenty homers in his first twenty five games for the Brewers, but it's a good it's a good backup. That's the to me, that's the upper tier of backup catchers.

00:43:51
Speaker 1: Agreed, totally agree, same page. That's an upper tier backup catcher that can do it if he's health on offense, if he's healthy. The one thing I'll say with him, because I'm just remembering this, I'm not even going to say the name of the person who's who's a friend of mine, who's prominent in our game. He was like, this guy's got He didn't say pooh holes production potential, but he was making like pooh holes comps back in the day. And I'm not doing it right now. But my question is Kratz is a big fan of him for years. When you do look at the career, this guy hasn't lived up to what many thought he was going to be. I know, he's nice and he's had a nice career and he's hung around for a while.

00:44:32
Speaker 3: But when he came up.

00:44:34
Speaker 2: He was going to live up to that hype. Especially it's really hard.

00:44:37
Speaker 3: People thought he was going to be a superstar and he was. You guys play the cat. You guys played. He was a.

00:44:44
Speaker 2: Superstar for about one year and then he hit. Then he's a lot of things went wrong. There's the past fall problem he had right and then I mean he was basically just a home run hitter for a long time.

00:44:58
Speaker 1: You guys played the position where guys get hyped and fall blow expectations more than any other position in baseball.

00:45:05
Speaker 2: Because it's hard. It's hard because it wears, y'all.

00:45:09
Speaker 4: There's more things that can go wrong that can derail that hype. And I wouldn't say it was just hype. I mean, you talk about sixteen was incredible, you know, almost one rookie of the year with two hundred at bats.

00:45:21
Speaker 2: That was awesome.

00:45:22
Speaker 4: Seventeen, you know, we were one game away from going to the World Series. We lost the Astros. He had thirty three homers, a ops plus a one to twenty six eighteen. He only played in eighty nine games nineteen, played in one hundred and six games, still at a OPS plus at one nineteen, so it was a good start to four years. I remember even in twenty Cashman came in. We were in COVID and Cashman came in and he was we were kind of going through like a rough patch, and he was going through like why he believed in the team and why you know, the guys that were on that roster, and he was like, we have a catcher on this team who needs to get back to the Hall of Fame track that he's been on for the first four years of his career. We have to get back to, you know, Aaron Hicks being the guy that they gave the extension to, and like Gary was one of those guys. And I think really after that nineteen season I hit on a few years ago on the show, but that it.

00:46:26
Speaker 2: Wasn't just hype.

00:46:27
Speaker 4: It wasn't like prospect hype. It was he was having a lot of production from the catching position, which just adds more to things that Aj did in his career, staying healthy, playing catching a thousand innings and doing what he did for so long that it needs to be talked more about in the Hall of Fame category because it is so freaking tough at that position.

00:46:55
Speaker 1: There's examples every year in a variety of ways. There's Henry Davis, first overall pick and even if he wasn't supposed to be first overall, top ten pick and super hyped, and right he's he's found himself.

00:47:06
Speaker 3: He's found a lane, but he's not a star.

00:47:08
Speaker 1: Adley Rutchman kind of emerged quickly as a potential star, all Star looking player and then his production is has dipped down on offense. Right, it is both that's what I just said and Joey bart Bart Yeah, Matt Weemers, remember he.

00:47:22
Speaker 2: Came up with all the hype and then it kind of fizzled a little bit.

00:47:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, those guys are solid big leaguers.

00:47:29
Speaker 2: I think Rushman has a chance to be pretty good. I do too.

00:47:32
Speaker 1: I'm not saying I'm not putting him in the same category. I'm just saying, like he was hyped as like this could be the best player in the sport, and now it's like, okay, let's see if he gets his bat back on track first before we start throwing out.

00:47:43
Speaker 2: You know what's strange about a lot of catchers, and I think Hope, I think Cretz agree with me. It's a lot of times now Buster Posey Joe Mauer aside, probably even though Joe didn't catch as long and he moved to first and Buster only you know, Buster played what ten years and kind of also had to move to first sense injuries sadly, but they're both going to be in the Hall of Fame. A lot of times, it's like kind of catchers that you don't hear about that have really nice careers that kind of just fly you kind of fly under the radar, and like you know, I use Kurt Suzuki, like because he came up in Oakland, right, he wasn't I don't know if he was, but he was like a second round I think the second round pick when he got there. But he had a very nice career by just being steady right, steady, steady, steady, steady YACHTI Molina Back in the day when he came up, they had Mike Methani. They had to get rid of Mike Metheni to clear him for Yadi. Now, I don't know, he wasn't obviously the super high draffick like he was, but you know, he became something right. It's catching is so hard to predict, man, it's the hardest. It really is the hardest position to predict.