Injury Updates

by R.J. Anderson on Sep 11, 2008 10:38 PM EDT

All from Will Carroll's new UTK column:

Evan Longoria took batting practice with one of the trainers, but he'll need to go off of live pitching before he comes back

B.J. Upton
Upton is making progress and should return to the lineup this weekend. Tampa managed a split with the Red Sox despite not having a full third of their starting players available. To me, the story of this season is not that the Rays made their big leap, but that they managed to find and maintain such a high level despite setbacks, injuries, subpar performances, and other challenges. I'm not sure if it's the existentialist manager with a taste for cabernet, or just a collection of talent that runs deeper than even we expected, but it is impressive. Upton should be limited by the quad, so don't expect him to run, and there's some chance that he'll have to resort to some DH playing time, though without Upton out in center, the team puts together a pretty ugly-looking outfield.

Clearly the lineup will be much, much improved when both return but I wanted to touch on Carroll's point about sustaining success despite injuries. Doing some napkin math the Rays have been without Pena (21), Longoria (30), Crawford (28), and Upton (4) for a combined 83 games due to injury. While I'm not sure how other teams (read: Boston) match up with that if you would've told me those four miss more than half the season combined I would be asking you if your preference was Stephen Strasburg or a hitter in next June's draft.

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I haven't looked up the number of days,

but I think other teams in the division have had similar problems. Boston has had substantial time without Ortiz, Drew and Lowell; the Yankees have missed A-Rod, Posada and Matsui. Toronto has lost Hill, Rolen and Wells for substantial periods. I think in all three cases those losses have been as damaging to each team’s lineup as the Rays’ losses have been. In fact, purely in terms of star power, the Boston and NY injured players are considerably more potent bats.

Part of the Rays’ ability to play through those lost players has been the quality of the bench. Aybar has proved an exceptional substitute as has Gross, although quite a few fans on various sites considered both wastes of roster space even in late July.

By the way, the Rays have also lost Navarro for some games. And I am not sure what group of Rays/Red Sox games Will Carroll is referring to. If the most recent, the Rays did not split; they won the series. And for the season they are one up as well as they are since August 1 I think.

by bobr on Sep 11, 2008 11:03 PM EDT reply actions