Shoulder abnormalities are the new market inefficiency.

Abbey Normal.

If he’s got a good bat and a strong arm that we just don’t want on the mound, maybe we just found a future OFer.

Future ace of the flat ground pitching staff.

I have a feeling there are lots of “abnormalities” that really aren’t harbingers of problems.  Or don’t raise the chance of any future problems by more than a small amount.  Yankees probably used this for negotiations, like the, “hey look at this, if you go to school this could cause an injury and you’ll get nothing”.  Maybe now they’ll use that 400K to try to sign one of their later picks.  I think there were a few picks in the later rounds who were considered tough signs…maybe 500K will be enough to break their commitment to school and they can get a player who should have gone in the 3rd round late?

Future ace of the flat ground pitching staff.

So bust, right? Cuz if he was any good, he’ll be pitching teh ate for the flat grounders.

Got this link from RAB on Hensley.

Hensley Meulens is back with the Yanks?  Wow that’s nice… seems like they could’ve gotten him for less than $1.2M though

[7] That’s a pretty interesting article. I know from experience that kind of news is hard to take even when you have the injury history to back it up, it must have been really strange given that he’s never had any injury. When I found out about my hips I considered quitting running. I’m sure with 1 million+ on the line the decision was far more difficult.

[8]If he can do for the current Yankees what he’s done for Melky, he’s well worth it.

Over the last few weeks I would watch R.A. Dickey on TV, and think well if he could get through it I can do it too.

Maybe he can learn to throw a knuckleball with his left arm after the amputation.

FWIW, I’m still playing at age 32 and get the occasional shoulder nagging injury as the season goes on. When I talked to a doctor about it, the response I got was that MRI’s are often not given to regular people because there will almost certainly be something found with your rotator cuff, and the logical but erroneous conclusion will be “that’s why my shoulder hurts!” The fact of the matter is that just by aging, your rotator cuff and other small shoulder muscles get stressed and, for lack of a better term, erode. So, if you were to take any person of the street, let alone a person who makes their living throwing baseballs at 95 mph, you’re going to find *something* in a shoulder MRI. I’m not sure if that’s the ‘abnormality’, but it’s something to consider.

[12] Yeah, that was sort of part of the outcry against the full body scans hospitals were offering a few years back. Everyone has something wrong with them, it’s just usually not worth bothering with. Now, finding an anomoly in a pitcher’s shoulder is something worth worrying about, especially if you are about to give them 1.6 million dollars.

Given that he’s asymptomatic and can still hit 98 it probably only slightly increases his injury risk, but it saved the Yankees 400K, which they can use to sign another signability pick or two.

The ridiculously illogical outcry already is that Cashman should have somehow known about this *before* drafting this kid. Some people, I tell ya..

[14] The Yankees should have the resources to kidnap all the players they are targeting and give them MRIs and CAT scans. In their sleep of course.

The ridiculously illogical outcry already is that Cashman should have somehow known about this *before* drafting this kid. Some people, I tell ya..

Well, it is assumed at this point that all Yankee draft signings will have some problem.  So yeah, he should have known something bad was going to turn up in the MRI.

[9] My girlfriend recently (4 months ago) convinced me to try a chiropractor.  Turns out that from a car accident when I was 16 my hips were rotated considerably the wrong way, in addition to a crooked spine and inverted (yes, inverted) neck.  I was basically asymptomatic.  Or so I thought anyway.  After 2 months of corrective therapy I feel better than I thought I could.  But yes, sometimes getting tests can surprise you with the results.

Hopefully this is just something the Yankees can monitor and learn from.  Or as Hensley says, for all we know at this point this is the reason he can throw the ball as hard as he does…

[17] Finding out can be helpful, I’ve still gotten injured after my diagnosis, but it’s been far less frequent because I know what sort of preventative work I need to put in. I lift weights far more than your average runner because I need my upper legs, to be really strong to take the pressure off of my groin muscles, specifically hip adductors and abductors. Also, I’m far more rigorous in my stretching because the extra flexibility is also very important. I also tend to avoid activities that have an overabundance of dynamic lateral movement.

inverted (yes, inverted) neck.

Too easy.

Mothers’ basements tend to have low ceilings. Thus, bad posture and eventually inverted necks. If only we went outside and enjoyed these games like real fans.

So basically, his right shoulder is missing?

[20] I wish I was a real fan, but the sun, it burns so!

[21] That is an abnormality.

[19] Easy for you.  Where’s Mal?

Now Stryker Trahan is a good baseball name.

The Yankees should have the resources to kidnap all the players they are targeting and give them MRIs and CAT scans. In their sleep of course.

Finally.  Whitley Strieber and the abduction thing - solved.

[13] Everyone has something wrong with them, it’s just usually not worth bothering with.

I have numbness, tingling, and pain in my right arm and my Dr recommended an MRI. 

I just picked up the MRI results today to take to the neurosurgeon.  Being the curious sort that I am, I opened up the report and read it.  Now I wished I hadn’t because based on the language and descriptions, I gather that I have about 24 hours to live.

[27]Is sitting in a waiting room and talking to a neurosurgeon really the way you want to spend two or three of your last 24 hours?

I’m guessing posting here isn’t really the best way to spend some of your last minutes on earth either.

God speed.

[27] He recommended the MRI so you couldn’t sue him after you died.

Oh, wait…..

Definitely Don.

Nah - I think I’ll be fine.  I’m fairly pain free, but reading the MRI report is like reading the aftermath of a train derailment.

All of which means Hensley should probably schedule his appointment with Dr. Andrews now before the end of the season when he gets booked up.

Leona if you’re up there, and I’m sure you are, you should be proud.

[27]  Sounds like you have a bulging disk in your neck.  I had one.  Email me through the site and we’ll dialogue…unless you’re already dead.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/health/mris-often-overused-often-mislead-doctors-warn.html?pagewanted=all

Dr. James Andrews, a widely known sports medicine orthopedist in Gulf Breeze, Fla., wanted to test his suspicion that M.R.I.’s, the scans given to almost every injured athlete or casual exerciser, might be a bit misleading. So he scanned the shoulders of 31 perfectly healthy professional baseball pitchers.

The pitchers were not injured and had no pain. But the M.R.I.’s found abnormal shoulder cartilage in 90 percent of them and abnormal rotator cuff tendons in 87 percent. “If you want an excuse to operate on a pitcher’s throwing shoulder, just get an M.R.I.,” Dr. Andrews says.

[32] Does Andrews do shoulders?

[36] He does everything.

[34] Yep, large herniated disc at C6/7 and a moderate one at C5/6 from my cage fighting days.  I’m at the stage now where I’m doing physical therapy and waiting to consult with the neurosurgeon and see if I can get by without having surgery.

Hopefully this kid will turn out better than the disaster that was Brackman. Stupid pick back when as everybody knew he was heading for TJ surgery. What a waste of $4+ million.

Now, back to more ER stories.

[37] Have you seen a chiropractor yet?  That’s one of the things they often treat.  Certainly it falls more under long-term maintenance than a “cure”...but then again surgery often isn’t a cure for that either.

[37]  I did years of physical therapy and ended up wishing I had just done the surgery right away.  But as always your mileage may vary and what your doctor says is more important than what I say.  Happy to share what I know, though, if you’re interested.

[38] The only way the Yankees get top-5 talent is if there is something majorly wrong with them.  They took a gamble.  They lost.  $4M means the Steinbrenner’s had to take 1 less vacation that year.  The major league contract was probably the only thing Cashman would do differently.

[16] - Exactly.  The Yankees should have just not drafted anyone.

[39] Have you ever tried a manipulative osteopath?

[41] But Brackman wasn’t a top-5 talent. He was a half-year wonder at best.

Then there are good gambles and then there’s wasting time and money foolishly. That would be the Brackman pick. He would’ve been there many rounds later as Boras was his rep. And cost far less.

[43] Brackman was a consensus top 10 pick until his elbow issue became public. That and his high bonus demands allowed him to fall all the way to the Yankees. The stupid part of the pick was the ML contract. If he didn’t have that contract he’d probably still be in the Yankees system.

Why didn’t Brackman stick with the Yanks on a MiL deal?  Or were they just done with him?  I think he’s with the Reds now?

If you check out how he’s done for the Reds organization you’ll see that he’s not missed.

[45] Given that the Yankees released him and didn’t really have a plan for him, it’s understandable he’d try his fortunes elsewhere.

It sucks that Brackman did’t work out, but it was still probabaly the right pick. Maybe they should have passed on signing him if it meant a ML deal, but TJ surgery is not a huge deal anymore and the upside was worth the risk in an MiL deal, IMO.

[44] I don’t believe he was a “consenus” top 10 before his being shut down. But in any event, after he was shut down, and it became an open secret that TJ surgery was in his future, where was he ranked at that time? The entire deal was stupid at that point. And I stated so at the time he was selected, so no hindsight here.

[45] Yeah, he’s with the Reds.

[48] I agree the contract was stupid. I disagree that the draft pick was stupid. Not that it really matters, he was a Yankees first round draft pick and thus must suck.