fallen angels

It's nice to know the A's aren't the only team with injury concerns. This week has been a rough one for the Anaheim Angels, with 2 of their highly talented starting pitchers complaining of elbow pain. Ervin Santana, who inked himself a hefty contract extension this offseason has reason to worry now that initial optimism has gone dark:

Says Will Carroll at Baseball Prospectus:

"Bad news on Ervin Santana. He has a "small" tear in his UCL. He’ll rest and undergo treatment before a decision is made on the next step. Surgeons disagree on how complete a tear must be before doing Tommy John surgery, in large part because every arm is different. More, the forces put on those arms are different. Santana’s going to be risky, even if he’s able to come back. Very few pitchers are effective in the short term, with many showing control issues." Santana is easily the best Angel pitcher, at 51-37.

As if that news was not bad enough, yesterday Angels brass told the LA times that Joe Saunders, their #2 is also experiencing elbow pain. "His ball was flat, his sinker up a bit," Manager Mike Scioscia said — he still needed only 30 pitches to complete three innings. He threw another 15 in the bullpen to bring his pitch count to 45.

Saunders did his best to deflect the direness of the situation: "The fastball command still isn't there, the arm speed still isn't there," Saunders said. "I've just got to keep long-tossing to get my arm strength where it should be." Sure, Joe. Maybe the economy could use a little "long toss".

Any baseball fan can tell you, elbow/tommy john surgeries are a crap shoot, especially when you're talking about pitchers. Pitchers rely on tendon strength for velocity and accuracy, and without a firm grasp on both, their value at the Major League level can plummet quickly. A sinker left up is lunch meat for a big league hitter. A 78 MPH fastball is just as easy to prey upon... just ask Barry Zito (yes, this line has been used before and yes, it will be used again).

The Angels now have some choices to make: start the season with banged up pitchers (and risk further injuries) or call up a few minor league arms to provide a stopgap. Their situation is made more precarious by the increasing viability of Oakland's young arms. Trevor K-Hill, Vin Mazzaro and Bret Anderson have all shown the cactus league some impressive outings, and they are not leaving Anaheim much room for error.

I'm reluctant to root for injury, mainly because it's bad juju... and because these athletes are people too. Well, all except Yankees. But seriously, baseball is the most superstitious sport in the US, and sending those vibes will inevitable lead to an imbalanced cosmos, potentially at the expense of one of our newly acquired hitters. So I just stay away. That said, I shed no tears for Ervin Santana, and in fact; I wish him a long, slow, thorough and meticulous healing period.

Get well Ervin, hopefully in September.