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Friday, March 21, 2008
Smoltz and alarming words: Sore shoulder
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lake Buena Vista, Fla. _ Ah, just another bright, sunshiney Jimmy Cliff day here at Dark Star, gone are the dark clouds that … wait, what’s that? Smoltz has been scratched? Shoulder soreness?
Send up the flares! Call Dr. Andrews, stat! Or Adam-12! Or FEMA! (no, wait, we need immediate attention, so don’t call FEMA).
But seriously…. In case you missed it, Smoltz was sratched from today’s start against the Tribe because of soreness in his throwing shoulder. And of course, the immediate reaction among many is concern, or here-we-go dread.
But after talking to him and having him point out the location of the situation (oh, the alliteration) (BLOGMEISTER NOTE: double parenthesis being used, because a poster informed me later today that it’s assonance; so, oh the assonance. ok continue), I have formed a diagnosis. Which is, he’s getting old. We all are — or a lot of us, at least.
(Running a mere four miles on the road now leaves me feeling like I’ve been through some sort of boot camp.)
But as it’s not soreness in the rotator cuff/labrum area, and Smoltz assured me it is not, then there wouldn’t appear to be reason to panic. Concern, yes. That’s fair. Anytime it’s John Smoltz, your 40-year-old ace, and it’s a week until opening day, you should have some concern.
But honestly, this seems like the type of stuff he’s been dealing with the last couple of seasons, I’d guess more often than not. Certainly more often than he’s divulged at the time.
If it was the regular season, Smoltz would try to pitch with this. “That’s a no-brainer,” he said when I asked him about that this morning, to try to get a gauge of the severity.
If Smoltz was put on the DL to begin the season, the date could be backdated for up nine days into spring training (provided he doesn’t appear in a Grapefruit League game during that span).
With the Braves having a scheduled day off April 1 after the second game of the season, they could skip a starter and not need a fifth starter until April 6, when Smoltz could be back from the DL.
Jeff Bennett is filling in today, and Bennett might boost his chances of making the team with a solid effort. We’re about to get started here. He’ll be facing most of Cleveland’s regulars, though Travis Haffner isn’t in the lineup.
Back to Smoltz. He was standing at his locker, reading over his NCAA basketball pool sheets when I approached him after hearing about him being scratched. Chipper Jones said something funny to him about his first-day picks, etc.
In other words, there was no pall over the clubhouse, nor over his locker stall in particular.
The soreness is not in the shoulder that would indicate rotator-cuff or labrum problems, the type that most commonly require surgery.
“So many people the last few years have just been waiting to say, ‘This is it,’” John said, referring to those who’ve anticipated a career-threatening injury to the man who’s had four elbow surgeries.
“I will let everyone know when it’s it. That’s not a problem.” And this, he said, is not “it.”
He plans to make his final spring start on March 26, but he conceded possibility that he’d open the season on the DL.
And Bobby Cox said as much, too. The manager said he didn’t think he’d go on the DL, then added a “but…” and some other words, thinking-aloud stuff that wouldn’t look right in a sentence here.
He did drop an F-bomb, but it was only to say that “everybody else in baseball is doing the same thing,” referring to starters being held out of starts, etc. Well, I don’t know that everybody is, but a lot of older dudes are.
Again, Smoltz is getting old - in baseball years. As one Braves official told me, it takes a while to get these older guys cranked up, but once you do, they’re fine.
Smoltz will be fine. OK, wait, let’s got with “relatively fine.” Because I think it’s time that everyone stop expecting him to make 35 starts and throw 220 innings. It’s not going to happen, I’d suggest.
Smoltz knows his limitations, knows his body, which is why he has said since the end of last season that he hoped the Braves would have the luxury of having a “sixth starter” in their bullpen to fill in once in a while for an older starter who might need to skip a turn.
To his credit, he didn’t fight the decision to skip today’s turn, like he would’ve in the past. He knows that if he’s to be healthy for the long run, and particularly for the hoped-for pennant drive, then he needs to be smart and not pitch that extra inning or two when he’s fading, like he did in past seasons, or make that start when he’s aching, like he did last summer after hurting his shoulder when he slipped making that warmup pitch at Milwaukee.
He ended up on the DL a month after that incident, because he never rested it long enough for inflammation to subside. Sounds like he’s ready to be more realistic now. And cautious.
“‘CEPT YOU & ME, BABE” by Greg Brown
Half the people you see these days are talking on cell phones
Driving off the road & bumping into doors
People used to spend quite a bit of time alone
I guess nobody’s lonely anymore
‘cept you & me babe, ‘cept you & me
It’s raining sheets of rain everything is cold and wet
Nobody’s going out of doors
They’re all at home living it up on the internet
So I guess nobody’s lonely any more
‘cept you and me babe, ‘cept you and me
People meet somebody new & they leave the rest behind
We can have it all even though our lives are short
The kids they’ll get used to it it happens all the time
No one is even surprised any more
‘cept you and me babe, ‘cept you and me
I take my coffee black or with a little cream
I wake up every morning with the sun
I wanted to be your man that was nothing but a sweet dream
I always tell the truth to everyone
‘cept you and me babe, ‘cept you and me
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