WIth the news from Dylan Hernandez of the Times that hip surgery might keep Clayton Kershaw sidelined for the start of the 2013, I’m wondering if the problem arose from Kershaw compensating for his plantar fasciitis.
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Anonymous
If it’s a labral tear in the hip, doctors don’t really know why those happen, but they’ve happened to a lot of athletes in recent times. It’s the next area of injuries for sports medicine doctors to study.
John Adams
I had the same thought. Can they fix both while he is down? Is plantar fasciitis even fixable?
KT
foot and ankle surgeries have more chances of not healing right than any other part of your body except maybe hands which are not weight bearing
I’ve had 15 orthopedic surgeries and I won’t let them touch either my ankles or my feet after talking to or watching people trying to recover during physical therapy
I have documented injuries to both my ankles and feet and I’d rather live with the “weak” ankles then to opt for surgery
John Adams
Wow – that sounds terrifying! Leave Clayton’s feet alone!
Anonymous
There is surgery for plantar fasciitis, but not many people get it. Even top class athletes.
Anonymous
Is talking about fascitis a potential Rule No. 5 violation?
KT
easier to cure the problem then to try to recover if you can from the surgery…I had it in both feet, right foot responded to the treatment pretty quickly…The left took forever to heal
Anonymous
Maybe he was hurt in one of those wild post game dog pile celebrations that the team leader Matt Kemp has made mandatory.
Anonymous
It probably just wore down.
KT
that my guess considering all the torque they go through
Anonymous
Not sure what it would involve, but it would seem amazing to me that he would be able to make such an adjustment and not have it noticed, if not by us, by the experts, including Honeycutt. And to pitch so effectively to boot. But, what do I know.
KT
yea but he hasn’t been as effective as last year and maybe that is because of the slight mechanical adjustment initially cause by the facsiitis then causing the strain to the hip labrum…It’s reasonable in my mind
Anonymous
Sure, as compared to his second half last year, but actually the overall numbers are not that far off. Your a tough customer. He leaves as the top pitcher in the NL in K’s,WHIP and Innings, and second in ERA and WAR for pitchers.
Anonymous
it never ends…
Anonymous
From reading Molly’s article a few months back pitchers are more prone to those kinds of injuries but you can’t help & wonder if the PF played a minor role as well. Hopefully this serves a positive purpose & Kershaw takes his off-season work out regime to another level.
Anonymous
With the Dodgers trotting out this anemic offense against division leaders to close out the season, I believe the “fat lady” is accelerating her warmup.
But . . . there IS cause for joy — I believe this was the first non-losing homestand for the Blue since the All Star break . . . woo-hoo!
Anonymous
Just hope this is not Bo Jackson-esque
Anonymous
I would seriously doubt that would be the case. Especially when they are discussing arthroscopic surgery. Bo Jackson had the blood supply to his hip cut off causing the bone to die.
Anonymous
Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery. I remember watching the game Bo got hurt in and the hit was not that violent, he just had his leg twisted a bit.
Anonymous
Bo was foolish to play football. Had he concentrated on baseball, he would have had a much longer and far more illustrious career.
Anonymous
Had he not gotten hurt he could have been in the football HOF and knocking on the door of the baseball HOF. What an athlete.
Anonymous
I know little about football and care less, but such severe injury was far less likely in baseball. I saw him play a few times here in Oakland, and was greatly impressed – once, he threw out a runner trying to score from third on a base hit (though I guess it would have to be scored a fielder’s choice in that case).
foul tip
Don’t have the particulars, but recall reading where he threw out a runner at home on the fly from deep in some ballpark. People just stood around with their jaws dropping after the play.
Anonymous
Someone should explain that to Matty.
Anonymous
I believe in Bo’s injury, there was such severe damage that he bone actual died (or was dying) that forced his operation. While I hope it isn’t either, it sounds a lot like what A-Rod and JH Jr. have experienced.
Bob Bartholomew
GM Ned Colletti to return for Dodgers under new multiyear deal
http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/jon-heyman/20191261/gm-ned-colletti-to-return-for-dodgers-under-new-multiyear-deal
Anonymous
having read slash taking a crash course on stress (if you even call it that) i have more respect,understanding, sympathetic to the job these guys do.
“One study showed that adults with high stress levels performed 50 percent worse on certain cognitive tests than adults with low stress. Specifically, stress hurts declarative memory & executive function (the type of thinking that involves problem-solving)”
dud dew
I had PF as a young athlete – and, depending on how painful it is, it would certainly
change the way he moves, and so make him eligible for skeletal issues elsewhere.
I don’t see a lot of Dodger-ball, but when I did see Clayton this year, something seemed
a little “off” in his delivery compared to last season. Just didn’t seem “smooth” to me
(though I thought about it more in terms of control than of injury).
Ned and Donnie comin’ back: the Ds will not be characterized by a willingness to “throw out”
the Great Book of Baseball:-).
In the FO, daring and imagination will be hard to find, unless y’count throwing foolish amounts of cash
at disappointing vets as such. And given Logan White and Co’s work, there won’t be a
rescue stream comin’ from the minors, unless it really turns out to be a shortage of capital that forced
the previous seven years of mostly misguided selections, or they hire additional
and competent scouts to cover non-pitching youngsters (and even the focus on pitching, to this old-timer, seems to have yielded limited crops).
Still think Donnie’s got a lot of what you want in a manager, if only there was a way to keep
him otherwise occupied during actual games:-).
Anonymous
I too am unenthusiastic about Mattingly’s game skills, but would hope that his people skills counterbalance that. It will be interesting to see if he can help persuade Hanley, who is clearly not a shortstop, to move back to third.
Anonymous
I hope if Hanley does return to 3rd base, it is not Dee who plays short. He reminds me of a Juan Pierre playing short. I like Hanley and Cruz on the left side.
KT
me too w/ cruz at SS
Anonymous
Dee’s got the range and the agility to be a great shortstop. As he grows into the game, and “slows it down,” you’ll see a lot fewer errors.
Anonymous
There’s little reason to believe that error rates improve from age 24 on. Dee’s error rate has remained stable during his 5 years of professional baseball. The game hasn’t slowed down for him in 5 years–why should it suddenly start slowing down for him now?
Then there’s the thing where Dee’s “range” is pretty awful. We should stop saying that Dee’s got the “range.” He can run really fast. That’s not the same as having “range.”
Anonymous
Is Gordon slow to react?
Does it take Gordon longer to get up to speed than slower runners?
Why do you say Gordon doesn’t have range?
Anonymous
If Dee had great range, he would be getting to more of the balls hit in his zone. He is fairly average when it comes to that. It’s not impossible that Dee will one day figure things out and learn to use his speed to get to more of the balls. Right now, however, he isn’t any better than Jeter at covering ground in his zone.
I wish I had the link to this stat, but sadly I don’t. I remember it because I was surprised to see that Dee’s range was so underwhelming.
KT
I think second might be a better position if he could make the adjustments…more time to not hurry the throw
Anonymous
I would like to see the Dodgers be a speedy team and with Crawford in left, Ramirez at third, Gordon at short, and Cruz at second, the Dodgers would be fast.
KT
I think I would try to switch Dee and Luis
Anonymous
This is another great week for those away from L.A. to be able to watch Dodger games. (Don’t get excited; it’s because we’re playing the two best teams in baseball, one of which may be clinching its division this weekend, and not because they think people want to see the Dodgers right now.)
MLB Network will be showing the Tuesday and Thursday games at Washington; Thursday they will use their own team (Kenny and Kaat). MLB Network will also show the Friday game at Cincinnati. I’m not sure about whether Saturday’s game will be broadcast in some areas on Fox; all I know is, here in Chicago they’re showing Twins-Tigers, which is of interest to Sox fans. And Sunday’s game in Cincinnati will be on ESPN for their Sunday Night Baseball series.
I hear there will be a visible, vocal Dodgers fan in about the tenth row directly behind home plate for the Saturday and Sunday games in Cincinnati. :)
Anonymous
We’re at that time of year when there are going to be some lonnnggg rain delays. The Pirates are playing their last game of the year at Chicago tonight and there’s a delay. And they will likely wait all night since it would be very hard to make it up.
The Dodgers could face some very long delays in Washington and Cincinnati. They could make up a rainout in Cincinnati on Monday which is an off day for both teams. But there’s no wiggle room for the Washington series if the Thursday game is threatened by rain.
The only game in DC though that may be threatened by rain is Tuesday’s.
Good weather is in the forecast for Cincinnati. After that, it’s San Diego and Los Angeles.
Anonymous
>> We’re at that time of year when there are going to be some lonnnggg rain delays.
Huh? In the Eastern half of the country, September and October are the driest months of the year. Rain, and its consequent delays and postponements, are far more common in spring than in fall.
John Adams
I think what he meant was that because of the shortness of the season and lack of compatible off-days, you have to wait through the delays rather than postpone the games for another day
Anonymous
That makes sense… except that, at any time of the year, they usually do anything possible (including rain delays of as much as 2-3 hours, such as a recent spring game at Wrigley) to get the game played. They NEVER like to postpone games.
KT
well we now have a double header scheduled tomorrow becuase of todays rainout..like BT predicted:
“The only game in DC though that may be threatened by rain is Tuesday’s.”
Anonymous
I suffered through the rain delays last year in DC. As I recall, the Weds night game was called pretty quickly, but they waited hours to try to get in the second game of the doubleheader on Thursday, to no avail. If they had been able to get it in, the only fans left with have been about 50 fans, all Dodger fans by the way. Dislocated as we are, we forget to leave early.
I will miss the series this year due to travel.
Anonymous
>> I will miss the series this year due to travel.
Then travel to a different series! They still have good tickets available at Cincinnati, and there’s always Stubhub. I bought my Cincinnati seats (tenth row behind home plate) just three weeks ago.
Anonymous
Ha! They actually do have some diamonds here in Jakarta that the Texas oilmen built years ago. Local kids still play some organized ball and I go watch them on the weekends. And I hear that the kids in Borneo still revere Norm Tonucci.
Anonymous
LOL! I guess Jakarta makes it a bit far to get to Cincinnati. So it would be easier to catch one of the remaining home games, like that last series vs SF. :)
Michael Green
Jon, you read a lot of people’s minds. The name that always pops up in baseball history is Dizzy Dean. A line drive broke his toe. He kept pitching, and in compensating for the problem with his feet, he hurt his arm. Then I think of Don Drysdale pitching with all of those injuries, including cracked ribs; no wonder he burned out at age 33. Kershaw is a jewel, and we need to make sure he doesn’t wear down.
Anonymous
I was thinking Mark the bird Fidrych. Wasn’t it a knee injury that altered his pitching mechanics?
Anonymous
Fidrych did have a knee injury, but he tore a rotator cuff after getting to the majors and taking on a huge workload and likely pitching between 130-160 pitches per game.
Anonymous
I thought he just said something to himself he took too personally.
Anonymous
Drysdale pitched almost entirely during a 4 man starting staff period. If his # of pitches is predetermined, he would last 25% longer today or another 3 or 4 years including all of those injuries.
Blue-eyed Gal
I’ve been fretting about PF’s impact on Kershaw all year. He’s been good ,but there have been clear indications this year that something was still a little off. There’s been several Kershaw games where Vin rolled out his anecdote about even the best pitchers having to gut out a game when they didn’t have their best “stuff.”
And yes, I’m sure a lot of us were thinking of the PF as soon as we heard of Kershaw’s hip troubles. It’s hard not to see a connection. I know danged well my sciatica on my right hip comes of standing crookedly to favor more arthritic joints on the left side. Anything that causes you to favor one leg, foot or ankle will have repercussions farther up.
Anonymous
I’m sure Barbaro will attest to that.
Anonymous
Today (9/18) is the sixth anniversary of 4+1.
Anonymous
I can’t even remember the order of those HR’s , though I do remember Russell Martin’s dad celebrating when his boy hit one of them. And for years I could recall every batter and all the base movements of the 9th inning of the RJ Reynolds game.
Anonymous
Kent, Drew, Martin, Anderson
Anonymous
Plus Nomar
foul tip
Something I’ve wondered about: at DS supposedly it’s hard to homer at night, especially later in games due to the marine layer settling in.
Were atmospheric conditions different than usual the night of 4+1? Or any other explanation rather than just a freak fortunate thing?
Anonymous
At least two of the home runs were the result of Jon Adkins throwing a pair of fat pitches over the plate for Kent and Drew. I don’t think Hoffman was warmed up properly.
Rob Carnachan
The “heavy night air” at Dodger Stadium has always been little more than a partial truth. Yes, from April through June, there is a marine layer that comes in after dark (and often lasts until noon the next day), making the air cool and moist. How much this actually hinders the flight of a batted baseball is up for debate. However, from July through October, the marine layer is usually non-existent. The nights remain warm and the moist sea air remains well off-shore. The 4+1 game was in mid-September, when nights are warm (if not downright hot). There is no “heavy night air” at Dodger Stadium in the latter third of the baseball season. Yet, visiting broadcasters continue to perpetuate this long-held “truth”.
If you look at the park factors for Dodger Stadium going back to when they filled in over half of the foul territory to build the new field seats, Dodger Stadium has been a better than average park for home runs. Meaning that it is a little easier to homer at DS than at the hypothetical “average” major league park. This is probably more due to the relatively modest dimensions than the atmosphere, but those are the stats. The Dodgers should never be able to use their ballpark as an excuse for poor power production because the data doesn’t back it up.
Anonymous
We only have 2 players with enough at bats to qualify for the batting title. That seems pretty low, right?
Anonymous
In 1986 and 2005, the Dodgers only had one. Steve Sax and Jeff Kent respectively. In 1935-36, the Dodgers had 10.
Anonymous
It’s not an issue of ABs. Rather, it’s plate appearances, which can include walks, HBPs, sac bunts, sac flies (can’t think of anything else, perhaps catcher’s interference?).
Anonymous
If we recall our recent history, it was an ignored/hidden toe thing that ended Broxton’s 101mph+ era (or at lease ended the phase where he could do it with any control).
Anonymous
I am suffering from PF as I type. Not sure where it came from or how. What happens is the tendons constrict at night when you’re sleeping and while your foot muscles are relaxed. When you wake up and start walking, it’s like a knife in your heel because the tendon is not stretched out anymore–it’s too tight.
It certainly has me walking differently than i did before and now one of my ankles is giving me grief. I can only imagine what it does to a finely tuned athletic movement like delivering a 90+ mph fastball or a devastating curve. Surgery for PF is a last ditch thing. They usually recommend orthotics in your shoe (not working yet in my case), stretching the heel, ice on the heel, and rest. They also recommend wearing an awkward brace at night that keeps your foot in a 90 degree angle with your leg to keep that PF tendon stretched.
Let’s hope the hip is just a little out of whack but nothing torn or requiring surgery.
KT
it took almost 6 months for my right foot to heal and almost 2 years for my left foot…I had no problems since they both have healed…The custom made orthotics did finally work
Anonymous
Farewell Steve Sabol
Anonymous
Fans of frozen tundra everywhere are mourning.
Anonymous
What a shame. I love his NFL Films series of half-hour summaries of each Super Bowl.
Anonymous
Bring it in boys. This one’s postponed.
Anonymous
Doubleheader tomorrow starting at 1:05 pm PT.
Jason Ungar
great 2-4 innings of a few hits, maybe a run or two and then 16 innings of nothing. That’s a lot to watch in one day!!
Anonymous
6-7 hours of the stylings of Eric Collins and Steve Lyons.
When the Dodgers play on the East Coast, the TV broadcast goes from “Hill Street Blues” to “The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer.”
Jim Hitchcock
I’m guessing I should set Directv ch 693 to record?
Anonymous
The Dodgers schedule shows that BOTH games will be on KCAL. Thursday’s game will be on Prime.
Jim Hitchcock
Oh, okay. I’ll have to see if it will record on MLB EI if not scheduled.
Anonymous
I bet it’s not on MLB Network. :(
KT
So it looks like MASN for me…hopefully they televise both games. I know they have the second game scheduled as of now
Rob Carnachan
I actually like Collins and Lyons. They’re far better than most of the broadcasters around MLB — I get the Extra Innings package, so I see them all over the course of a season. I’ll take them over Monday and Steiner any day.
Anonymous
The Dodgers have announced that Clayton Kerhsaw has been cleared to resume his throwing program tomorrow.
KT
good news
Anonymous
LOL, I turned on the TV and saw Oakland-Detroit, and erroneously assumed they would show that game in Chicago because of its importance to Sox fans. Then I read here about the rainout!
Anonymous
To be honest, I welcomed the day off yesterday — but I was hoping to get back at it today.
BTW, I also had PF, where it was painful to even walk. Before I stopped jogging, I adjusted my stride and came up with sciatica. The good news is I’ve overcome both (with just about every method listed here, other than surgery) — and while my medical advice was good, I’m sure Clayton has MUCH better people looking out for him!
Jon Weisman
Two new posts up top.
Anonymous
Having a rainout isn’t good for the starting rotation. Sunday’s game will be started either by a sixth starter, or by one of the five starters on three (or fewer) days rest.