Comments on: Snelling out six weeks

By: John

John — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 02:36:04 +0000

FWIW: Here’s the Seattle TIMES write-up of the game where Snelling…
http://tinyurl.com/4ubbr

By: msb

msb — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 20:55:26 +0000

FWIW, I seem to recall Snelling running towards third with his head down….

“Makes me wonder if there’s some kind of pain denial culture within the M’s organization that contributes to the seeming high rate of injuries among the prospects.–Comment by Joel 3/1/2005 @ 10:07 am

Not just the M’s… (http://www.postgazette.com/pg/05057/463279.stm)

I think it’s more to do with a player trying to keep playing & not fall back, and it’s not just the young players, either:

“After blowing his second save opportunity in three games on July 31, then-manager Bob Melvin and pitching coach Bryan Price sat down with Guardado and insisted he be candid about the condition of his arm. “They brought me in and told me, ‘Eddie, this ain’t you.’ It took them an hour to get it out of me,” Guardado said. “But they convinced me I wasn’t helping the team by keeping quiet. I wasn’t doing the job.”"

By: Spiegs

Spiegs — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 20:40:44 +0000

James-Good point, Myers actually gave the stop sign AFTER the last possible second. Exhibit A-Chris Snelling.

By: James

James — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 19:21:11 +0000

Why is it absurd to blame Myers for Snelling’s first major injury? I remember screaming at the television when I saw the play wondering what in the hell Myers was thinking when he gave Snelling the stop sign at the last possible second. If it had a been a veteran player not trying to hold down a job they most likely would’ve ignored the ridiculously late stop sign and headed home so as not to tear something trying to stop suddenly in cleats. And yes players in other sports do stop and cut and not get injured, but some players do get injured when they cut and making generalizations one way or the other doesn’t have relevance to this individual discussion. I would expect from having played baseball and from having watched it for a number of years, that if a player was to be running full speed and then tried to come to a full stop by planting a cleat in the dirt, there is a fairly good chance an injury could result. This is why most third base coaches don’t put stop signs up as the player rounds the base and if they do throw up a late stop sign, they run down the line so as to emphasize a gradual stop rather than a sudden one, to lessen the chance of an injury.

By: Joel

Joel — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 18:07:30 +0000

Re: injuries

http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/story/4638029p-4304411c.html
This article from Larry Larue talks about Ryan Christianson’s struggle with chronic injuries. The interesting thing is the revelation that they were exacerbated, if not caused, by Christianson’s attempt to “play through the pain.”

Makes me wonder if there’s some kind of pain denial culture within the M’s organization that contributes to the seeming high rate of injuries among the prospects. I remember that Roger Salkeld blew out his shoulder attempting to impress the team after feeling a “twinge.”

I’m sure that the need to show toughness exists everywhere in baseball, but I wonder if some organizations do a better job than others in telling their farmhands to pay attention to those pains.

By: Spiegs

Spiegs — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 16:54:16 +0000

I was wastching the game in question when Myers waved Snelling in, poor judegement on his part no doubt. Right or wrong, I do blame Myers for that first injury. Chris Snelling is like Martin Short in that awful movie Pure Luck.

By: Nate

Nate — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 13:38:41 +0000

You do realize how silly that sounds, right? One guy’s hand waving caused a ligament in another guy’s knee to snap? You might as well blame someone in the stands with a Voodoo doll. Can anyone say “scapegoat?”

And since its absurd to blame Dave Myers for Snelling’s injury, complaining about Myers’ third base coach decisions is completely irrellevant to this topic.

Any thought that a switch to DH would be possible and helpful for Snelling? If it stresses his knee less, would that allow him to contribute, or does he not have enough potential in his bat alone?

Also, if Snelling comes back in 6 weeks and has a productive year in Tacoma, or wherever he ends up, would he be ready to make the big league club in ‘06? How much does this injury really set him back?

By: JPWood

JPWood — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 10:39:32 +0000

The Snelling ACL problem was clearly Myers’ fault: he called for a stop much too late and advanced to the bag to make sure Snelling saw the sign. Snelling then over-ran the bag and snapped his ACL when he landed and braked on one of Myers’ feet. Never a very good 3B coach anyway, that incident was a complete disaster.

By: tede

tede — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 10:39:05 +0000

So how many of the Myers bashers actually saw Bill Plummer coach third for Lefevre? Or Wendell Kim for other teams? I remember Larry Bowa in the first week of 2000 nearly wave Edgar into home to face his doom.

I think Russ in #22 & #26 is on the money.

This is quickly entering blogosphere lore like the “Bobby Ayala is Lou’s son-in-law” did into talk radio lore.

By: Bela Txadux

Bela Txadux — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 05:50:33 +0000

To my recollection, Snelling tore meniscus in the knee he blew out the following summer while playing his way back, at Tacoma if I recall. —And that’s what worries me. You can come back reasonably well from a torn meniscus in principle, but if this is his second tear in a largely reconstructed knee to begin with it suggests that what’s left of that joint is less than stable and simply can’t withstand the strain of competitive athletics. I’d like to be wrong about that, but _this_ injury really could be the beginning of the end for Chris, which is a cryin’ shame as far as I’m concerned. I like the guy, his bat, and his competitiveness, and the team could use all three components. But there’s never been a one-legged baseball player to the best of my recollection, and Snelling won’t be the first if it comes to that.