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Gagne GONE

Started by Pragmatic PiG, April 01, 2005, 11:36:14 pm

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Pragmatic PiG

for a bit  :P

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/04/01/sports/s195047S20.DTL

this will be insignificant if he can come back after 15 days or so but if the injury lingers or is more serious, the dodgers will be hurting and so will some fantasy owners that are depending on gagne for their saves

Razorback Jedi

Found this posted on another forum from a doctor who is a baseball nut.

"I'd give this injury a 4 on a scale of 5 (most worrisome). As mentioned, Gagne had TJ in '97. MRI is usually a sensitive test for detecting a fresh UCL tear. It is not so helpful in detecting a new tear in a pitcher who has already had TJ. The reconstruction makes it difficult to interpret the MRI clearly.

Bosox faced a similar situation last season with Scott Williamson who had previous TJ surgery and developed elbow pain. Team physician Dr. Bill Morgan commented that they had to rely more on how stable the elbow was when physically examined, rather than MRI to determine if the UCL was intact. Hopefully some reporter will ask such a question, because that's more useful info in this situation than "what did the MRI show?"

For Williamson, the damage was much worse than the MRI showed and TJ#2 was needed:

Dr. Tim Kremchek said his jaw dropped when he finally got inside Scott Williamson's right elbow with an arthroscope on Monday in Cincinnati. ``I couldn't believe what I saw,'' said Kremchek, who is the Cincinnati Reds team physician. ``It looked like a grenade had gone off in there. The damage was far worse that the MRIs or any examination alluded to.'''

As it turned out, Williamson pitched the last month of the regular season with a completely torn ulnar collateral ligament, mangled cartilage ripped from the bone on the outer part of the elbow and several bone chips and loose bodies within the cavity of the joint.

I'm not trying to draw a direct correlation between Williamson and Gagne. What is prudent though is to still be skeptical that his UCL might be torn despite the battery of tests that have been done. With what is known so far, Gagne's recovery time could be anywhere from 1 to 18 months. Anyone who suggests otherwise is throwing darts at a board.

One last thing. DePodesta's comment about Gagne not feeling a sudden severe pain is also not reassuring. Dr. James Andrews released some statisics about all the athletes he did TJ surgery on over a 13 year period. Only 52% of them reported a sudden onset of symptoms."

 

Pragmatic PiG

April 02, 2005, 11:52:20 am #2 Last Edit: April 02, 2005, 11:55:43 am by Pragmatic PiG
"It wasn't on any one pitch. There wasn't a bolt of pain or any severe pain, from what I understand," general manager Paul DePodesta said.
"He had an MRI today and there's no tear, so he is structurally sound. His soreness is over the drill holes where the surgery was done 10 years ago, but structurally, he's in real good shape."

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=634512

according to the previous poster, DePodesta is not looking at all the angles. Course he may just be in denial at this point, 4 of his P's are starting off now on the shelf to begin the year.  :P

gotta wonder if gagne's bad knee contributed to this, overcompensation putting a different level of stress to his surgically repaired arm. I really hate to see anybody get hurt but since he is a Smell-A Dodger, i hate it a little less   ;)