Cathryn

//Since Rich Harden's return to the DL, there has been discussion of how much of his lengthy injury history is his body being fragile and how much might be attributable to the Oakland medical staff.//

The thing that's always struck me as so very odd about Harden's injuries is their frightening similarity to the kinds of injuries suffered by Tim Hudson. They're both hard throwers, but Hudson is a hard thrower coping with a small frame. Harden shouldn't have that problem. Where Hudson has oblique problems, Harden's problems should be located more around his shoulder and elbow. I know that his current injury is in the shoulder (or so we are told), but he had a LOT of oblique problems, and those tend to recur.

This always seemed so weird to me because it was like Harden was throwing as if he were a little guy, when he has absolutely no need to. I always wondered if he came up with those mechanics on his own, or if the A's did.

//How severe does a sprain have to be to still be causing problems two and a half months after the fact? With more organized management of his recovery, could he have been back and catching by now?//

The problem is that the word "sprain" is so very imprecise, even more so in the magical land of baseball injuries. Baseball people use it (and "strain") as kind of a catch-all term to refer to any kind of persistent soreness that is not otherwise immediately diagnosable (a break, an obvious tear, the arm actually falling out of the socket, etc.). There are SO many different parts of the shoulder that can be involved in a "sprain". Muscles, ligaments, tendons, they're all fair game.... the rotator cuff... everything in there.

He could have a degree of actual shoulder SEPARATION and they'd be calling it a sprain. I'm trying to remember how this happened; he collided with Lowell, right? So he got hit on the shoulder, and also landed pretty hard on it? I mean, right off the top of my head, that sounds like ligamentous tears in two different directions, resulting in partial separation. But people call that a sprain. Y'see?

Given his age and the amount of wear already on those ligaments and tendons and muscles from his long catching career, I don't think it's too likely he would be back much before now even IF his rehab had been more "properly" managed.

//If you believe Halsey's side of the story, the A's deliberately delayed the MRI until he was in the minors just to avoid paying him a major league salary if he ended up on the DL.//

This is inexcuseable, and if it turns out to be true, the Union would have everything they need to eat the A's alive. And they should. The Player's Union exists PRECISELY to stop this sort of player abuse. EXACTLY this sort of player abuse. Fuckin' hell.