Through the cooperation of our resident injury expert Rick Wilton of Baseball-Injury-Report.com, we provide you a glimpse inside his new book, the Baseball Injury Report Annual. Here, we focus on the St. Louis Cardinals club and several of their key injured players.
Wilton, fantasy baseball's first and most experienced injury analyst, combined his sports medicine background and 15 years experience analyzing baseball injuries to produce his first-of-its-kind annual.
Given that major league DL stints have been increasing, both in number and length, an accurate read on player health can make a difference whether you are a fantasy player or a rabid fan. The comprehensive information within the BIR Annual make it a valuable reference document for all.
The debut edition of the Baseball Injury Report Annual provides comprehensive five-year injury histories for hundreds of players, plus tons of insight into health-related issues that will affect these players in 2007.
The BIR Annual includes:
• Five-year injury history profiles for hundreds of players
• Insightful health summaries and prognoses for every player
• In-depth profiles for a group of notable 2006 cases
• Five-year team disabled list tables
• Detailed analysis of key injury situations for 2007 (including Mark Mulder, Kerry Wood, Eric Gagne, Rocco Baldelli, Ben Sheets and others)
• Injury Study: "Did the New Drug Policy have an impact on DL days in 2006?"
• First of its kind draft day injury risk analysis for your 2007 draft
• Medical primer
• …and much more!
First, we see the five-year injury history for the St. Louis Cardinals. Their ranking of number 13 due to 3768 player-days lost via disabled list stints puts them near the middle of the MLB pack.
Almost 40% of those injury days occurred during a single season – 2003 – which also happens to be the only non-playoff campaign the Cardinals have experienced in the last six. Simply coincidence or cause and effect?
St. Louis
Cardinals
5-Year DL Days:
3768
MLB Ranking:
13
2006
On DL Off
DL DLD Name Pos
Injury
4/3 10/2 182 Rick Ankiel OF Torn
patella
tendon
6/5 10/2 119 Larry
Bigbie OF Umbilical
hernia
4/3 5/8
35 Larry Bigbie
OF Stress fracture, left heel
5/22
6/6 15 Chris Carpenter P Right shoulder
bursitis
8/19 9/15
27 David Eckstein SS Torn oblique
muscle
6/21 8/23 63 Mark
Mulder P Left
shoulder
impingement
8/30 10/2 33 Mark
Mulder P Left
shoulder surgery
5/8
5/27 19 Sidney Ponson P Slight flexor
strain, rt elbow
6/4
6/22 18 Albert Pujols 1B Strained right
oblique
4/19 10/2 166 Ricardo Rincon P Left shoulder
surgery
677
2005
On DL
Off DL DLD Name Pos
Injury
6/6 6/24 18
Roger Cedeno OF Strained right
hamstring
4/11
6/12 62 Cal
Eldred
P Upper respiratory infection
6/24
7/9 15 Randy Flores
P Avulsed callus pad on left
foot
4/27 5/13
16 Jason Isringhausen P Strained rt.
abdominal
muscle
4/5 10/3 181 Mike
Lincoln
P Right elbow
surgery
7/9 8/18
40 Yadier Molina
C Hairline fracture, lt pinkie
4/3 4/19 16
Matt Morris
P Recovery rt shoulder
surgery
4/11 5/5
24 Bill
Pulsipher P Strained
right hamstring
7/22 10/3
73 Scott Rolen 3B Left
rotator surgery
5/11 6/18
38 Scott
Rolen 3B Sprained
left shoulder
7/16 9/12
58 Reggie Sanders
OF Hairline fracture, right fibula
7/23
8/20 28 Larry
Walker OF Herniated
disc in
neck
569
2004
On DL Off DL
DLD Name Pos
Injury
4/4 9/1 150 Rick
Ankiel
P Recovery left elbow
surgery
8/7 9/4 28 Kiko Calero
P Right rotator cuff
tendinitis
4/11 5/13
32 Roger Cedeno
OF Strained left
hamstring
8/28 9/29
32 Steve Kline
P Strained left
groin
7/22 9/1
41 Ray Lankford
OF Sore left
wrist
5/4 10/4 153 Mike
Lincoln
P Right elbow
surgery
6/3 6/18
15 Mike Matheny
C Strained rib
cage
451
2003
On DL Off DL
DLD Name
Pos Injury
6/19
7/29 40 Miguel Cairo
2B Fractured left
hand
6/29 9/29 92
Kiko
Calero P Ruptured
rt patella
tendon
3/30 9/29 183
Chris
Carpenter P Right
shoulder
surgery
8/9 9/1
23 J.D.
Drew OF Strained
right oblique
muscle
3/30 4/20 21
J.D.
Drew OF Recovery
from knee surgery
3/30 6/10
72 Joe
Girardi C Upper
back
soreness
6/30 9/1 63
Joe Girardi
C Back
strain
3/30 6/10 72
Jason Isringhausen P Sore right
shoulder
8/18 9/6
19 Jimmy Journell
P Right shoulder
sprain
5/12 9/1 112
Eli Marrero
OF Right ankle
surgery
7/22 8/23
32 Matt Morris
P Fractured index
finger
4/11 6/18
68
Lance Painter P Evulsed pelvis fracture
7/28 9/9 43
Lance Painter
P Left calf
strain
5/1 8/30 121
Russ Springer P Right
elbow
surgery
3/30 9/29 183
Gene Stechschulte P Right shoulder
surgery
3/30 9/29 183 Steve
Torrealba C Right elbow
strain
5/26 8/30
96 Fernando Vina
2B Torn right
hamstring
6/7 6/30 23
Chris Widger
C Bruised right
thumb
1446
2002
On DL Off DL
DLD Name Pos
Injury
3/31 6/5 66
Rick Ankiel
P Left elbow
tendinitis
4/16 7/16 91 Andy
Benes
P Arthritic right
knee
6/28 7/13
15 J.D.
Drew
OF Patella
tendinitis
6/1 6/16
15 Jim Edmonds
OF Sprained right
wrist
4/29 5/31 32 Steve
Kline
P Strained left
tricep
8/21 9/11 21 Mike Matthews P Strained right
hip flexor
8/24 9/10
17 Matt
Morris
P Strained left
hamstring
5/11 9/30 142
Josh
Pearce P Right
shoulder
soreness
4/22 5/7
15 Bud Smith P Strained
left
shoulder
5/30 8/28 90 Garrett
Stephenson P Left hamstring
surgery
4/15 5/14 29 Garrett
Stephenson P Lower back
strain
7/7 8/29 53 Woody Williams P Strained left
ribcage
4/6 5/15 39 Woody
Williams P Strained left
oblique
625
Of course, the BIR Annual has this information for the other 29 clubs, too!
Next is a subset of three Cardinal players’ capsules from the letter “E”. In addition to what is reproduced here, Wilton includes full stat lines for all players for the last five years. They were excluded here due to space considerations.
On the left, you will see pertinent data about each player, including the total number of disabled list days over the last five seasons and his 2007 injury risk. The detail of each injury, the year, the time lost, percentage of the season, the nature of the injury and 2007 outlook are also provided.
|
Yr |
DLD |
% |
Injury |
| Eckstein,
David |
|
|
|
|
| Pos 6 |
02 |
|
|
|
| Age 32 |
03 |
22 |
12 |
Inflamed nerve - rt. leg |
| Bats Right |
04 |
|
|
|
| DL Days = 49 |
05 |
|
|
|
| Draft Risk = Low |
06 |
27 |
15 |
Torn oblique muscle |
|
|
|
|
|
| Ended 2006 with a torn
oblique muscle and |
| two hamstring pulls. Prior to
that, he had a |
| solid track record for
staying healthy. The |
| Cards expect him to be 100%
by the start of |
| spring training. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Edmonds, Jim |
|
|
|
|
| Pos 8 |
02 |
15 |
8 |
Sprained right wrist |
| Age 37 |
03 |
|
|
|
| Bats Left |
04 |
|
|
|
| DL Days = 15 |
05 |
|
|
|
| Draft Risk = High |
06 |
|
|
[Surg rt. shdr. 11/06.; |
|
|
|
|
Surg. lt. foot 1/07] |
|
|
|
|
|
| Underwent surgery (called
modified |
| Mumpford) to shave part of
the collarbone |
| and AC in 11/06. He’ll like
start slowly in |
| 2007 as he rebuilds his
shoulder strength. |
| Also had toe surgery on his
left foot 1/07. |
| Good bet to start year on DL
through April. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Encarnacion,
Juan |
|
|
|
|
| Pos 98 |
02 |
|
|
|
| Age 31 |
03 |
|
|
|
| Bats Right |
04 |
15 |
8 |
Left shoulder tendinitis |
| DL Days = 16 |
05 |
|
|
|
| Draft Risk = Low |
06 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| His nagging sore left wrist
didn’t respond to |
| rest after the season so he
had surgery in |
| mid-December to repair a
damaged tendon |
| (the procedure was considered
minor by the |
| Cards' medical staff). Should
be OK for |
| spring training, though his
power might suffer |
| early in the year. |
|
|
|
|
To see much more, order your copy of the Baseball Injury Report Annual for $14.95 plus $4.50 Priority Mail S&H via this link.
Baseball-Injury-Report.com is fantasy baseball's first and only all-injury web site. BIR gathers information from a wide range of media, baseball and medical sources to provide you with detailed insight and analysis of current injury situations.
Brian Walton can be reached via email at brwalton@earthlink.net.
© 2007 stlcardinals.scout.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed.
