Bay City Ball

I’d like to thank Will Carroll for taking the time to answer these questions. If you’re unfamiliar with Will’s work, I recommend that you head over to Baseball Prospectus and look for his ‘Under The Knife’ column. Will is BP’s resident injury expert and he sat down with us today to shed some light on Giants related injury questions.

This is the first interview that I’ve done for Bay City Ball and I hope that everyone enjoys it. With Frandsen going down yesterday with an achilles injury, the Giants are faced with another tough injury to work through. Already in the Spring several Giants have dealt with injuries that have ranged from nagging to more serious. Just to name a few bit by the injury bug: Omar Vizquel, Ray Durham, Bengie Molina, Tim Lincecum, Kevin Correia, Rich Aurilia, and now, unfortunately, Kevin Frandsen.

Now let’s get the interview started.

Bay City Ball: The news is out that 2B Kevin Frandsen has ruptured his achillies and could miss the entire season. Now, I’m not a doctor but that sounds extremely painful. Anytime I hear the word “rupture” I squirm. What are the implications of such an injury? Both in a recovery time frame and how it effects a player’s ability to play the game — field, run, hit, etc.? Any good historical precedents for a baseball player rupturing his achilles and making a successful comeback?

Will Carroll: He’s done for the year, sadly. “Rupture” just means that it’s a complete tear. It will be surgically reattached and he’ll be fine. Most come back normally, a bit less speed. I can name a lot more football players, but Gabe Kapler comes to mind.

BCB: In the 2006 draft, one of the reasons that Tim Lincecum fell to the Giants at a #10 pick was rumors that many teams had concerns about his health. Mainly his small stature combined with a funky whirling delivery. Just how much does size or having “a pitchers body” matter when you yourself look at a pitcher? Is the belief that pint-sized pitchers are more prone to injuries a myth or something more truthful?

WC: All things equal, I’ll take the bigger, stronger guy, but who’s equal to Lincecum? His delivery is about timing and force, not strength. Last I looked, Greg Maddux wasn’t a big guy. Sandy Koufax was skinny.

BCB: The Giants have already had a large amount of injuries and set-backs occur in Spring Training. Most of them seem to be centered around leg issues. For example: Durham (hamstring), Molina (quad), Aurilia (hamstring), Vizquel (knee). Are leg injuries more prevalent as an injury-type to players as they age or are player’s legs behind the rest of their bodies at this time of year?

WC: A bit — we see more strains as players age. It’s mostly a recovery issue. Durham has a long history of leg injuries so it isn’t a “this spring” issue. Vizquel’s knee is a traumatic thing, just one of those things that happens in the season and luckily he’s in such good shape that he can come back from it quickly.

BCB: Aaron Rowand is known for throwing around his body with reckless abandon. If you had to assign the Giants new high priced center fielder a percentage between 0-100 on the chance that he’ll be healthy for the majority of the season, what would you give him?

WC: Depends on what you mean by “healthy” — I think he’ll end up on the DL at some point but I know that the way he plays takes something out of him with soreness and being “banged up” in various ways. So “zero”.

BCB: Only Honus Wagner – 1915 and 1916 – and Luke Appling – 1949 – have appeared in 100 games or more at shortstop at or past the age of 41. Do you think Omar could join them and play in 100 or more games this year in his age 41 season? He’s reportedly already taking batting practice albeit with some slight pain in his knee.

WC: Yeah, I think so. He’s obviously a pretty big outlier but there’s no reason to think that 100 isn’t reachable. I think he’ll have a pretty steep slide at some point, so they’ll need to be smart about how they use him. The lack of depth is more problematic.

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Thanks, again, go out to Will Carroll.