Empty the Bucket

If I think of my brain as a bucket, I sometimes imagine that it begins to overflow and I have to intentionally get some of my thoughts out of there before they just spill over and are gone forever.

Here are some baseball-related bucket thoughts:

Denard Falls Down
During Saturday's Spring Training game, Denard Span fell down twice while making fly-ball catches in the outfield. If this had been a year ago, everyone would be thinking "ha ha, at least he made the catch" and had gone on with the game.

This year, however, I have to admit, every time he falls down, crashes into a fence, or makes a diving catch, I worry. Why did he fall? Is he dizzy? Can he see alright? Did he bang his head? Did he whip his neck? Is he ok?

True, I'm especially prone to worrying, and that's fine. It's no big deal if I sit here and think all these things. But, unfortunately, I'm not the only one; the media asked him about it all the time. And that has to be annoying for him.

It's not the writers' fault for asking him questions that everyone wants answers to, but it must be difficult to have to make the same assurances all the time. Yes, having to address the media comes with the territory, but I bet he's looking forward to when he can simply talk about the game and not his head.

I'm hoping, for both his and the fans' sake, that very soon, he won't have to address these issues every time he has a tiny stumble or makes a difficult play. I'm sure he hopes so too.

Your New Voice of Summer
I had a chance to listen to the Twins new play-by-play announcer Cory Provus a couple of time, and he made a very nice first impression.

His voice is rich, smooth, and easy to listen to, and he calls the game well. If he's telling a story or anecdote while the play is going on, he'll interrupt himself to call the play -- like he should. He's well prepared for the games, and he doesn't give the impression of being the new guy at all (not bad for calling Spring Training games when it's likely there'll be guys coming to bat that even Gardy doesn't know). He already sounds comfortable, as if he's always been here.

I'm not sure that it's really possible, but I think he even makes Dan Gladden better. Well done, Cory, well done.

The Zumaya Decision
After thinking about his situation a few days, Joel Zumaya decided to go ahead and have Tommy John surgery and attempt a comeback. Right after his elbow blew, it sounded like he was leaning heavily toward retiring.

I imagine this decision came with much thought, prayers, and even tears. This will be his sixth surgery, and the rehab that will come with it will most likely be the most difficult. Plus, there's no guarantee on the other side that he'll even be able to pitch again in the Major Leagues (he'll be a free agent when he's ready to come back, and he'll need to convince a team to sign him). No one would have blamed him if he had just wanted to forget it all and walk away.

Instead, he'll take a huge leap of faith and go for it. And I'm kind of happy for him.

I certainly wish him all the best.

First Injury Paper Doll of 2012: Joel Zumaya

I didn't intend to start up the paper doll machine until the season started. After all, the point of it is to show who's been put on the Disabled List, and they don't really do that during Spring Training. But this one is a special case because ... well, I just feel so darned bad for him.

Joel Zumaya tore his right ulnar collateral ligament of the elbow (UCL) while throwing a bullpen session on Saturday. It was reported that right before the fatal pitch, he was "throwing gas."

The UCL is the Tommy John Surgery ligament. This is the ligament that attaches to the humerus (upper arm bone) to the ulna (the inside forearm bone). And, surprisingly, of all the arm injuries Zumaya has suffered, his UCL was fine. Until that one pitch.

The Twins knew they were taking a risk when they signed him. This is why they structured the contract so that he would only make $400,000 if he didn't make the team out of Spring Training. Now he'll be out for at least a year.

Now he has a big decision to make. He doesn't really need to go through a major surgery and all that difficult rehab. But if he ever wants to pitch again, he does. This decision is kind of a no-brainer for most pitchers, but I don't think it will be for him. He's already had several arm surgeries -- he missed all of last year after having surgery to replace the screw they put in to set the broken arm he suffered in 2010 (apparently the screw was too big, and the broken arm was suffered mid-throw while pitching to Delmon Young at Target Field). And in the previous four years, he never appeared in more than 29 games. In fact, his only "regular" year was his rookie year of 2006.

It's hard to say why he's so injury prone. I do wonder if his mechanics, or his tendency to throw unbelievable heat, have something to do with it. Maybe he's simply not built to throw 99 MPH. Although, if I remember correctly, he had two injuries that had nothing to do with baseball (his wrist due to over-playing the video game Guitar Hero, and straining his shoulder by ... I think ... helping his buddy move furniture).  Going through all that, and all the rehabilitation that goes with all that is huge. Having to do it all over again might just be too much.

Too bad. I was really looking forward to seeing him pitch. But more than that, I feel bad for him on a personal level. He was reported to be distraught -- understandably. The poor guy just wants to play baseball.

I want give him a hug.

Quick Notes: Jan. 15

On a Sunday when settling in to watch an afternoon of NFL playoffs was on many Twins fans' minds, the Twins made a surprise signing: RHRP Joel Zumaya -- of course pending a physical.

At least I was surprised.

I'd seen some Twitter rumors hinting that the Twins were interested in LHRP Todd Coffey and RHSP Roy Oswalt, so I wasn't totally surprised that some kind of announcement came today. And I knew that the Twins were among the teams looking at Zumaya around Christmastime. But I just never put things together this way.

The nice thing about this signing is that, even though it is a major league deal, it's not guaranteed (according to to Strib's Joe C.) and it's for relatively little money. Plus, when healthy, he's pretty darned effective -- when he was with the Tigers, he could blow hitters away by reaching 100 mph on the radar gun. So his signing is pretty low risk.

However, that "when healthy" part might be problematic. Fans who don't believe that players can be "injury prone" may change their minds when looking at his history. TwinGeek summed it up nicely in his Twitter feed:

Twins fans may even remember that 2010 injury because it was particularly gross how his arm just snapped sideways after he delivered that pitch.

He'll probably never throw another 100 mph pitch again. Let's hope he can still be effective without it.

And I'll go ahead a prepare an injury paper doll just in case.