Indeed, he has been throwing fastballs at “full speed” so things are looking up.  It may not be long before the Nat’s schedule a minor league rehab assignment.  Still, it’s still questionable whether he will see major league action this year.

Some question whether Strasburg’s rehab has been moving TOO quickly and if there’s been enough thought put into whether he should change his mechanics due to the Tommy John surgery. 

For Strasburg’s part though, it appears that he is handling everything calmly and as maturely as a 23-year old can.

"I do what they tell me to do," Jeter said.

…

General manager Brian Cashman said Jeter is still feeling pain in his calf.

then Jeter said, “Ow”.

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Chad Cordero retired. In other news, Chad Cordero was still playing baseball.

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On a personal note, I just attended my first roller derby event Saturday.  The Twin City Derby Girls are making a go at it in Champaign-Urbana and from the attendance this weekend, it seems pretty popular. 

I can see why.  It’s quite exciting what with fast-paced action, healthy looking women going at each other, and even a campy atmosphere.  I even began to understand the rules after a while.  I’ll be back for more.  A few more photos from Saturday’s event.

here

then here

and finally here.

a joyous moment gone bad.  gotta be one the worst freak accidents of 2010 so far.

Encarnacion suffered first- and second-degree burns in the forehead and the right side of his face when a rocket firecracker hit him in the jaw and exploded near his mouth while celebrating with family in his home of La Romana.

Every off season, it seems there is one freak accident that affects a major league ballplayer.  1999 Moises Alou, anyone?  In Encarnacion’s case it doesn’t seem too serious, though. 

Hopefully, it won’t mess with his pretty face.  Other than that, it doesn’t sound like it will affect his baseball playing abilities and he won’t require surgery.  The 27 year old will be back as new by spring training.

But those aren’t the strangest injuries in the history of our national pastime, here are a few, from Strange Injuries (Baseball World), click here to see the complete list.

In 1972 Jose Cardenal missed a game because crickets chirping in his hotel room kept him up all night.  Charlie Hough broke his pinky finger, shaking hands.  David Cone missed a start when his mother-in-law’s Jack Russell Terrier bit him.  Carlos Perez broke his nose in a car accident, while trying to pass the team bus.  My personal faves are Rickey Henderson missing time due to frostbite in August and Vince Coleman missing the 1985 World Series after getting rolled up in the tarp machine.

I’ve never been a real Prior fan.  Even when he was with the Cubs, he never thrilled me.  His lack of fire for the game not to mention his continual trips to the disabled list didn’t endear me to him. 

Back in the day, many non-Cub fans would lump Prior in with Kerry Wood.  Both were talented pitchers with potential but were prone to injury. In my mind, the similarities stopped there.  Wood played with much more passion and identified with the team.  (Wood had another thing going for him too.  He was a favorite of GM Jim Hendry).

So when there were rumblings a few years back of a Prior trade (one rumor had him going to the Orioles for Miguel Tejada), I was all for it.  A lot of my friends thought I was nuts but all I saw was a pitcher who had one great year in 2003 and hadn’t backed it up since.  I was ready for a change. 

Prior got a lot of media press and attention from the fans after his 2003 season but all told, he just won 18 games in the next three seasons. 

Bitter?  Not much.

Prior got his chance with the Padres. It just wasn’t going happen.   Will another team take a chance on him?  I highly doubt it. 

Personal note to Cubs management:  Don’t Think About It!

…brought to by none other than KPLR-11 TV based in, you guess it, St Louis. 

The timing is impeccable. 

I wrote about this incident, which occurred April 15, 2008. Maple is a harder wood, and many players swear by it these days. But there’s a reason maple wasn’t used in the first place. While ash cracks under pressure, maple shatters, sending shards of sharp wood everywhere. In the dugout of a game on April 15 in Los Angeles, the maple bat of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Nate McClouth bat shattered on a hit and a piece of the bat flew into the dugout, opening a huge gash in the cheek of his hitting coach, Don Long. “Didn’t see it at all,” Long told Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports. “It just hit me. I backed up. I saw the blood coming out on the card I keep and on my shoes.” The piece of maple cut nerves in Long’s cheek and a doctor had to remove the wood before he sewed in 10 stitches. Who will be next? Perhaps a player or an umpire or, worse yet, a fan. And studies show very little difference between ash and maple in performance. What will happen next? A movement is afoot to either ban maple or at least change the shape of the bat handle.

When will baseball do something about this dangerous situation? I know the ash borer beetle has taken its toll on quality ash bats, but something needs to be done about maple bats shattering before somebody gets killed.

It was due to “stiffness in his left elbow” and it’s “just precautionary”. 

And so begins his time with the Orioles.  Any bets on how long before he sees time with their farm teams?