Zwelling: Possible Travis starts season on the DL

[RaptorsJunkie]

Still a bit early to write Travis off as some kind of major injury magnet. For all intents and purposes, he has had two substantial injuries in the bigs, and one was a none malformation rather than any injury that began presenting as a problem and eventually necessitated surgery. He was healthy for all of last year after recovering from that, until he hurt his knee in the playoffs.

Whhaaaaaat?

So he misses half a season due to surgery and then injures himself in playoffs after being injured nearly 50% of the time prior to this and you can't come to the conclusion that this guy is an injury magnet because he was healthy the entire time he wasn't injured?????

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[Schad]

Still a bit early to write Travis off as some kind of major injury magnet. For all intents and purposes, he has had two substantial injuries in the bigs, and one was a none malformation rather than any injury that began presenting as a problem and eventually necessitated surgery. He was healthy for all of last year after recovering from that, until he hurt his knee in the playoffs.

Whhaaaaaat?

So he misses half a season due to surgery and then injures himself in playoffs after being injured nearly 50% of the time prior to this and you can't come to the conclusion that this guy is an injury magnet because he was healthy the entire time he wasn't injured?????

No. Rather, it's that you cannot draw from a dataset consisting of two **** points, one of which barely even qualifies, and expect to have anything approaching a worthwhile conclusion. He had a shoulder condition that he tried to play through because it was misdiagnosed as soreness before it became clear that two bones in his shoulder didn't fuse in adolescence and would require surgery...it's charitable to even count that as an injury. After returning, he then played over 100 games without anything necessitating a DL stint, at which point he injured his knee, which is a thing that happens in baseball sometimes. Making a grand total of one baseball injury,

Again: the only reason he has the 'injury 'prone' label is that he missed a bunch of time because of a condition that had nothing to do with a baseball injury, that the team initially didn't diagnose because it's not terribly common.

[The_Hater]

Still a bit early to write Travis off as some kind of major injury magnet. For all intents and purposes, he has had two substantial injuries in the bigs, and one was a none malformation rather than any injury that began presenting as a problem and eventually necessitated surgery. He was healthy for all of last year after recovering from that, until he hurt his knee in the playoffs.

People already had in their mind that he was injury prone before this latest setback. I don't think it matters if it's one specific issue, two issues or more I don't think it's a misdirected opinion at this point. He had is surgery in November and was supposed to be 100% by now so he's a much slower healer than most. God forbid he has recurring knee issues.

[Schad]

People already had in their mind that he was injury prone before this latest setback.

I'm sure they did. That doesn't make it a particularly valid opinion, however. People were annoyed that, as a rookie, he had what seemed like an innocuous issue that dragged on for much of the season, and eventually involved surgery. They should probably have revised their appraisal of the situation when the problem turned out to be a misdiagnosis rather than Travis at fault, though the misdiagnosis was understandable given that it's not a common problem.

I don't think it matters if it's one specific issue, two issues or more I don't think it's a misdirected opinion at this point. He had is surgery in November and was supposed to be 100% by now so he's a much slower healer than most. God forbid he has recurring knee issues.

We're now declaring him a slow healer because he has had a setback from knee surgery? Timetables for returns from surgery tend to be pretty variable; it's not at all uncommon for players to be shut down temporarily if they experience inflammation or the like upon ramping up their activity. If we want Travis to stop being 'injury prone', the most important thing is that we stop him from trying to play through problems, as he did with his shoulder (and in college, as he did through a broken hand).

[The_Hater]

People already had in their mind that he was injury prone before this latest setback.

I'm sure they did. That doesn't make it a particularly valid opinion, however. People were annoyed that, as a rookie, he had what seemed like an innocuous issue that dragged on for much of the season, and eventually involved surgery. They should probably have revised their appraisal of the situation when the problem turned out to be a misdiagnosis rather than Travis at fault, though the misdiagnosis was understandable given that it's not a common problem.

I don't think it matters if it's one specific issue, two issues or more I don't think it's a misdirected opinion at this point. He had is surgery in November and was supposed to be 100% by now so he's a much slower healer than most. God forbid he has recurring knee issues.

We're now declaring him a slow healer because he has had a setback from knee surgery? Timetables for returns from surgery tend to be pretty variable; it's not at all uncommon for players to be shut down temporarily if they experience inflammation or the like upon ramping up their activity. If we want Travis to stop being 'injury prone', the most important thing is that we stop him from trying to play through problems, as he did with his shoulder (and in college, as he did through a broken hand).

He broke his hand in college? I didn't even know that.

Wish they traded him in the off season for a OF with team control.

[Schad]

He broke his hand in college? I didn't even know that.

Wish they traded him in the off season for a OF with team control.

Because he continued to play for several weeks with a broken hand? And only relented and underwent surgery when he could no longer close his hand?

Yeah, what we really needed to do was trade him while injured, thus exacerbating a hole at a position we have struggled to fill for fifteen years in favour of another corner OF.

[The_Hater]

He broke his hand in college? I didn't even know that.

Wish they traded him in the off season for a OF with team control.

Because he continued to play for several weeks with a broken hand? And only relented and underwent surgery when he could no longer close his hand?

Yeah, what we really needed to do was trade him while injured, thus exacerbating a hole at a position we have struggled to fill for fifteen years in favour of another corner OF.

I appreciate your point, I'm just not drinking the Travis koolaid like others are. I don't think he's as good as many others do (please Devin, take a walk) and I think his health will always be a problem. My thought on trading him was more of a trading high scenario, but it's possible that wasn't trading high too.

[Schad]

I appreciate your point, I'm just not drinking the Travis koolaid like others are. I don't think he's as good as many others do (please Devin, take a walk) and I think his health will always be a problem. My thought on trading him was more of a trading high scenario, but it's possible that wasn't trading high too.

I would also prefer that he takes more walks. However, the walk issue really only prevents him from being a good top-of-the-order hitter; if he merely hits .290/.325/.440 while playing average 2B defense, you still have a very valuable asset, because players who are league-average-or-better hitters and solid defenders in MI aren't that common.

Regarding trading high, you'd need to find a team willing to trade major value for a player who could not at that time pass a physical. That's not easy to do, particularly if you're asking for a specific thing...namely, a good, young OF who can slot into the lineup immediately. We have no sure-fire 2B/SS prospects on the way...pretty much just Urena and Guerriel, and if you're annoyed by Travis' lack of walks, you'll really hate Urena, while Guerriel's biggest knock against is below-average contact skills. The free agent crop sucked, and our in-house options are not very good, I'd much rather see whether our young, two-way 2B with a WAR/650 in elite territory can get and remain healthy.

Travis may have an injury prone career. That's baseball. But that's a risk worth taking; in terms of injury proneness, a guy who has had multiple unrelated problems is far better than one who has a single chronic one.