Gameday Open Thread / Cubs @ Brewers

Might depend on his BA and whether he stays in the second slot. If he's batting 3rd or 5th and hitting .268, there will be a lot of barking.

Piniella, talking about Japanese hitters in general and our Japanese hitter in particular, from yesterday's New York Times:

“They’re very disciplined hitters,” Piniella said. “They have great work habits, they have a unique style of hitting that isn’t taught in this country. They learned it through batting practice, their instruction and they use film. They have their own way of hitting.

“They stand a little closer to the plate than American hitters. When they stride, they don’t step toward the pitcher but more toward first base or third base, depending on whether they’re left-handed or right-handed. Their top stays stationary so they’re nice and square and their hands are steady when they hit.

“It’s a unique way of hitting, but it’s effective. Ichiro can hit the ball anywhere he wants. He can spray it to left, slap it to center, pull it to right.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/sports/baseball/09chass.html?scp=1&sq=Piniella+Fukudome&st=nyt

But I agree that if he's put in a position lower in the order from which the Cubs need some thunder, he'll be criticized as an overpaid slap hitter.

Pie's surgery:

assuming the testis is viable...

To prevent subsequent torsion, fix viable gonads to the scrotal wall with 3-4 nonabsorbable sutures. Perform both exploration and anchoring of the contralateral testis through the same incision.

http://www.emedicine.com/Med/topic2780.htm

in case it's not viable:

Patients requiring an orchiectomy because of a nonviable testis may benefit from the placement of a testicular prosthesis.

Didn't make the Nats cut? Ouch.

Dubois is well on his way to being a career minor-leaguer.

The Ossatron is very similar to Lithotripsy used in treatment to non-surgically break up kidney stones. It's high frequency ultrasonic shock waves (branded as Extracorporial Shock Wave Therapy or ESWT).

http://www.ossatron.com/

Apparently, the theory behind it is that it disrupts the chronically injured/inflammed tissue bringing in new blood supply on a microscopic level where any prior healing reaction had stopped or never occurred. Hence in ortho it's used mostly on chronic tendonitis situations that seem to be resistant to conventional treatments over time.

My experience is limited to treatment of RESISTANT achilles tendonitis and lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow) and plantar fascitis in the foot and it's been very iffy (it's been very expensive, so for most people, the insurance usually has to approve it which isn't all that common these days) but some of the patients felt it helped. It's not like the ultrasound treatments rendered in physical therapy departments which is more like deep heat.

Regarding baseball players, I believe this is what Magglio Ordonez had in Europe (I seem to remember Vienna) for his knee problem which was labeled avascular necrosis (AVN) but more likely Ordonez had a severe bone bruise that got better on it's own...just that it took a long time to heal. The data on it for treatment of AVN comes mostly from Europe. Of course with a good result someone is going to take credit. Again the theory was that there was damage to the local blood supply to bone in his distal femur at the knee and the ESWT creates a situation where new blood supply even in the bone would develop restoring the damaged area.

Chris Quinn, a teammate of Wade's had OssaTron treatment after last season on the bottom of both feet (plantar fascitis) to relieve heel and arch pain. I guess he's better.

I'm not sure what Wade's diagnosis is, apparently he's had both of his knees scoped though. Most likely diagnosis in the knee to use it on would be patellar tendonitis (which is also known as jumpers knee)...that makes sense as it's common in basketball.

Hill throws four pitches and his fastball, when he's on his fastball has some late life. Marshall throws three pitches none of which are 'above average'. The advantatge that Marshall has is that his fastball tends be thrown on a downward plane and get more groundballs. But no, I don't think Marshall has better stuff or a higher upside than Marshall. Marshall got rushed to the majors, whereas Hill had some injury problems in the minors, which explains the desrepancy in their ages vs MLB experience. Hill has been better in the minors and better in the Majors.

If the pitch acts differently from the hitters perspective, then it IS a different pitch.

Yeah, it depends on the way you look at it, but for the most part, Hill has less pitches in his repertoire than most pitchers and still has some improvement he can do, which is good!!