After the game the Cubs announced that the MRI/Arthrogram performed on Carlos Zambrano's right pitching shoulder showed absolutely NO structural damage. Specifically there was no evidence of a labrum injury or rotator cuff tear. There was some inflammation in the back of the shoulder which probably refers to the infraspinatus muscle, hence the Tribune reporting the test showed a minor shoulder strain.
The infraspinatus is the posterior of the four muscles that make up the rotator cuff. Cuff tears are mostly synonymous for a tear in the supraspinatus tendon which is the superior muscle and tendon. The muscle in front is the subscapularis and the teres minor is posterior below the infraspinatus. A mild muscle strain implies some inflammation but no significant stretch or tear of the muscle fibers. So with no structural damage and a collective sigh from all places Cub Blue, the conservative thing is to let Zambrano's shoulder rest for two starts. Supposedly they discussed this with Z and they wanted to know if he should miss only one start (vs. Baltimore) or two starts (at US Comisk-ular). Rumor has it that when Zambrano was told he would not bat in an AL team home park he opted to miss two starts.
and Javier Baez has a Grand Slam tonight in the 7th inning.
Z (AAA, PHI) tonight..
7ip 5h 1bb 6k, 0r
...according to a news/blog blurb about his last start he's not even hitting 90mph (at least that night), but he might be up in the bigs soon...especially with pettibone sucking hard in the rotation for PHI
Wavin' Wendall Sandberg....
Delmon Young becomes the 10th Phillie thrown out at home this year. Only Diamondbacks (11) have had more outs at home.
thanks obama.
...typical whitesox fan.
Juan Carlos Paniagua has pitched in one game this season for the Cubs Dominican Summer League team. Who knows when his visa issues will be resolved. If ever.
awesome play @3rd by valbuena, bottom 3rd
cubs up by 4 (all scored with 2 outs), top 1st...wainwrong.
ransom and r.sweeney homers.
another announce crew complaining about how long it takes for castro to walk back to the dugout after earning an out at 1st...it was the angels announce crew a couple weeks ago.
lovely, put up a post on potential trade candidates for Feldman and Garza and it ate the bulk of the text much like it does with some of the comments...sigh.
Jeff Baker, the pro's pro
http://www.thebiglead.com/index.php/2013/06/18/jef...
Don't look now but Toronto is red hot and only 5 games out of the Wild Card. Unless they collapse again I don't think they're going to sell after going full tilt this year and with Reyes coming back soon.
The lesson is never try
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhjGoaKf52s
Thanks to both Rob and AZ!
archer only lasts 4.2ip today...109 pitches.
CHARLIE: If a club exceeds it's Signing Bonus Pool by 5%, it loses a draft pick. So the Cubs can spend about $578K above its assigned SBP ($10,556M) and not lose a draft pick.
The #2 overall SBP valus is worth about $6.7M, so the Cubs could offer Bryant well over $7M and still not lose a draft pick if they were inclined to do so (presuming they did not go over their SBP in other rounds).
If the Cubs don't feel they are getting fair value offered back, they can always just hang onto Garza and Feldman and make them Qualifying Offers post-2013.