Joba injured; right shoulder stiffness

[Jitpal]

Well it is tendinitis of the rotator cuff. I'm not a doctor and I'm not fully aware of other pitchers who have dealt with this, but it is obviously better than anything else that could have required surgery. Tendinitis is tricky because it may linger more than you'd like, and you never really know what exactly causes it. If not treated carefully and completely healed, it can lead to a torn rotator cuff. So you can imagine how cautious the Yanks will be with this, but it is certainly good news that they did not find a tear or anything else that would be serious. He will be shut down for a week to 10 days and begin a throwing program, and they will go from there. Best possible news IMO.

Agreed, I don't think they could have hoped for anything better. I think the Yankees will partially play it by how far the Yankees are from a playoff spot. If they are within 3 games or so, I would expect Joba to be back in September provided his shoulder responds to the rehab. I feel like if they are any farther back in late August or early September, then Joba would be shut down for the year. -Jitpal

[TKF]

Well it is tendinitis of the rotator cuff. I'm not a doctor and I'm not fully aware of other pitchers who have dealt with this, but it is obviously better than anything else that could have required surgery. Tendinitis is tricky because it may linger more than you'd like, and you never really know what exactly causes it. If not treated carefully and completely healed, it can lead to a torn rotator cuff. So you can imagine how cautious the Yanks will be with this, but it is certainly good news that they did not find a tear or anything else that would be serious. He will be shut down for a week to 10 days and begin a throwing program, and they will go from there. Best possible news IMO.

Agreed, I don't think they could have hoped for anything better. I think the Yankees will partially play it by how far the Yankees are from a playoff spot. If they are within 3 games or so, I would expect Joba to be back in September provided his shoulder responds to the rehab. I feel like if they are any farther back in late August or early September, then Joba would be shut down for the year. -Jitpal

+1 I am glad it is not worse... Lets just hope for a full and speedy recovery..

[nykgeneralmanager]

Well it is tendinitis of the rotator cuff. I'm not a doctor and I'm not fully aware of other pitchers who have dealt with this, but it is obviously better than anything else that could have required surgery. Tendinitis is tricky because it may linger more than you'd like, and you never really know what exactly causes it. If not treated carefully and completely healed, it can lead to a torn rotator cuff. So you can imagine how cautious the Yanks will be with this, but it is certainly good news that they did not find a tear or anything else that would be serious. He will be shut down for a week to 10 days and begin a throwing program, and they will go from there. Best possible news IMO.

Agreed, I don't think they could have hoped for anything better. I think the Yankees will partially play it by how far the Yankees are from a playoff spot. If they are within 3 games or so, I would expect Joba to be back in September provided his shoulder responds to the rehab. I feel like if they are any farther back in late August or early September, then Joba would be shut down for the year. -Jitpal

I would normally agree, but I wonder how quick they would be to shut him down. If he is 100% healthy, it is really in his best interest to get innings.

He has only thrown 89 innings this year, while his limit is in the 150-160 range. So in reality, any innings that he doesn't throw this year are innings that he will not be able to throw next year, because they will be forced to limit his innings once again if he is shut down.

[Jitpal]

Well it is tendinitis of the rotator cuff. I'm not a doctor and I'm not fully aware of other pitchers who have dealt with this, but it is obviously better than anything else that could have required surgery. Tendinitis is tricky because it may linger more than you'd like, and you never really know what exactly causes it. If not treated carefully and completely healed, it can lead to a torn rotator cuff. So you can imagine how cautious the Yanks will be with this, but it is certainly good news that they did not find a tear or anything else that would be serious. He will be shut down for a week to 10 days and begin a throwing program, and they will go from there. Best possible news IMO.

Agreed, I don't think they could have hoped for anything better. I think the Yankees will partially play it by how far the Yankees are from a playoff spot. If they are within 3 games or so, I would expect Joba to be back in September provided his shoulder responds to the rehab. I feel like if they are any farther back in late August or early September, then Joba would be shut down for the year. -Jitpal

I would normally agree, but I wonder how quick they would be to shut him down. If he is 100% healthy, it is really in his best interest to get innings.

He has only thrown 89 innings this year, while his limit is in the 150-160 range. So in reality, any innings that he doesn't throw this year are innings that he will not be able to throw next year, because they will be forced to limit his innings once again if he is shut down.

That's a good point but I think the Yanks would prefer Joba be healthy for his 110-120 innings next year rather than getting greedy for those additional 30-40 innings if he went the distance this year.

Best case scenario, Yankees are still in the hunt or right there, Joba comes back dominant. The he pitches deep into the playoffs to the world series. Gets all of his innings in and they win it all. He comes back next year able to pitch around 180-190 innings as his old dominant self.

Worst case scenario, Yankees aren't really in it but aren't far enough out of it so they rush him back a bit. He gets hurt even further, is out for all of next year and they don't make the playoffs.

In any case, the most important factor is if his shoulder responds well to the rehab, if it doesn't then this is all moot. -Jitpal

[VinnyTheMick]

Didn't Posada have the same injury early on this season & it wasn't handled well leading to the tear?

[nykgeneralmanager]

Didn't Posada have the same injury early on this season & it wasn't handled well leading to the tear?

Actually, the doctor later said that Posada initially had a tear but the Yankees said tendinitis. He then tried to just rehab/strengthen it but that obviously didn't go well, and now he is done for 8 months.

But with Joba he certainly just has tendinitis. He is the single most important player in this organization, and they definitely wouldn't risk as much with a 22 year old ace as they would with a 37 year old catcher.

[Pharmcat]

he was sent to andrews to assess the risk of long term damage....hes gonna go, strengthen the arm, and be back this month....the just wanted to know to shut him down or not for the season and im thinkin they were told its not necessary

[nykgeneralmanager]

Completely right Kandi (sorry, just doesn't feel right calling you Pharm ).

And as for what Andrews felt about any long-term damage...

a source told ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney that Andrews told the Yankees he doesn't believe Chamberlain's injury is a long-term problem.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3522585

[cmaff051]

Let us hope that Joba only misses the next few starts and is ready to pitch on September 1st. That way he'll just about reach his innings goal.

[Pharmcat]

Completely right Kandi (sorry, just doesn't feel right calling you Pharm ).

And as for what Andrews felt about any long-term damage...

a source told ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney that Andrews told the Yankees he doesn't believe Chamberlain's injury is a long-term problem.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3522585

its gonna be simple: he gives it a week, then gets into a throwing program...if he reports any kind of problem, hes done for the year....if not, he'll be back...and as far as my knowledge is (the one aspect of medicine we dont learn in pharmacy school is orthapedics, so im just guessing here) this type of injury just requires rest, strengthing and conditioning of the shoulder moreso than surgery

[TKF]

during the game tonight, Rick Sutcliff even suggested that if joba came back this year, that he would go back to an 8th inning guy... He was just speculating, but do you guys think that would be a good idea? or do you want to throw him right back in the fire..

[nykgeneralmanager]

No, that would be ridiculous. He wasn't a reliever in college, he wasn't a reliever in the minors. He only relieved to limit his innings. No starting pitcher goes on the DL and comes back and relieves, and Joba is a starting pitcher, so that wouldn't even be considered by the Yankees. The people that would consider that are of course the idiotic media who will somehow blame Joba's injury on the transition to the rotation, they will now say that Joba cannot handle being a starter as if he just began starting for the first time in his life.

[Jitpal]

Agreed if Joba comes back this year, he will be starting games. Even if Hughes and Kennedy come up and are lights out, he would be better than Ponson. If Joba doesn't come back this year, his innings will be limited as NYKGM said, I would imagine they would discuss putting him in the bullpen to start the year and then stretching him out in the majors again, in terms of limits. While I don't think this would or should happen but it will probably be discussed. It would probably depend on the status of the rest of our rotation, because right now the only real lock is Wang. Moose and Pettitte are free agents, Hughes and Kennedy would need to show something when they come up in the next few weeks to merit a spot next year. As well as potential free agents such as Sheets and Sabbathia. If Hughes and Kennedy are also deemed to be in the rotation, this team will have a huge problem in terms of innings limits. -Jitpal

[HCYanks]

Sutcliffe is a (Please Use More Appropriate Word). He thought Joba should go back to being a setup man despite thinking this injury was extremely minor. He probably sat himself in the "Joba is a reliever" camp early on and won't get over being wrong.