Will Carroll over at Baseball Prospectus released the Reds Team Health Report today.
Red lights: Junior, Kearns, Luke Hudson
Yellow lights: LaRue, Casey, Freel and Aurilia. Also, Milton, Wilson, Ortiz, Harang, and Claussen (i.e., all the pitchers except Graves).
He says that Milton’s yellow light may be optimistic, and predicts that Milton will have a season-ending injury early in the year.
Will used to be the world’s biggest Tim Kremchek basher. Then Doc Hollywood invited Will down for some glad-handing and a tour of the clinic, and Will’s changed his tune — or at least is playing it a lot softer: The Reds’ constant injuries aren’t all the fault of the medical staff, they’re a function of the type of players the Reds get (“old pitchers, broken pitchers and reclamation projects for Don Gullett”). If you give Will the benefit of the doubt, you say that more information enhanced his analysis. If you don’t, you say he was seduced by Doc Hollywood’s inexplicable charms, and doesn’t want to bash a friend. Either way, we’re deprived of the simplest, most-ready explanation for the neverending parade of injuries (that they’re all Kremchek’s fault), and forced to keep searching.
You ever seen me hesitate to slam someone that deserved it? Kremchek isn’t blameless – he IS the team doc and has a measure of responsibility. I just stopped using that too-simple explanation reflexively.