Friday, April 15, 2011

Nishioka and Mauer on Disabled List

The normally passive Minnesota Twin fan base is getting restless. Want to know why?

Joe Nathan, fresh off tommy-john surgery, is blowing saves... Justin Morneau has a .619 OPS... Tsuyoshi Nishioka was making errors left and right, until he broke his leg... and Joe Mauer has just been put on the disabled list due to 'bilateral leg weakness'... Additionally, the Minnesota Twins are at the bottom of the AL Central Division... a division we share with the Kansas City Royals and the Cleveland Indians. What... a good joke.

If you are anything like myself, when you heard about Joe Mauer's inability to play, you fired up the Mac and headed in to the cyber world in search of 'bilateral leg weakness' because, frankly, it sounds made up. Here is what I found: an individual suffering from bilateral leg weakness has muscle weakness in both legs that could be caused by a malfunction of the brain, spinal cord, or nerves.

Joe Mauer Injured

GREAT! Joe Mauer is broken... so broken in fact that he is TOO sick with the flu to even see the doctor about his brain/spinal cord/nerves. This injury could be classified as the most-apocalyptic one to date. Mauer is in the first season of a contract that pays him $23 million a season until 2018. At the time of his injury, Mauer was batting a lowly .235/.289/.265.

Given the aforementioned injuries, the Twins are close to cardiac arrest. With Nishioka out, second base has been manned by Michael Cuddyer (one of my faves) and with Casilla playing the opposite of impressive, the Twins are forced to consider the unlikely double-play combination of Luke Hughes at short and Michael Cuddyer at second. If you had told me this in February, I would have laughed so hard, I may have fallen off my dinosaur. (Step Bros reference)

Finally, there is the ace left-hander Francisco Liriano who... basically can't get anyone out. He has been pitching for contact all year. Liriano has a 9.42 ERA in three starts. How are we 4-8?

Let's cross our fingers Mauer receives more of an informed diagnosis when he sees the doctor. Actually, let's cross our fingers Mauer even makes it to a doctor.

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