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Taking some off for better control? He has had better command today then I've seen in awhile.

Burger the1B to open the season?

Congratulations! Always satisfying as a coach to see them doing well.

Agreed.

That usually shows up as damage and at least discomfort. Possible though. I'm sure not in favor of the short arm action he used

Possible, but I think his motion would be much different if he was constantly in pain.

Still think it's more the lack of sticky stuff.

You're welcome.

It wasn't because the previous surgery went wrong. They probably saw the damage and did the meniscal surgery to see if he could play with just that removed. When he couldn't, they tried a second surgery that was a longer rehab but still gave him a fair shot at playing again. This is the last thing they can do before a knee replacement to help the cartilage but really decreased the chance he'll play again. It's possible but the chances really decreased.

The bone bruise will decrease the blood flow to the deep layers of the articular cartilage. It won't heal and could have lead to the need for the transplant if it's the articular cartilage.

It's also possible that the meniscus was damaged so badly that they had to remove too much and he couldn't play with it. So they are doing a true meniscal transplant from a cadaver. Those are more rare though.

It will be a long shot.

MACI or OATS where they remove pieces of cartilage from a non-weight bearing potion of the knee and put it in the damaged area.

It sounds like he had a meniscus tear that then damaged the articular cartilage. The reports from the current surgery make it sounds like it was a significant defect and had a MACI or OATS procedure which moves cartilage from one area to another.

One thing people need to realize is that pain is a psychosocial construct for each individual. One part is true nocioception that is the actual nerve impulse that carries the signal to the central nervous system. The other part is how the unconscious deals with it. For example, someone who has been in a rear end car collision may unconsciously react differently when they see a car approaching fast in their rear view mirror. This state of heightened awareness usually leads to a more severe injury if another collision occurs. Long story short the greatest predictor for an injury is a previous injury. Not just because of tissue weakness but because of other psychosocial factors. He may be soft but there might be other factors involved from earlier in his career that we don't know about.

I would spend for him. The line needs to improve and he is a proven commodity.

Sure. At 4 there would still be thy impact player. I don't think they'll get very many picks for it there. If they want to get the haul many people want they would need to trade with a team much further down.

Coincidence with the ban on sticky stuff?

I don't think I would trade down that far. If the bears are picking in the teens they aren't going to get that same impact player. If the bears just go for quantity over quality, in a few years we'll be saying "they have a lot of good ayers but they lack the impact player." They will be a middle of the road good team. They need an impact a player and can draft good players later.

That's all I get. The other games are fine.

Amazing what happens when you can workout to get ready for the season and not just doing rehab on your knee. Especially for a catcher.

The most important part of Spring Training.

That's what I meant. There was no statisticallly significant difference in injury incidents last year.

They didn't throw with max effort on every pitch and paced themselves to pitch deep into games. That is not the mindset of today's pitcher. Besides comparing every pitcher to one of the best of all time is not generally a good comparison as even other pitchers of the time did not pitch as quickly as them.

As Dick said there were no statistical significant changes in the minors last year. Those are the younger ones. We need to monitor the older more susceptible pitchers.