Saturday, January 17, 2009

Cashman Worried About Mo and Po

From Tyler Kepner (hat tip to Was Watching):

The Yankees have questions in center field and the fifth spot in the rotation, but Cashman said he was more worried about the recovery of catcher Jorge Posada and closer Mariano Rivera. Those are players whose production could not be easily replaced by a trade.

“Our catcher and closer are coming off shoulder surgeries,” Cashman said. “That’s what concerns me, and that’s what people should be focused on. Everything is coming along fine, but nobody usually has hiccups this early. Posada’s just throwing at 90 feet on flat ground and Mo’s not even throwing yet.”

Posada will not be able to catch by the exhibition opener Feb. 25, Cashman said, but he is on track to be ready for the regular-season opener April 6. Rivera does not throw in January even when he is healthy, so his schedule is not alarming. But it is Cashman’s job to fret.

“Mo’s surgery wasn’t as serious as Posada’s,” Cashman said. “But it’s still shoulder surgery
Uhhh, thanks for scaring the crap out of me Brian.

I was fairly confident they'd both return without any setbacks, but I can't say I feel the same way after reading this.

Now I'm not saying I think they're both going to be out till June or anything like that. But when Cashman shows this much concern, it concerns me.

1 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Meh... I think he's just being candid. It's obvious it's something to worry about, as Posada hasn't been healthy since before last season, and both he and Mo are coming off of shoulder surgery. Granted Mo's was a fairly simple "clean up", but still, you want to see how it goes.

When he said "Mo's not even throwing yet" I think he just means that they can't know how he's feeling because of the fact that he hasn't started throwing yet - not that he's concerned that he hasn't started yet... if that makes sense.

At this point, injures are the only thing he (and we) should be thinking about... there are question marks with Joba, AJ, Hughes, Mo, Posada, Matsui, etc. Although I still feel pretty confident that the injury bug couldn't possibly bite us as bad as it did last year

*knocks on every piece of wood in sight*

Aside from keeping an open mind about the 5th starter, I don't think any moves are necessary, nor should we be concerned about much. This team is very solid from 1-25 right now.