August 25, 2009

Wary of the Elbow

Buster Olney reports that Johan Santana’s elbow kept the Red Sox and Yankees from being more aggressive in trying to trade for the lefty:

There have been red flags about the left-hander’s elbow for more than two years. At the end of the 2007 season, scouts reported that Santana’s velocity was down and that he had basically stopped throwing his slider. Officials from the Red Sox and Yankees took this as a sign that Santana was having elbow trouble and wanted to avoid the torque inherent in throwing a slider.

With Johan experiencing serious elbow problems in the second year of his contract, it looks like the Yankees and Red Sox read the situation correctly.

Hat tip, Projo Sox Blog.

2 thoughts on “Wary of the Elbow

  1. WeWanttheFunk

    “Hey, Brian? It’s Buster. You see the news about Santana? That’s right, Brian. You sure are the smartest and sliest GM in baseball. ‘Brian the Brain,’ that’s what I always called you. It takes a special kind of foresight to predict an injury 2 years in advance, but you sure had the number on that one. Good luck in the playoffs, as if you’ll need it with that brilliantly assembled juggernaut of yours! It almost isn’t fair! Ha!”

    “Hey, Theo? It’s Buster…”

    ReplyReply
  2. Scott Robinson

    Here’s my thing… we all know buster is a Yankee homer, so when it looks like he’s trying to slight the Mets I just take it as his Yankee Partisanship. But I went back through his archives from late 2007 and early 2008, as well as Stark’s, and never is an elbow issue or decreased velocity mentioned.

    Just as I remembered, the yankees made a hard deadline, which passed, so they gave up the hunt. After that deadline passed, Olney later praised the Sox for how patient they were, even pointing out that they sent the medical papers on Lester to Minnesota, a sure sign they were totally interested. But the Mets ended up offering the “Better package” so they got Santana.

    But now that his elbow is acting up, isn’t Olney practicing revisionist history here by painting Santana’s failed suitors in a postitive light?

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