I've got some great news for my by Billy Butler. Butler has been up with the Royals from Triple-A for a while, but he knows it was only going to be a matter of days until he was sent back down to Omaha. With the return of Mike Sweeney on the horizon, the Royals just don't have enough room for two guys who can't field.
Sweeney, hitting .245 with seven home runs and 31 RBIs, has been dogged by injury since signing a $55 million contract five years ago. A vigorous offseason yoga program has kept him free of the back problems that had been plaguing him.
He went on the disabled list June 19 with right knee inflammation. The surgery will be performed by team physician Dr. Steven Joyce.
As odd as it is to say, given Sweeney's history with the Royals, this is probably the best thing for them. Let's be honest here, Mike Sweeney has never shown an ability to stay healthy, so there's no reason to believe he ever will. Throw in the fact that Sweeney is a free agent after this season, and the Royals don't really plan on bringing him back, and I think it's pretty clear what needs to be done.
Billy Butler needs to stay in the Majors. It's already clear that he kills minor league pitching, he needs at bats in the Majors now. Even if Sweeney recovers in time to finish the season in KC, the Royals would be better served to let him ride the pine while letting Butler play.
As if things weren't already going fantastic as it is for the Texas Rangers, they found out on Monday that they'd be without second baseman Ian Kinsler for a while. A stress fracture in his left foot is going to keep Kinsler on the shelf from anywhere between two and six weeks.
Kinsler's stress fracture was revealed when he had an MRI on Monday in Dallas. He was hitting .241 with 14 home runs and 35 RBIs in 74 games.
Considering that Mark Teixeira is still on the disabled list without a return date certain, and Hank Blalock won't be back for another four to six weeks, three-fourths of the Rangers opening day infield is injured. But hey, at least Sammy Sosa made the All-Star team! Wait, what? That's a shame.
The stress fracture is just the latest incident for Ian Kinsler in what's been a rough couple of months. He finished up April hitting .298 with 9 home runs and 22 RBI, but it's been all downhill from there. Since May 1st Kinsler is hitting only .215 with 5 home runs and 13 RBI.
Of course when you consider the Rangers called up Desi Relaford to take Kinsler's place on the roster, Rangers fans may end up missing Kinsler's recent production after all.
Randy Johnson's pesky back will not leave him alone. Just when he seemed to be back in Randy Johnson-esque form, the back that kept him out much of the early part of the year is injured again, and Johnson is headed to the DL.
After struggling for the Yankees last year and being traded to the Diamondbacks for nearly nothing in the offseason, Johnson has experienced a bit of resurgence this year. His WHIP (1.062) is the lowest it's been since he finished second in the Cy Young voting in 2003, a year he probably should have won the award, except for those pesky win-loss records clouding everyone's judgment.
But back trouble is keeping Old Man Johnson down this season. Offsesason back surgery isn't as easy for 43-year-olds to recover from as it is for, say, 25-year-old guys in the peak condition of their lives. Or for someone like Sal Fasano, whose mustache contains several of the key ingredients to the fountain of youth.
Jake Westbrook made his third rehab start for the Lake County Captains, as he tries to work his way back from an abdominal injury. He was good for the first three innings, but then he blew up in the fourth. After it was said and done, Westbrook lasted five innings, allowing four runs and throwing two wild pitches.
It's the third straight rehab start in which Westbrook has struggled. In the three starts he's 1-2 with a 7.90 ERA. Luckily for the Indians and Westbrook, nobody's looking for results in a rehab stint, they're only hoping he can pitch without re-aggravating the injury.
"I had one bad inning, but it was just me getting behind again a little bit,'' Westbrook said. "Overall, I felt real strong, especially compared to how the last two (starts) went. I just feel a lot better.''
And there it is. The results don't matter because he feels good. This is good news for the Indians, as they've been playing well enough without Westbrook, so now that they're getting their other ace back, things can only improve.
Eric Wedge isn't sure when the Tribe will bring Westbrook back, even though he thinks that Jake could come back now, it's more likely he'll make one more rehab start first. The only person who should consider this bad news is Jeremy Sowers. He's going to lose his spot in the Indians rotation once Westbrook returns, and he could find himself back in the minors.
"Huston was a little sore the last time he threw," assistant GM David Forst said. "He's going to take some more time before he tries it again."
Street's been on the disabled list since May 13th with an injury to his right elbow. His recovery from the injury is taking a lot longer than anyone expected, and now there's a question to whether Street will get back on the mound this season.
Everytime he throws, he's sore. It's not the way things are supposed to work, and it makes you wonder if there's something bigger going on with Street.
It's not all bad news for the Athletics though when it comes to injuries. Sure, they may not have their closer back yet, but they might be a few days shy of finding a new one.
For years Joe Crede has chosen to deal with the pain in his lower back, and try to rehab it with strengthening exercises. Now with his latest trip to the disabled list thanks to his back, Crede has had enough.
White Sox third baseman Joe Crede will undergo surgery on his lower back Tuesday, but the length of rehabilitation won't be known until after the extent of damage is determined.
Renowned back specialist Robert Watkins will perform the operation in Southern California.
Crede will be out at least two months, if not the rest of the season. It's a big loss for a White Sox offense that can't seem to score runs as it is. Another thing I'm sure Crede took into consideration was the fact he's a free agent at the end of next season. If you're going to have surgery, you'd rather have it the season before your walk year than the offseason before it. There's just more time to recover that way.
Not that teams will stop calling the Rangers and asking about him, it's just you don't generally want to trade for a guy while he's on the disabled list. That's where Teixeira ended up yesterday for the first time in his career, ending his club record streak of 507 consecutive games played.
"It's disappointing, but it's part of the game," Teixeira said. "I've been completely healthy my whole career, but every once in a while you are going to strain something. ... This streak was going to end eventually. I had no delusions that I was going to come close to Cal Ripken Jr.'s record. In the last three years, I've just never felt like I needed a day off. There is a difference between a day off and being hurt."
Tex had a bad week. Before leaving Friday's game with the strained left quad, he had to leave two other Rangers games this week due to an injury. Once because of a mild concussion, and the second time because of a stiff neck. Neither injury was bad enough to warrant a trip to the disabled list, so his quad was extra determined to get the job done.
Though he's only being placed on the 15-day DL, the Rangers aren't too sure that Teixeira will be ready to return after only 15 games. He'll be replaced by Brad Wilkerson, who just came off of a three-week stint on the disabled list himself.
What this means for any trade possibilities surround Teixeira, I'm not entirely sure. I don't think that this injury is going to cause any long term problems, but I'm sure a lot of teams are going to be more cautious before making a deal for him. They'll want to see that he's totally healthy first, so it's likely he won't be moved until closer to the deadline. Well, if he's moved at all. General Manager Jon Daniels has said he's not going to actively shop Teixeira, but is willing to listen to phone calls. Nevermind the fact that by stating that publicly, Daniels technically is shopping Teixeira.
All right, so I've spent entirely too much time around here writing about the Oakland Athletics and their injuries. I know this. Trust me, I want to write about something else, but the Athletics just will not play along.
They're stubborn like that. They insist on hurting themselves over and over and over again.
The biggest offender is Milton Bradley. Bradley has done two seperate stints on the disabled list already this season thanks to a bad hamstring. Well, as a way to guard against hurting his hamstring again, Bradley altered his running style.
The good news is it's worked. Bradley's hamstring is fine. The bad news is, he's hurt his calf.
A's manager Bob Geren had little information about Bradley's injury. He heard that it might have come when Bradley ran down the line in the fourth, but that was second-hand, he said.
"Hopefully, it's nothing,'' Geren said.
It was only Bradley's third game since returning from the disabled list. It's still too early to tell if Bradley is going to have to take a third trip to the disabled list, but odds are that he is. Not because I know anything about the severity of his injury, but just because he plays for the Oakland Athletics, and it's what they do best this season.
Well, it appears that the triceps tightness Colon dealt with at the beginning of the month hasn't gone away.
Bartolo Colon appears headed to the disabled list after admitting the triceps tightness that slowed him in early May bothered him throughout Monday's 12-5 loss to the Seattle Mariners, in which he gave up nine runs - seven earned - and 11 hits in 6 1/3 innings.
Scioscia said Colon, who sat out most of 2006 because of a rotator-cuff tear, is dealing with "a little dead arm," which is more of a short-term than long-term concern. If Colon alters his mechanics to compensate for his triceps tightness, he could risk re-injuring his shoulder.
In his last two starts Colon has pitched 10.2 innings while giving up 15 runs-13 of which were earned- and watched his ERA jump from 3.69 to 5.26. I think the best move for the Angels would be to put Bartolo on the 15-day disabled list just to give his arm some rest, and then take it from there.
If that's the direction they take, it's likely they'll either call up Joe Saunders from Salt Lake, or move Dustin Moseley from the bullpen back into the rotation. I think Saunders would be the best option, because when you have a bullpen that's been as effective as the Angels, you don't really want to mess with it.
The original plan in Kansas City was to have Octavio Dotel close out ball games for the Royals. Well, Dotel has only pitched 1.1 innings this season since he's spent the first two months on the disabled list. It turned out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise, as the Royals soon became acquainted with Joakim Soria.
Soria took over Dotel's role, and didn't look back. Notching 10 saves in the first two months with a solid 3.57 ERA. Considering how few chances Soria gets, 10 saves is a pretty good total.
Rookie closer Joakim Soria was placed on the 15-day DL with right shoulder inflammation before Saturday's game against the Mariners at Kauffman Stadium. The injury is retroactive back to May 23.
"The last couple days he had been getting some soreness but nothing to get alarmed about," manager Buddy Bell said. "But today when he got up, he felt sore rather than stiff. It's stiff, but sore along with stiff."
The Royals don't think that the injury is anything serious, and that a few weeks rest should do the trick. Soria says he had the same problem last season in Mexico, and a week off healed it completely.
I've got some great news for my by Billy Butler. Butler has been up with the Royals from Triple-A for a while, but he knows it was only going to be a matter of days until he was sent back down to Omaha. With the return of Mike Sweeney on the horizon, the Royals just don't have enough room for two guys who can't field.
As if things weren't already going fantastic as it is for the Texas 
Jake Westbrook
Huston Street
For years 
Not that teams will stop calling the Rangers and asking about him, it's just you don't generally want to trade for a guy while he's on the 
All right, so I've spent entirely too much time around here 
Bartolo Colon
The original plan in Kansas City was to have 
