Pitching Injury Trifecta

It was a tough day yesterday for three top-of-the-line hurlers. The news was not good on Jake Peavy, Roy Halladay, and Erik Bedard, to varying degrees. Let's discuss.

First, the most serious injury is to Padres' ace Jake Peavy. It looked like Peavy was over his ankle issues in his last start--one in which he went 7 innings of 2-run ball with 8 K's--but the team announced that Peavy is going to be shelved for quite a while. Although the Fathers are only saying that he will be out "for a month", that's actually the point that Peavy is going to have his ankle re-evaluated. A team trainer has already speculated that Peavy could be out 2-3 months, and that would be a big loss for fantasy owners, obviously. All you can do, as a Peavy owner, is stash him on the DL and hope that he can contribute for you down the stretch. In real baseball, this means that the Padres are going to be hard-pressed to trade Peavy this season. But on the good side for you, the fantasy owner, the Padres will definitely want to get him back out there for at least a few starts before the season ends. If the Padres trade Peavy in the offseason, any team that deals for Peavy will want to see that he is healthy and throwing well. Otherwise, the Padres won't get a great return for the ace.

Next, the good Doc, Roy Halladay, had to leave his start against the Marlins after just 3 innings with a groin injury. Halladay was going for his MLB-leading 12th win, and had given up just one run before departing (he ended up with a no-decision). I suppose the good news here is that the injury is not arm-related, but big pitchers like Halladay depend on those tree-trunks that they call legs to push off, so you know that the Blue Jays will not run Halladay back out there until their meal ticket is fully healed. It doesn't appear that the injury is a serious one, but these things can linger, so we'll just have to see. Manager Cito Gaston has already said that it's very likely that Halladay won't be able to make his next start, and as a Halladay owner, I'd be thrilled if he misses just the one start and then comes back without missing a beat. Halladay owners should plan on not having the good Doc available next week.

Finally, Erik Bedard was not able to make his scheduled start in Colorado today, being replaced by Brandon Morrow (good luck at Coors Field, Brandon). This is the second time this year that Bedard has had his spot in the rotation skipped. (In May he missed a start due to groin tightness and he missed this start due to shoulder discomfort.) The team insists that this move is more precautionary than anything else, and that he could pitch if he absolutely had to. Instead, Bedard will next go on June 19 at home against Arizona. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but could the team have withheld Bedard from a road game at Coors Field (and made his next start a cozy one against the weak-hitting D'backs at Safeco Field) in order to keep his ERA as low as possible, so that he appears more attractive as a trade chip? That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it. Bedard owners should feel comfortable going with him next week.