Comments on: Rehabbing in the 209: Dallas Braden set for shoulder surgery http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/05/11/rehabbing-in-the-209-dallas-braden-set-for-shoulder-surgery/ Baseball. Baseball. And then a bit more baseball. Tue, 21 May 2013 08:20:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: uuddlrlrbastart http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/05/11/rehabbing-in-the-209-dallas-braden-set-for-shoulder-surgery/comment-page-1/#comment-137001 Wed, 11 May 2011 22:50:36 +0000 http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=56628#comment-137001 Is the torn shoulder capsule the pitching equivalent of an oblique strain? I had never even heard of a shoulder capsule until last year.

]]> By: APBA Guy http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/05/11/rehabbing-in-the-209-dallas-braden-set-for-shoulder-surgery/comment-page-1/#comment-136947 Wed, 11 May 2011 20:07:24 +0000 http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=56628#comment-136947 In the Battle of the Team Physicians, this injury is of less direct import to the A’s as long as they don’t have another injury to the starting staff. The reason obviously is the above mentioned Tyson Ross who has better stuff than Braden, though probably lacks his bulldog mentatlity, a mentality that is very useful at the major league level. Indirectly, the Braden injury will be a problem for Gio who has relied on Braden’s whisperings for encouragement and morale boosts to very positive effect. Without Braden in the dugout Gio will have to find his own way, and in so doing, there have so far been uneven results.

The winner in all of this is the Angels, who appear to be doing what was predicted: moving into the vacuum created by the injuries within the A’s and the Rangers. The A’s have so far been a .500 team and it is by no means certain that the team will make the necessary moves to bolster the offense. Texas expects to get Josh and Cruz back in a few weeks, and perhaps Tommy Hunter, but the former two are always at risk for additional injury, and Borbon and Murphy simply can’t replace one or both of the starting OF’s.

The Angels look like they could back into the AL West, which is exactly how they drew it up. But best wishes from us A’s fans to Braden for as speedy and complete a recovery as he can make. Nobody outside NorCal likes him, but he’s our guy, and his perfect game was certainly the highlight of the A’s under the Wolfe/Fisher (Angelos-lite) ownership group.

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