I know nobody axed us, but if anybody did...
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Q. Does Erik Bedard have a high pain tolerance?
A. In 2009, he fanned 10 hitters -- American League (TM) hitters -- per game with a trashed labrum.
I've slightly injured my labrums doing bench flyes and it is a deep, down bone-in ache in addition to the electric pain when you bend an injured labrum the wrong way.
Bedard got a rep for phantom pain because the doctors couldn't find the problemo. Picture yourself in that situation...
When Bedard has gone onto the DL, the next number in this sequence has not been 15 (day DL). It has been major surgery.
Bedard looks like he's in pain at all times, especially when answering questions like "What did you learn from the homer you gave up in that 6-1 win?" I believe him.
...........
All pro athletes have high pain tolerance compared to you and me. The running and lifting alone is more than most of us can hack for more than, say, ten years at a time.
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Q. Do you buy into the buzz around the re-sign?
A. Am gingerly sliding the probability to 40% that the M's wrap him up in February.
They've talked to him sweet all winter. And what has always been intriguing to me, is that there has been a complete absence of outside contact. I mean, why no offers whatsoever from the Mets or Tigers or Rainiers on MLBTradeRumors.com?
... the time is right for Jack to smile nicely and ask, "So, Erik, how does $25 an hour sound? I mean, only if you feel it's a win-win all the way around."
..............
The recent Twitters and stuff, I interpret that to mean lower-level M's employees are hearing around the halls that the M's are talking numbers with Erik.
The uprising of protest from the beat writers, "Hey this rumor is way out of hand," I interpret to mean that the writers are wistfully dreaming of an Erik-less clubhouse to walk into. Hey, I could be wrong.
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Q. The reports are good.
A. Yeah -- in theory, Bedard might only miss five or six starts. He certainly came back early in 2009.
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Q. Who knows if he'll be the same pitcher.
A. Once again, he fanned 10 men per game last year with ground glass in his shoulder. He's not going to forget how curl around, lean back, and tight-spin a breaking ball.
Of course his arm is going to be stronger than it was in his last 17 innings with the M's, in which he fanned 25 hitters. His shoulder had to have felt like Jell-O.
Various times around 2001-02, I refused to roto-draft Pedro Martinez because his arm always seemed to be hanging by a thread. Now that he's 40 or 50 years old, he's all the way down to 7-8 K's a game.
TRUST me on this one. If Bedard can take the mound, he's going to torment enemy hitters.
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Q. He can only go 5 innings.
A. Yeah, when he's being prepped for surgery, he's only good for about 5 IP, 8 strikeouts and two tubs of ice.
Click this link and scan down the IP column. That's his last healthy season, 2007.
Man, of all the things we've ever heard, to slag a guy for giving you 5 innings with a torn labrum....
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Q. Pretty nice #3 behind The Greatest Pitching Prospect Who Ever Lived and Mr. World Series?
A. Do yourself a favor. Click this link and scan down the ER column.
That's v.0.6, with the ripped muscles in the shoulder. Yeah, I wanna see v.1.0.
Yowch, Anaheim in here Friday-Saturday-Sunday June 4-5-6, with Felix, Lee, and Bedard on the docket? Tell me that wouldn't restore the Joy of Baseball?
Cheers,
Dr D
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