Sez Ghost,

I know you're not a Guti fan, Doc, but do you think the ugly slump last year might have had something to do with him being in continuous wretched stomach pain and barfing up lunch before his first at bat five times a week?

My default answer on this kind of question is, "sure!  And if they can get Garrett Olson to hold his mitt higher in the stretch, we'll get him rolling too!"

This is what BaseballHQ calls "noise":   Rob Johnson had Lasik over the offseason and personally guaranteed me he's ready to have a great year...

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=== A Picture's Worth 1,000 Words ... But Please Spare Us the MRI On This One, Dept. ===

One of my best friends has a severe case of Crohn's Disease.  

We're talking about intestinal problems so extreme that they have, at least ten times in his life, created psychotic episodes.  He loses contact with reality, believes himself to be a different person, hallucinates, creates entire belief structures in his psychoses.

We assure you that it is 100% attributable to his Crohn's episodes.

........

Leaving that alone for a moment, we've counseled several people with digestive problems bad enough to seriously affect their states of mind -- including my wife, if you count that in the 'counseling' basket ... I've had diverticulosis myself...

.........

Lemme cut to the chase.  Blocked intestines, blood poisoning, systemic shutdown ... whether you are talking about total shutdown and surgical intervention, or simply "slow digestion", bloating etc. ... the impact on your life can be immense.

We heard Rick Griffin on the radio about two weeks ago discussing Gutierrez' condition and sat up in the chair.  OH NOOOOoooooooo.... Guti had NOPE HAS a chronic digestive disorder.

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=== Dr's Diagnosis Dept. ===

Maybe we shouldn't even be tongue-in-cheek about this one... real doctors are needed.  Or should I say, fake doctors are needed, since real doctors make digestive problems worse.  Holistic doctors might make them better.

Does SSI buy into the idea that Gutierrez' 2010 slump could have been caused by his digestion?  And then some.

Throwing up before an at-bat against Justin Verlander?  We're not talking about willing yourself to run down the lane and dunk, like Michael Jordan did against the Jazz.  We're talking about precision reflexes and decisionmaking.

Of course nausea would prevent a hitter from performing well.

...........

Guti's fall from +29 runs UZR to +7 runs (or whatever) an example of the stat's volatility?  I unsay it.

Guti's falloff in 2H 2010 vindicates my questioning of his offensive talent?  I unsay that too.

Guti's systemic shutdown in 2010, in my view, amounts to nothing less than a neutering of his world-class athletic talent.  He might as well have been born with less talent, as have been battling this chronic disease.

I've been a fairly emphatic skeptic on Gutierrez.  This news overturns that evaluation, for me.

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