Thanks, Elbo, for the Lefty Eye on the Young Guy(s). And I also appreciate the image of Jayson Stark wetting himself. It should happen more often so he spends more time changing his underwear and less time writing. That would be a blessing for all humanity.
Speaking of young guys, the Giants announced today that Jesse "The Fopmeister" Foppert will have Tommy John surgery and miss most or all of 2004. Perhaps this explains why last year's minor-league reports and this year's spring-training reports clocked Foppert in the mid-90s, a speed he never seemed to reach in the bigs. He had a couple excellent games early on for the G's, but struggled with control and pitch counts as the summer progressed.
It's a setback, not al-Qaeda-blowing-up-U.N.-headquarters-in-Baghdad setback, but with the trade of Ainsworth, the question mark over Rueter's head (is he hurt worse than he admits? has the inevitable downhill slide started?) , and the probable loss of Ponson to free agency, it comes clear that Sabean will have some major rotation tinkering to do in the off-season. Assuming Ponson doesn't return, here's what we got:
Schmidt, J-Williams, Rueter (?), Hermanson (?), Correia/Brower/Jensen (???).
And even though Tommy John surgery is becoming more an inconvience than a major threat to a pitcher's career, it's disconcerting that after such a relatively short time on the mound (remember, Foppert was a 1st baseman for most of his college career) he's already injured. We just have to cross our fingers and think Joe Nathan, not Kevin Rogers.
By the way, if for some reason there's someone other than Elbo and I reading this, here's a short story I wrote last year about Darren Dreifort's rehab from his second Tommy John surgery.
