Joel Hanrahan Might be Ready for Opening Day

by Charlie Wilmoth on Feb 25, 2010 7:16 PM EST

Cool. There's no structural damage, and he's been cleared to throw.

Jenifer Langosch also reports that Jose Ascanio is trying to return by June. That will create some interesting roster decisions if it happens, since Ascanio is out of options and is coming off major surgery.

* * *

By the way, for those of you who haven't seen it yet, you can vote for Bucs Dugout or for WHYGAVS in the finals of the Pittsburgh Sports Blog Championship. I'll be pretty happy no matter who wins, because it feels like quite a victory to have two Pirates blogs in the finals. That we were able to do that speaks volumes about the dedication of Pirates fans who are now 17 years removed from a winning season.

UPDATE: Relatedly, if you're a Baseball Prospectus subscriber, check out their glowing report on the Pirates' team health.

Tweet Comment 11 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

This is completely subjective and meaningless

but I can’t shake the feeling that 3-5 years ago, this would have without question resulted in TJ surgery or something similar. Remember when Brad Lincoln got hurt, and the immense feeling of inevitability to it? And the sense that his injury was known for a long time and just ignored/covered up?

When I initially read about Hanrahan starting out on the DL, this is what I thought of. It’s nice to not have that feeling mean anything anymore.

Actually this also coincides nicely with Will Carroll’s highly favorable Team Health Report article today at BP. (Free Article)

by escroll on Feb 25, 2010 9:04 PM EST reply actions

I didn't feel either of those things...

…that you are describing.

by Vlad on Feb 25, 2010 9:13 PM EST up reply actions

No?

Per my recollection, it was late in a string of promising pitchers, especially who went down for major surgery during DL’s regime; each having a minor injury that was downplayed for a while, maybe even featuring them pitching through it, followed by them having major surgery. Coming to mind are Lincoln, Kris Benson, Sean Burnett, vanBenschoten, and others that I can’t think of off the top of my head. It always seemed to happen in spring training, too. What bothered me was not them getting injured but the seemingly total incompetence or deception in how the injury was handled.

This is of course subjective, and perhaps I’m exaggerating my memories, but there just seems to be a big change, and it’s nice.

by escroll on Feb 25, 2010 10:02 PM EST reply actions

Dunno.

I didn’t ever feel that it was inevitable that any specific one of our pitchers would get hurt. Intellectually, I knew that a lot of them would, because that’s one of the main things that pitchers do, but I didn’t have a sense of impending doom about it or anything like that.

Your personal feelings are your own, of course.

by Vlad on Feb 26, 2010 9:55 AM EST up reply actions

I have to admit

I had those same feelings back at the time. But that’s what happens when you put so much stock into first round pitchers and don’t have hardly anyone else that might develop. Now, even if ZVR would go down in 2 years, we probably would have several others that would keep that from stinging so much.

by MarkInDallas on Feb 26, 2010 3:54 PM EST up reply actions

Slightly off topic

Does anyone know if radio broadcasts are available through MLB for the Spring Training games?

by biglar33 on Feb 26, 2010 9:45 AM EST reply actions

Yes

If you have XM Radio.

As for Hanrahan, I’m not convinced that this injury is behind us quite yet. If it lingered all off season I don’t see why it would magically go away now. I hope I’m reading this wrong.

Good day.

by Uncle Nate on Feb 26, 2010 1:41 PM EST up reply actions