Pirates Learn Kevin Hart Has Torn Labrum

That trade sure turned out well. Maybe Josh Harrison should start wearing a suit of armor around.

I had the same surgery and still haven’t been able to get my shoulder back to normal after a year and a half. I have a friend who had the same thing two years ago but is actually a pitcher and he lost seven mph off his fastball.

over/under on Harrison’s labrum failure? August?

How the Bay trade was the worst trade in history.

…to successfully come back from a torn labrum is probably Dave Williams. Tore his in 2002, and was an average-ish SP for us again in 2004-5.

It’s also worth noting that pretty much all pitchers have a torn labrum, to one degree or another. The motion involved in throwing a baseball 90+ MPH is unnatural, and often the decision on surgery vs. not-surgery is a judgment call on the part of the doctor. In general, the larger and more numerous the tears, the greater the need for surgery, and the lower the chances of recovery. It’s also not always entirely clear what the state of the shoulder will be until they open it up and have a look. J.R. House was one guy where they anticipated one prognosis (a small-to-mid-size tear) and found a different one when they actually started cutting (several significant tears, plus a partially torn rotator cuff and friction-related bone damage). It sometimes happens the other way around, too, though that’s less common.

They’ve gotten much better with shoulders over the last ten years. It used to be a death sentence, career-wise. Now, it’s only mostly a death sentence.

…it would make more sense now than ever to sign Seth McClung, who to the best of my knowledge hasn’t caught on anywhere since being cut by the Marlins in spring training. He’s been a solid long reliever and surprisingly decent fill-in starter for the Brewers the last couple of years. Give him a minor league deal and a few weeks at Indy to get himself back into game shape, and then see where we are.

Can we assume we are punting the season just to look at everyone in the minors? To me unless someone is ready to come up why not use a stop gap who might actually keep the team from losing? Running out retreads from within just doesn’t make sense when there are cheap alternatives.

D-Cutch gets hammered when he’s up in the ML, Morton, though finally had a respectable game, is (0-5). Alderson looks to be getting worst by the month. And Lincoln has issues he needs to figure out quickly.

What young pitchers have shown promise thus far? I don’ know much about Owens, Morris, or Locke. Is anyone excited about where they may be in a year or two?