Tom Gage and Danny Knobler are both reporting that Mike Maroth will undergo surgery to have bone chips removed from his elbow. This unfortunately means that what was looking to be Maroth’s most promising season will be derailed for a significant time period. According to today’s press notes, Maroth will have the surgery on Friday and it will be performed by Dr. Lewis Yocum.
I’m not sure of the timetable, but Baseball Prospectus’s injury guru Will Carroll notes that Kelvim Escobar came back from the same surgery in 6 weeks last summer. So it’s possible that Maroth could be back just after the All Star break.
Possible fill-in candidates, short of a trade, remain Roman Colon, Zach Miner, Jordan Tata, Wil Ledezma, Jason Grilli, and Humberto Sanchez.
UPDATE: Miner will get the start on Sunday.
$#@$#@%!!!
Well, I guess I’m open to using Zum as a starter now, but only if they determine his pitches are good enough to go through the order a few times.
It would certainly weaken the bullpen, but probably not as much as the other guys would weaken the rotation. If Zum can succeed as a starter at this point in time, they have to do it.
Yay pitching depth! Sitting back watching the Red Sox do things like call up some kid from AA that no one’s ever heard of to cover for David Wells and do voodoo rituals to try and put Clement’s head back on straight has made me insanely grateful for all the options we have in the Tigers system. I’m bummed for Maroth, but not particularly scared for the team.
Well said. It will negatively impact the team, but it’s not a crisis.
A shame for Maroth. He’s the one player that really typifies the Tigers’ turnaround–from 20-game loser to top-5 ERA leader.
Yes agreed, With what Mike has been through and off to such a good start it has to be difficult on him. Its important to keep things in perspective. Let not just ram Z out there because Maroth is out. He is still a young guy with massive up side potential and we have a long way to go here. Screwing him or his arm up is not good for anyone in the long run. This is were having Jim Leyland as a manager is so good. I think Jim will keep everything together and keep a team that is in it from finding excuses. Its only June 1st. Lets see where we are September 1st.
Steve
I don’t know much about Miner, whats his story?
Zach Miner is a 24-yr old right hander who came in the Colon/Farnsworth deal, I believe. I don’t really consider him a huge prospect. He hasn’t seemed to show the type of power Leyland loves, and his strikeout to walk ratio is more like Doug Jones than Zumaya. But… he’s 6-0 with a sub-3.00 ERA at AAA this year; and was 3-1 with about a 2.3 at Toledo after the trade last year.
Kinda surprised Ledezma didn’t get the call… but Miner’s pitching well. The Tigers could just use some lefties