Injury Updates

The Mariners held a press conference a little while ago, no doubt in attempt to distract me from writing more posts about the worst players they have ever had. Normally I am able to ignore pressers since they offer little more than puff that we have already had leaked to us, but this one was new as it featured some worthwhile tidbits (that Jeff will go into more depth later) and updates on injuries. Lets do this alphabetically!

David Aardsma is slated to be ready by the second week of the season. Whether ready means ready to pitch in games or ready to begin throwing bullpens was not made exactly clear but given that Aardsma is already throwing, I believe it's the former. If so, that's good news as we're looking at just a handful of games without him at this point though missing Spring Training and jumping right into ballgames could make him a touch rusty.

Dustin Ackley has put on about ten pounds of muscle weight, bringing him up to the flyweight class. He has no injuries or recovery to report other than that.

Erik Bedard is already into semi long toss, throwing at 100 feet and will have already moved onto throwing bullpen sessions by the time Spring Training begins. He somehow remains on schedule to participate fully in Spring Training and begin the season healthy and with the team. Adjust your over/under DL bets accordingly.

Franklin Gutierrez is fine. I was not aware there were any reports to the contrary, but he is fine. Go ahead and feel panicked and then relieved.

Shawn Kelley's recovery from partial Tommy John surgery now has a hoped for timeline. The Mariners hope to have him back by June. Again, whether that means back throwing at all or back in the Major League bullpen is a little ambiguous. The latter seems optimistic to me. Given the nature of his injury, in order to be back with the team by June, I feel like he would need to begin a throwing program rather soon-ish. Perhaps he will not need as long to build up strength however.

Michael Saunders had his appendix out a few weeks ago and will go back to working out in a week or so. When Matt Cassel had his appendix ripped out of him in an emergency surgery, he went back to playing football in 11 days. Michael Saunders seems like a nancy boy now doesn't he?