Of course, the first thing I check when I write this article is “What is the etymology of ambulance?” Seems like the “ambu” part is definitely from walking (like “ambulate”) and “lance” comes from King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table…or is it Lance Armstrong? ENYWHEY. It’s about combat deaths. [starts puking] Well, now that I’ve discovered that baseball is a war of attrition and we’re all the bystanders watching the battles and the war, I feel much better about my complicit participation in this 300 cosplay that we do every day. SPARTAAAAA!
Anyway, here’s the injury update:
Surprise! Tricked you! Before we get into the update, I want to gently remind you that it’s Fantasy Playoff Season (TM). If what I have done — or any of the writers have done — have helped you out, please support us with a subscription to Rudy’s MLB Tools or grab an ad-free subscription or share our content on social media. Rudy’s tools have auto-generated IL estimates and update before game lock to tell you who are the best players on your roster. I download the .CSV every day before lock to make sure my rosters are optimized. All right, let’s get to the ambulance!
Chris Sale: Oh, you lucky, lucky animal. You lived in the time period that intersected Chris Sale and Shohei Ohtani. And now one of them comes off the IL and is pitching today! About 11 AM, you’ll see me tell you to take Chris Sale on your DFS teams today because he’s maybe going to get 5 innings? 6 if we’re lucky? And a whole ton of strikeouts. Reports all say that everything is go for the Redwood Tree cosplayer, and we’re basically at the point where we just want him to not blow an oblique by pitching too much upon return. Roster everywhere, start everywhere, possibly keep for next year. I’ve been telling you this since June so it shouldn’t be a surprise!
Ryan Yarbrough: Covid-IL. Not like the Rays were doing well in keeping their rotation healthy and stocked. Or is it stacked? Whacked? Yes, Covid whacked Yarbrough. Also, get vaxxed, and if you are vaxxed, help out our lovely health care workers like many of the Razzball spouses by wearing your mask indoors at least until delta calms down a smidge.
Kyle Schwarber: He’s baaaaack! He’s on the Red Sox now, which means he’s batting next to Devers, Bogaerts, Just Dongs…whew, I got sweaty there. Start him everywhere.
Alex Verdugo: Speaking of Sox (basically this whole post by this point), he had a kid! I went to try and find a picture of the kid but failed to do so. You’ll just have to trust me that Verdugo procreated 9 months ago.
Gerrit Cole: Missed some time with the ‘vid and then rejoined the Yankees for the cornfield game. He should make his next start. My Pitcher Rankings say that Cole is one of the most trusted pitchers in MLB, which basically says all the SP are unmitigated disasters at best and you should roster Schwarber.
Byron Buxton: He’s baaaaaack (almost). He’s been taking batting practice with the Minnesota Twins and looks ready for a rehab assignment. He broke his pinky about 7 weeks ago and in typical Bux fashion let it heal. Honestly, I’d rather players heal than try and play through stuff (looks at Jacob deGrom). Get ready to activate!
Shane Bieber: Starting to pitch off the mound again and it’s going well so far. Bieber wants to get back on the mound ASAP. Cleveland is kind of losing the AL Central (again), so the front office probably doesn’t want him to go too fast. Here’s the situation I’ve been hinting at in my pitcher roundups: Bieber has 3 years of arbitration still in front of him (are any of you gasping yet?). That’s right: the best pitcher in the league when healthy (I know them’s fighting words) doesn’t really control his contract. He’s making $650K a year to compete for the Cy Young, and even in 2021 when he’s missed 2 months of pitching, he’s still in the top 15% (or so) of IP thrown. Maybe that’s what caused his shoulder strain [pinky to mouth]. So, the future Guardians want to suppress his salary by having him come back slowly, and of course, Bieber wants to inflate his salary by pitching as much as possible this year. I know it’s frustrating for real-life Bieber and fantasy managers of Bieber, but if he wants that mega-contract like Gerrit Cole, he’s better off healing fully instead of racing back. So, fingers crossed that he manages his health in the proper way and we see him get his dues soon.
Mookie Betts: After a brief stint playing 2B, Betts is back on the IL with a sore hip. 2021 probably isn’t his year and I won’t hate you if you move on in redraft. Dynasty players: protect that man!
Mike Trout: Still out, still dashing my hopes and dramamines. Sorry, I meant dreams, the meds were messing me up there. He’s got his money, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Trout get a final hurrah at the end of the season to finish on a “high note.”
Jacob deGrom: For weeks I pleaded on the internet with the Mets to shut down deGrom rather than letting him pitch through injuries that were obviously going to destroy his arm and lead to Tommy John surgery. Maybe in a sick, sad world way, the trainers know his arm is hurt and just want it to finally snap? Does that actually happen? I mean, why would they let the best pitcher in baseball continue to march out there with forearm inflammation and shoulder inflammation? The result is that deGrom has been sidelined for a while and keeps going back for MRIs. See what happens when you get good healthcare that’s paid for? You get giant machines checking out your internals every week. And so far the machines aren’t telling us anything new about deGrom. Then again, the Mets were pretty secretive about Kumar Rocker’s “injury.” Am I sensing a trend, or is that just the 5G interfering with my magnets? ENYWHEY. Reports came out on Friday that deGrom will remain sidelined through the start of September, and I’ve already seen high stakes players drop him, so…I’m not saying to drop him, but I *am* saying that you better look elsewhere for IP if you’re in the fantasy playoffs.
Yu Darvish: Sore back, headed to the IL. I think this will just be the new norm for Darvish: periods of awesomeness followed by a brief IL stint. Also, I’m wearing my RotoWear Darvish shirt right now, which basically is how I look 95% of the time.
Paul Sewald: Off to have a baby. Hopefully not with Alex Verdugo.
Stephen Strasburg: Donezo for 202-onezo. You probably knew this was going to happen when he had that vestigial tendon removed in the pre-season, right? Not worth acquiring in any format anymore, sadly.
Huascar Ynoa: Should be coming back this week but the Atlantians might put him in the bullpen. Thanks, Kyle Muller. As a reminder, Ynoa was a top-25 SP before he punched the dugout bench in a fit of rage and broke his hand. For fantasy managers everywhere, you gotta scramble to add Ynoa if Atlanta does the right thing and puts Ynoa in the rotation.
Do you have some injury news to share? Drop it down in the comments and let us know! Cheers all.
