Yesterday we heard that Andrew McCutchen was injured with what was believed to be an oblique strain. Dejan Kovacevic reported today that the injury is not an oblique injury. Travis Sawchik has the details straight from McCutchen.
Edit: Andrew McCutchen says he has a fractured rib … Not an oblique strain
— Travis Sawchik (@Travis_Sawchik) August 5, 2014
It was a stretch to blame the possible oblique injury on Randall Delgado and the Diamondbacks. But a fractured rib? There are a few ways that this could happen. Getting hit with a 95 MPH fastball is one of those possible ways.
McCutchen won’t go on the disabled list yet, since he is hoping for a quick recovery.
McCutchen has still not been placed on the DL. He wants to see if there's quick improvement possible
— Travis Sawchik (@Travis_Sawchik) August 5, 2014
If he could make a quicker return — quicker than the one month that was speculated yesterday — it would be huge for the Pirates.
UPDATE: The Pirates have released more details on the injury, from General Manager Neal Huntington.
“Andrew McCutchen has been diagnosed with an avulsion fracture involving the costochondral cartilage of the left 11th rib. We continue to evaluate Andrew’s progress and he will remain on the active roster. We want to take the appropriate time to make the best possible decision for Andrew and for the Pirates. We will have an additional updates as applicable.”
If you’re wondering where the 11th rib is located, it’s right around here:
UPDATE: Clint Hurdle doesn’t think the injury stems from being hit with the pitch.
Clint Hurdle said he does not believe McCutchen's injury stems from being hit by a pitch on Saturday.
— Travis Sawchik (@Travis_Sawchik) August 5, 2014
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
And in other news, the Pirates have announced that they’ve acquired Adam from the Garden of Eden. Word is that he’s a RBI machine…I meant a RIB machine.
It makes no sense for him to come back quicker than two weeks. Just put him on the DL and bring him back in 14 days, we need the player, and we need him to give this a reasonable time to heal. We can’t play a man down right now
We need a player? Really lol? That lineup at the end of the game looked like one the Marlins put out there after their last fire sale. Can’t count on Walker for the rest of the season, who knows how long Cutch will be out, and Pedro is a mental disaster. It’s great we have all this minor league depth, too bad none of it’s ready.
Clint Hurdle also thinks “the neverending story” is a work of non-fiction. I don’t think i’ll take medical opinions from a guy whose biggest claim to fame chewing 47 pieces of bubblegum in one hour
After watching tonight’s game, not only does Cutch have a rib injury, but Hurdle has a brain injury and the bullpen has a guts injury.
Hurdle, honestly, has been getting worse at managing the pitching staff it seems. I thought that would be hard to do.
Come on people, if he were injured by the HBP, he would most likely hurt his ribs much sooner in an at bat. He had taken several hard hacks after he was hit. He would have most likely felt something much sooner and most likely we would have seen him being checked out by a trainer prior to the injury.
On the pregame show on KDKA FM, they wondered that since McCutchen was obviously amped up and swinging extremely aggressively, prob due to the HBP, if the injury was not at least indirectly related. I do not believe that they will take a chance with the MVP. Will not be his decision, will be the medical staff deciding.
Clint Hurdle doesn’t know diddly about ribs, obviously. The Pirates need to be SUPER careful about this. Don’t leave it up to McCutchen, which it already appears they have. He is by far their most valuable asset.
11th rib is the lowest rib; not near the knockdown pitch, but it is on the same side…wondered if it occurred on the bellyflop. Hurdle is prob. technically accurate, but is prudently trying to defuse any cries for blood (from the public) the next time the Weasels (I mean Diamondbacks) are back in town…he did say “These things take care of themselves”.
In other news, the Arizona Diamondbacks have been stricken with chronic giggling.
I hope Hurdle was being sarcastic. Really sarcastic.
He also landed awkwardly while making that great sliding catch. I think it could have been injured on that play, but I also think it could have been injured by the hit by pitch. I don’t think it was on the swing though. The injury and the pain of the injury became apparent during that swing, but the rib fracture happened before that at-bat.
I think that pitch broke his rib. I think the adrenaline when he was so fired up is why he didn’t know of the injury. It was probably sore and the swing he took aggravated it. I have never heard of someone breaking there rib by taking a swing. I guess it’s possible. I’m no doctor but I think the rib was already broken.
Wait, he was hit by a pitch in almost the exact spot of the injury a day previous and the hit by pitch had nothing to do with it? Interesting analysis Clint.
I’m no doctor either, but I’ve had avulsion fractures. It happened to me when I rolled my ankle. The ligament is attached to bone. When the ligament got stretched too far when my ankle rolled, it pulled a little chunk off the bone where it was attached.
So getting hit by a baseball seems to my uneducated opinion to be an unusual mechanism of injury for an avulsion fracture. Seems to me a more likely cause of injury was a very violent swing the next day– tendons and ligaments get torqued so much by Cutch’s powerful muscles, they tear off a bit of bone.
Doesn’t mean that the HBP didn’t contribute in some way. But I don’t think it’s as simple as he was hit in the rib and the impact caused the fracture– unless his doctor says otherwise.
I think Hurdle is just trying to defuse the situation. In reality, he is way off base. This from the National Institute of Health regarding his type of injury:
“They occur most commonly in the middle and lower ribs with blunt trauma, and also with direct force to a small area of the chest wall and violent muscle contractions.”
If a 95 MPH fastball doesn’t fit under the definition of “blunt trauma”, then I don’t know what does.
Clint is just being diplomatic. I guess it’s cover for the next time they face the d_ck bags.
Sometimes, and I think this is one them where its better if Clint says nothing.
So Hurdle is a doctor now?
Was just about to say the same thing. With all due respect to Clint, but as a doctor he makes a fine baseball manager.
The aribonehead dirtycracks need to be fined and the gm needs to be suspended because of his idiotic comments about how his players better hit back or they will not be in aribonehead. Can’t really blame delgado for following orders but he needs suspended to.
Any word yet from the MLB Commissioners office on any action being taken?
#DbacksarethenewDbags