Baker's Blog has THIS:The much-anticipated bullpen session for Mariners closer J.J. Putz had gone well.
Putz had thrown 25 pitches, mostly fastballs. All of them off a mound for the first time in 10 days. But the problems for Putz began once he headed to the clubhouse.
"He went through the session this morning and came out of it fine," Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said after a 5-3 loss Thursday night to the San Francisco Giants. "After he got in the clubhouse, his arm tightened up on him a little bit. We'll know more about it [today]."
Never mind the fact the Mariners just dropped a 5-3 decision to a bunch of scrubs and scraps sent over by the San Francisco Giants. Or that they were beaten 9-3 earlier in the day by the Chicago Cubs. Or that Seattle now has a 4-12 record this spring (4-13 if you count the Charity Game) that rivals only the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for futility. All that won't matter once the regular season begins and the team is 0-0 and tied for first place.
Here is what will matter: J.J. Putz not being around on opening day.
That is looking like more and more of a possibility now that the true details are starting to emerge about what happened in the clubhouse after Putz had his morning bullpen session. That reluctance by pitching coach Rafael Chaves to comment on the 25 fastball pitches thrown by Putz in that session? Understandable, given what we now know, courtesy of a question I asked manager Mike Hargrove moments ago.
The answer is above "We'll know more about it [today].
Baker continues with a few possibilities for replacing Putz. Then, tosses this out there.
It's also too early to be considering worst-case scenarios here, though not too early to speculate on Putz starting the season on time. Any setback at all for Putz right now puts opening day in doubt. If he's ordered to rest a few days before another bullpen session, it means he won't get back on a mound before the final week of Cactus League games.
I'm sure there will be more on this later today.
No comments:
Post a Comment