The eminently breakable Chris Getz has his second season-ending injury in as many major-league seasons:
Leaving the team to have surgery Thursday in Philadelphia was not the way Getz wanted his season to end. The lower oblique strain that put Getz on the 15-day disabled list Aug. 21 still is bothering him, and a specialist discovered it was a sports hernia. The original plan was to address it at the end of the season, but that went out the window with the Sox’ playoff chances. [...]
‘‘I had a few freak things happen, the broken finger, and I kind of look at this as a freak thing as well,’’ Getz said. ‘‘I’m trying to take all of this as a positive because I know what it takes now. I don’t want to say I know what it takes, but I know I have to improve in certain areas. That’s always a positive."
The freak things that have happened:
- 2007: Ankle injury that cost him three months.
- 2008: Broken wrist that cost him the last month.
- 2009: Strained triceps (two games), fractured tip of middle finger (several games), sprained ankle (couple games), strained oblique (a few weeks), and now the sports hernia.
Getz isn't nearly good enough in any facet of the game to be hurt this often. While his success on the basepaths is somewhat of a shocker -- I knew he had good speed, but 25-for-27 good? -- he doesn't get on base often enough to make it pay off (see: Podsednik, Scott, 2006-2007).
Two priorities for 2010:
No. 1: Confirm Jayson Nix's true value. Nix has a decent bag of tools, but I'm still not sold on his game. Two bases-loaded backwards K's in one game doesn't help. I often get the feeling that Nix takes pitches without knowing why he takes them.
No. 2: Change Getz's uniform number. The last person to wear No. 17 before Getz for a full season was Darin Erstad (as noted below, General Soreness wore it for a half-season). Case CLOSED.
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More news:
*Scott Linebrink on his struggles:
"This is fixable," Linebrink said of his woes. "There have been some bad breaks here and there. I haven't thrown the ball like I should. From a character standpoint, it has helped toughen me up. This is a very refined game, and there is a fine line between success and failure. You hear all the time about guys who have continued success and they don't really know how to deal with failure.
*Josh Fields on his game:
"I didn't come in at the weight I planned on coming in," said Fields, who made 47 starts at third base and eight at first base this season. "It altered my running game a lot. Normally, I'll steal a few bases."
"After my knee surgery, I couldn't get the weight down before the season started. So, I still have a lot of work to do there."
