How does a player who had a Ripken Gehrig-esque streak of consecutive games played suddenly become a huge health risk after just two injuries? One of those injuries(broken wrist) was just an unfortunate accident that shouldn’t be a mark against a man who has surely earned the benifit of the doubt when it comes to health.
I am not trying to dismiss his knee problems, as any serious injury should obviously be closely monitered but i feel the stories about his health issues have been largely over dramatised – it’s not like he is a pitcher in need of rotator cuff surgery.
Matsui will likely see a lot of time at DH this year but i think this is more down to Damon’s superior defense in LF than Hideki’s injury problems. While, by his own high standards, 2007 was an “off year” due to missing games because of the above injury, i fully expect to see our hugely successful Japanese import to be back to his usual, dependable self.
Posted by ph34 