| Mays' 2003 season came to an end as he
underwent Tommy John Surgery to repair his elbow after consultation
with Dr. James Andrews.
He was absolutely terrible for most of the season, and finally
confessed to having an injury. The fault lies both on Mays for
being unwilling to confess to his injury, and to the training staff
for being unable to diagnose it on their own. After all, I knew
something was wrong with Mays and I know absolutely nothing about
injuries (except for RICE). Anyway, hopefully he will recover and
allow the Twins to get some return on this costly investment in him
in 2005. A final note, here is the write-up Mays received from
Baseball Prospectus
in their 2002 book:
"He gets a lot of ground
balls, and his strikeout rate improved as the season went on, even
as he approached innings-pitched levels that automatically triggered
the AndrewsBeacon."
Mays has already been throwing this Spring after recovering from
the surgery. His progress has been fantastic, and the Twins
are hoping for a return by July from all reports I have read.
I am not sure why he is being rushed back in ten months from a
surgery that typically takes eighteen months to heal.
I hope, but doubt, that this is not another case of the new
training staff being able to prevent players from rushing back and
further hindering their development. At some point, the
training staff needs to be held accountable for the rash of injuries
in the past three seasons and the ridiculous number of players who
have come back quickly, and aggravated the exact same injury.
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