Injuries, not losses have hurt the most
In all my years covering and watching baseball, I can honestly say I have never seen a team so depleted by injuries. What has happened to the Nationals this season is remarkable.
Saturday night, Elijah Dukes suffered a torn meniscus and a partial tear to the patella tendon in his right knee and will miss at least four to six weeks. To date, Washington has had 18 players on the disabled list at some point during the season.
We all knew the Nationals weren't going to make the playoffs this year, but it was nice to see what the Lerner family, President Stan Kasten and Senior Vice President and General Manager Jim Bowden were building for the future.
The young, up-and-coming players mixed in with veterans gave us an idea as to what baseball was going to look like in the near future in the nation's capital, but the injury bug bit and bit hard.
Cornerstone third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, closer Chad Cordero, first baseman Nick Johnson, center fielder Lastings Milledge, pitcher Shawn Hill, to name a few, are all in their twenties and all have spent time on the DL.
One can say they are freak injuries and others will argue it's a curse; either way, it's been a tough first half of the season and we haven't reached the All-Star break yet. All we can hope for is for the Nationals to get healthy so we can see what this team can do when they have a full set of players.
Leave a comment