and FWIW, I hadn't kept up with Cardinal baseball enough to know that Garcia had been activated until I read that bit.  I thought he had been shut down way back when and was in a holding pattern until the call came for surgery.    Makes my exchanges with Artie on the subject sound a tad uninformed now.

Max wrote:

and FWIW, I hadn't kept up with Cardinal baseball enough to know that Garcia had been activated until I read that bit.  I thought he had been shut down way back when and was in a holding pattern until the call came for surgery.    Makes my exchanges with Artie on the subject sound a tad uninformed now.

Yeah, Garcia was activated back in August and made close to 10 starts before the end of the regular season. Initially, it was classic Garcia in that he was good at home and crappy on the road. There was an outcry to remove him from the rotation after a bad outing in San Diego, but then he nutted up and pitched really well against the Dodgers in LA. Then he finished the season with back to back strong outings against Houston. He had been pitching pretty well goin into his abbreviated outing against Washington.

FWIW, Goold is reporting that Garcia met with Dr. Andrews and they are going to try rehab before surgery. I'll concede that the Cardinals medical staff more often than not come across as incompetent, but it's worth noting that at the end of the day the player decides what to do or not to do to his body. It sounds like Garcia is trying very hard to avoid surgery, and that's his call. But if he ends up needing surgery anyway and misses an extra month because the procedure was delayed, it sounds like it was Garcia's decision, not the team's.

http://m.stltoday.com/STL/db_294385/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=xVv99ubR

I don't know if it's the handling of the injuries that's as problematic as the handling of dissemination of information regarding those injuries.

For as long as I can remember, the Cardinals have publicly downplayed the severity of injuries.  Return from injury dates are constantly a moving target.  We expect him back for the start of the season--by the end of April--middle of May--the All-Star Break--next season.  It's borderline comical.  But it has also created fan frustration when the team is inactive in the free agent market or the trade deadline because they publicly announce an expectation that Player X will return by Date Y and then it doesn't happen.

I often wondered if the close-to-the-vest mindset wasn't a Larussa thing.  Larussa is very good friends with Bill Belichek and the Patriots handle injury information the same way.  But it hasn't changed this year either.

FWIW- both my wife and I have been treated by Dr. Paletta.  Me for my shoulder and Michele had a complete ACL reconstruction last fall.  In both cases, he did exceptional work.  In Michele's case, she had surgery around the end of October/early November and by this past Spring her knee was good enough that we took the kids to Washington DC for Spring Break and she kept up with all of the sightseeing without an issue.

Last edited by forsberg_us (10/19/2012 11:39 am)

I know they gave her the cadaver option.  I'm almost cetain she went with the graft.

They probably do, JV, but that's a different step, I suspect.  That is, no employer can compel an employee to undergo medical treatment, but that doesn't stop the employer from trying to terminate the contract, if need be.  That's just me guess.

I'm guessing it's one of those Chinese water torture type of ugly situations, where psychopaths and egomaniacs have a huge leg up on the likes of you me.