is it just the pessimist in me that assumes that had the MRI come back negative, they would have released that information already?

I can hear the collective groan from 100 miles away. That city is having a Philadelphia type summer.

I'll take 'Not Good News' for $1000, Alex.

I'll agree with those who got here first. Visiting Dr. James Andrews means something bad has happened. The only question remaining is how bad can it be.

I can hear the collective groan from 100 miles away.

Joba Chamberlain is in James' office! Joba Chamberlain standing right in Dr. James Andrews' office!!

Its the curse of Kevin Youkilis.

Joba Chamberlain is in James' office! Joba Chamberlain standing right in Dr. James Andrews' office!!


And the tears you hear in Harlan's voice are coming down the faces of the coaches in that coach's room.

There's not much that would please me more baseball-wise than to see the Yankees miss the playoffs, but a great young pitcher getting hurt sucks no matter what team he plays for. Here's hoping this is just Cash and company being double extra paranoid, and Joba's shoulder turns out to be fine.

I sort of hope he's healthy if for no other reason than so I dont have to spend the next ten years hearing how good he was going to be before the injury.

Ian Kennedy's first game back will be in the rain, just watch.

TO AN ARM DYING YOUNG?

The time you won your Yanks the game
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.

Today, the road all pitchers come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay,
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After Dr. Andrews has stopped the shoulders.

Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Pitchers whom renown outpitched
And the name died before the man.

So set, before its echoes fade,
The strong arm on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended playoff-run.

And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl's.

(anti-Yankees glee)

I sort of hope he's healthy if for no other reason than so I dont have to spend the next ten years hearing how good he was going to be before the injury.

Pretty good point. I'm feeling similar feelings about Aaron Rodgers. He has never started a single game in his entire career, yet he has suffered 2 season ending injuries already in his career. Yet, I have a feeling that when he sucks this year and basically becomes a flop, like 99% of NFL QBs, we are going to have to hear how the stress of the Favre situation in 2008 ruined his career.

Hopefully Joba is fine and this is just a mysterious strain, found benign, thus the visit.

This is no big deal, Pavano is supposed to be ready to pitch soon.
Seriously, it would be pretty awesome/hilarious if Pavano was the savior of the Yankees season.

well, i wonder if howard megdal wants a to use his mulligan on his observer column.

seriously, this is why you just have to take the hype with a grain of salt.

That voodoo priestess that Youk visits obviously deserves an extension.

Does every team pay Dr. Andrews a retainer fee?

no one visits Dr. James Andrews and comes back without requiring surgery

Ain't this the truth? I can't think of a situation that progressed far enough that his diagnosis was asked for and that didn't eventually end in surgery. It doesn't even matter what Andrews says immediately after the examination, whether he recommends rehab and strengthening or immediate surgery, eventually, surgery is required. I can't recall too many cases right now but there's Posada for one and another is Kelvim Escobar. Or maybe I'm just wrong.

It's unfortunate for Joba if he requires shoulder surgery but it's not the death knell. Hell, for the people who compare him to Roger Clemens, this may further the comparison since Clemens underwent shoulder surgery very early in his career too.

"Seriously, it would be pretty awesome/hilarious if Pavano was the savior of the Yankees season."

The apocalypse is upon us.

Master Girardi: "Master Cashman, I have bad news!"
Master Cashman: "News is neither good nor bad, it is just news. Tell me your news."
Master Girardi: "Joba is hurt!"
Master Cashman: (long pause) "That is bad news."

Does every team pay Dr. Andrews a retainer fee?
He does orthodontia too?

Dr. Andrews checked out Kip Wells' elbow in 2004 and said surgery wasn't needed. Wells subsequently had surgery to remove a blood clot, but AFAIK has not had elbow surgery.

Zach Duke visited Dr. Andrews in July of 2007, and has not gone under the knife yet.

There are other examples out there as well. But it's hard to really parse the data, since elbows are not shoulders, football injuries are not baseball injuries, etc.

Also, there's surgery and then there's surgery. Posada's shoulder procedure a few years back and the one he just had being on opposite ends of the spectrum, for example.

no one visits Dr. James Andrews and comes back without requiring surgery

(knock on door)

Dr. Andrews: Who is it?

visitor: Hello, mister. I'm selling Girl Scout cookies. They're $4 a box, and most of that money goes toward paying for activities my troop does that help me become strong, smart, confident, and responsible.

Dr. Andrews: You need surgery.

"Its the curse of Kevin Youkilis."

Yes dis Youkilis, who is a Jew, transformed into a the form of a harm hinjury and ruined Joba's season, thereby destroying glorious Yankee season. Boston Red Sox, I love you. NOT!"

- Borat

You know what's impressive? No leaks. All the media in New York, a bazillion beat reporters chasing this down, and nobody has leaked the preliminary diagnosis, what the MRI seemed to show, what they expect Andrews to say, etc.

Is this the Yankees, are the Kremlin? Somebody find a source and buy him a round or five, and get the story, would ya? They just don't scoop like they did in the old days, I'm telling you.

Rotator cuff tendinitis, they're going to rest him for a week and reevaluate.

The "shoulder injury" is a ruse. All the insect eggs that were laid inside Joba's nutrient-rich neck skin last October are beginning to hatch.

If this were Boston, the media would be saturated with negative stories about Joba's labrum, in case it was on its way out of town.

towne?

Well, it was a longshot anyhow, but that pretty much ends the Yankees' playoff chances. The old ballyard's going to go out with a whimper. Jeff Karstens, the Bronx pines for you...

Well, it was a longshot anyhow, but that pretty much ends the Yankees' playoff chances. The old ballyard's going to go out with a whimper. Jeff Karstens, the Bronx pines for you...

I think I've personally written off the Yankees' playoff chances 30 times in the last four seasons.

You never know.

The "shoulder injury" is a ruse. All the insect eggs that were laid inside Joba's nutrient-rich neck skin last October are beginning to hatch.

On the last day of the season, Ed Whitson will explode from Joba's stomach and spill all over the mound.

If it makes you feel any better, I'm still picking the Yankees to win the AL East this year.

And now Pudge is hurt.

Karma's a #####.

If it makes you feel any better, I'm still picking the Yankees to win the AL East this year.

Still got the Rays falling apart too?

Let's just call it slowing down.