Bad News at 1B

About a half hour ago MLB.com beat writer Bill Ladson tweeted some rather unfortunate news about injured first-baseman Adam LaRoche. As you know, this spring LaRoche suffered a slight tear in his left labrum (his throwing arm/back hitting shoulder). Recently, he has reportedly thought that the injury is sapping all of his power at the plate; as shown by his dreadful .172/.288/.258 slashline.

The past few days has seen LaRoche seek out 2nd opinions, to figure out whether things have gotten worse. Long story short, they have.

Ladson reports, "According to #Nats 1B Adam LaRoche, he has a large tear in the labrum and some tearing in the rotator cuff." Continuing, "I'm not going to lie to you: After talking to #Nats 1B Adam LaRoche this evening, I'll be shocked if he came back this year."

According to Ladson, the plan in place has him taking 2 or 3 weeks, sans baseball activities, in an effort to rehab the shoulder. But once again, the Nats medical staff has mis-diagnosed and slow-played an injury to a key piece of the team.

My gut tells me that Morse will be getting the lion's share of playing time, with guest appearances by Stairs, Ankiel, and Pudge depending on Riggleman's mood. This is not the kind of news the scuffling Nats offense needs right now.

With Strasburg Done, Who Becomes Number 1?

As everyone on the planet now knows, Stephen Strasburg's rookie year came to an abrupt end on Friday, when it was announced that the phenom would require Tommy John surgery to replace a "significant" ulnar collateral ligament tear in his right elbow, according to Nats GM Mike Rizzo. Strasburg will likely miss most, if not all, of 2011 as well.

According to MLB.com's Bill Ladson, Strasburg knew Thursday night of the surgery, but didn't want to ruin Bryce Harper's welcome party to Nationals Park. Ironically, Thursday was also RHP Jordan Zimmermann's return to the 25 man roster from 13 months off. He was recovering from an ulnar collateral ligament tear... and the resulting Tommy John surgery. Gain one frontline young starter, lose one the same day. The Nationals just can't seem to catch a break.

So now with Strasburg done for the foreseeable and distant future, let's jump way, way ahead. Who starts Opening Day 2011?

Strasburg was the obvious choice. He would have guaranteed a sellout, would have all but guaranteed a good outing, and given the chance for the Nats to win on Opening Day. But now, who do the Nats call? Here are my thoughts, in order of plausibility, of people already in the organization.

1. Jordan Zimmermann - Although JZimm's outing on Thursday was lackluster (he gave up Albert Pujols' 400th career homer, pitched just 4 innings, and gave up 5 earned runs), he's still the future #2 starter for the organization. Stands to reason, if the #1 guy is hurt, he should be bumped up. He still throws in the mid-90s and has a killer breaking ball and change up. He has time to prepare for this role over the next few weeks and during the offseason.
   
2. Jason Marquis - Marquis was brought on to be a solid #3 guy to eat innings. We all know how that turned out. In each of his last two starts, though, Marquis has given up just 1 run on 4 hits. He's yet to nail a win, but he's also yet to get any form of run support since his return. He's a proven All-Star, and could be getting back to form. He's not out of the question as a "let's have a veteran start the season" move.
   
3. Livan Hernandez - Livan has to be last on this list, mostly because he's not under contract for next season. The Nats picked him up for a scant $900,000 as a Spring Training invitee this season, and he's been simply brilliant. The Nats have lost his last 4 starts, but in 3 of those 4 games, Livan didn't get more than 2 runs of support. In one, the Nats were shut out. But Livo still sports a 3.36 ERA, and despite a misleading 8-9 record, he has a legitimate possibility to recreate Opening Day 2005 and be on the mound for the Nats to start 2011.
   

As a brief aside, I find myself continuing to question the Nationals training staff in their inability to keep players healthy. The Strasburg injury was probably 22 years in the works. You can only throw that hard for so long before something explodes. But the revolving door of injured pitchers in the organization is simply staggering, and I feel uncommon in the era of modern medicine.

But I digress. The 3 pitchers listed above are all solid guys and quality pitchers when they're having their best days. One thing is for sure, none of them even approach the excitement of Strasburg, and it will be interesting to see how the Nationals recover financially with no Strasburg attendance boosts next year. NatsTown 2011 will look very different than anyone would have thought.

Glass Arms: The Story of the Nationals' Starters

In the last few days, more Nats starters have been placed on the disabled list, and I thought we should briefly review the list of pitchers who started for the Nats at some point this season that ended up on the DL. The results are below, and they're not pretty.

1. Garrett Mock - Spine injury. Mock has been on the 60-day DL since April and is done for the year. After his one start.
   
2. Jason Marquis - Elbow. Marquis had surgery to remove loose bodies in his throwing elbow and missed 3 months. He returned to a loss on Sunday.
   
3. Luis Atilano - Elbow. see Jason Marquis, except Atilano's season is over.
   
4. Scott Olsen - Shoulder. The same surgically repaired throwing shoulder that has nagged him for his entire career, and he missed June and July with the problem. He's back and pitching well, for now.
   
5. J.D. Martin - Back. Martin was placed on the 60-day DL and will miss the rest of the season to have bulging discs in his back repaired. He'll supposedly be ready for next season. It's not likely that the Nats will be able to find him a rotation spot to start the season though.
   
6. Ross Detwiler - Hip. The same hip he had fixed in the off-season that caused him to miss half of 2010. You don't like to see recurring injuries in a kid this young.
7. Stephen Strasburg - Shoulder tightness. He'll be returning Tuesday to face the Marlins in DC, but even the Nats most coveted arm spent time on the DL.

And those are just the 7 that have actually appeared this season already. It doesn't include Jordan Zimmermann, who should be returning to the Nats rotation in the next few weeks after an incredibly speedy recovery from Tommy John surgery. Or John Lannan, who missed starts but was not actually placed on the DL before he was unceremoniously demoted to Harrisburg back in June. Or any of the relievers that have ended up on the DL.

So the question begs to be answered. Can all of these starters possibly be this fragile? Is this really the result of players whipping their arms around at speeds that defy the human anatomy? Or does the problem go deeper: an organizational problem?

It's hard to know for sure with a one season sample size, but it's certainly cause for concern. I'm not going to call out the training staff, yet. But it's worth watching if these same pitchers keep experiencing these same problems year after year with this same training staff. There's no reason a team should be demoting and promoting this much because their pitchers simply can't get and stay healthy.

Strasburg starts Tuesday, which seems to be one of the only good days of the rotation for Nats fans now a days. But with his sore shoulder, even he isn't immune from the physical toll of baseball every day. So what say you, NatsTown? Just a bunch of flukes, or a more serious issue?