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Injury Updates

Over at Baseball Prospectus, Will Carroll's "Under The Knife" column has a ton of valuable fantasy information.  The full column is behind their subscription wall, but unlike the typical subscriber-only material, this column has substantial content available to all.  The most interesting information is about the Mariners' closer JJ Putz, the Twins' Joe Mauer, and the Cardinals Juan Encarnacion.  

On Putz, Will writes:

While there's little doubt that there's something more going on in his pitching elbow than the Mariners have said publicly, the key here is that Putz can pitch.(Italics are mine.)
That tempers some of the information available from the local papers in Seattle that everyhting is peachy.

The information on Mauer is more specific, and more interesting.  Mr. Carroll relays some information from an athletic trainer friend.  He writes:

...if the squatting a catcher does would affect the stresses on the fibula....[athletic trainer friend] saying that the stresses of catching aren't just a negative for Mauer, it's quite likely to be the cause of his stress reaction. (Italics are mine.)

Could the beating of the dead horse I call Joe Mauer Over-Valuation (J-Mov) actually make me appear smart and not come back and bite me in the ass when his 30+ doubles turn into 25 HRs?

The news that Cardinals' outfielder Juan Encarnacion needed a cortisone injection in his repaired, or should I bracket that in quotes, wrist is discouraging and makes Fake Teams sleeper, Preston Wilson, a player to watch more closely:

He hit 8 HRs and stole six bases after hitting 9 and stealing 6 in 390 Abs with the Astros.  With that combo, Wilson is an excellent scrub in the Scrubs & Stars strategy.

I can see Wilson moving beyond the high single digits in draft prices in NL-only leagues with high inflation.  Wilson may be the best of the worst players remaining after the final break.  If there is a team or two who mismanged the draft, he could reach the mid-teens!