Non-BP susbcribing Chicago Cubs fans are the beneficiaries of Will Carroll's Under The Knife column this afternoon as injury updates on Alfonso Soriano and Ted Lilly are above the subscriber fold. Like every other UTK, there is interesting information below that fold. One of those pieces concerns Erik Bedard. Apparently, the Mariners' play-off hope spent some time on the DL for a hip issue back in 2000!
I picked up another interesting piece of information listening the "The Rotowire Fantasy Sports Hour with Chris Liss". On Tuesday night, Mr. Liss' guest was Jeff Erickson of Rotowire. In a search to explain the unexplainable drop-off-the-cliff performance of Dodgers' CF Andruw Jones, Mr. Erickson offered up the possibility that Andruw Jones is older than his listed age of 31.
This is an angle I had not heard, but it fits the sudden drop in hitting skills and the attendent weight gain. He looks like he is adding weight the way a man a few years older does - years of athletic activity cause a never-watch-what-you-eat diet and,before, you notice, that same activity is no longer sufficient to burn those calories. Time to notice? Two or three years!
The age speculation segues nicely into this afternoon's "breaking news" that Astros' SS Miguel Tejada claims to be 33 going on 34 and not 31 going on 32. This certainly makes me believe that a revival in his performance may not be occurring this year. At best, he maintains last season's numbers.
Since I'm speculating on misrepresentation of age as an excuse for poor performance, why not ask whether the Mets 2B, Luis Castillo, is older than his listed 32 years? Wouldn't that just chafe Mets fans more on top of the four-year contract mistake from this past Winter?
From ESPN.com's Keith Law Chat:
Keith Law: (1:28 PM ET ) Terrible. Meanwhile call me when Brian Schneider gets an extra-base hit.