M's Arms

Not a good weekend for the M's, dropping two of three to the Rangers. More disturbing to me were these two tidbits.

First Madritsch has a small tear in his ligament. He'll have another MRI in three weeks, but this is not a good thing. Another M's pitcher with an arm problem, although the good news is the word 'labrum' does not appear in the story anywhere. I bitched earlier about Melvin's use of Madritsch last year and I realize its not a definite cause and effect, but I hope BoMel at least feels bad. He probably doesn't.

Second, I think we may have a little window into the M's injury problems. Meche apparently complained of elbow inflamation during and after Sunday's game. Bryan Price apparently has gone all Piniella on us and is basically calling it mental:

"In these first two starts, he's had a hard time avoiding big innings and he's gotten knocked out," Price said. "He has to learn to avoid the knockout punch. Part of it is maturity. He's had trouble battling out of fatigue or stiffness, or whatever it is. "

Fatigue or stiffness or whatever it is? If a guy with Meche's history has swelling in his elbow, he needs to be shut down immediately!!! You don't tell him essentially to "Grow up." Its completely irresponsible and if its symptomatic of how they treat pitchers in the organization it could really go a long way to explaining their "bad luck" with pitching prospects.

Bleah.