Tribune reports Prior is done for '07

[Fat Strat]

I was meaning that it is very difficult to come back from labrum or shoulder surgery. There are no guarantees that velocity, command, etc. will be where they were before he had the surgery. Chris Carpenter is the exception to the status quo with shoulder surgeries. It is possible to come back from them, even likely, but it's not probable that he'll have the same stuff, velocity, etc.

Colon is a good example. He said recently that his days of throwing 98 are over. He's a 93-95 pitcher now. Slight changes in stuff caused by slight changes to body parts can dramatically affect a pitcher's effectiveness.

He's essentially in the same boat as Mark Mulder right now. Similar problem. Similar surgery. Similar age. Different style of pitching, though.

[JL21]

Probably going to show just the type of guy I am here...

I don't really feel sorry for Prior because I don't know him, I feel sorry for me. I liked watching him pitch when he was healthy.

That's exactly how I feel.

[jim]

I hope he makes it back. He's taken alot of abuse up here in Chicago, something that really bothers me. All of the silly "You gotta pitch through the pain" stuff said by some blubbering sports radio personality really gets under my skin. When your hurt, your hurt.

Hopefully things will work out for him. I don't really mind the attitude, he was cocky but backed it up.

[indyredbird]

I never liked him since he was a Cub. But I don't like to see anyone lose their career. Barry Bonds would be the lone exception.

[Asmodai]

http://baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?p=341

will carrol's take

I interrupt my viewing of Chelsea v Liverpool to bring you today’s big injury news: The Cubs have announced that Mark Prior’s surgery involved a debridement of the rotator cuff as well as repairs of the shoulder capsule and labrum. Sources indicate the surgery was done completely with the scope and involved a Bankart repair and capsular shift.

So what does this mean? First, it means that Prior had been pitching with significant damage for the past two years. Do NOT take this to mean that he was misdiagnosed. MRIs are imperfect instruments but it does show that this surgery was necessary. The cuff debridement is the most significant injury, but indicates that the tears in the muscles of the cuff were not significant enough to make them structurally unstable. Instead, Andrews would have scraped away scar, loose fragments of tendons, and bursae, as well as any other associated debris from the area.

Second, the capsule repair probably involved a capsular shift. In this the surgeon will make a small incision in the front of the shoulder, then folds an overlap to shrink the capsules circumference. It’s like folding over one of those funny pictures on the back of Mad Magazine.

Finally, the Bankart repair involves stapling, sewing or anchoring the capsular ligaments and glenoid labrum into anchors drilled into the scapula. Despite all this, it can be done completely arthroscopically. It’s as significant as it sounds, but since 2000, there’s been some success with this type of procedure, with several pitchers including Chris Carpenter able to come back to varying levels of success.

All in all, this is a very negative result for Prior, but gives him the knowledge that he was pitching with significant damage. His mechanics protected him from more significant damage, such as the complete tears or larger labral tears that we’ve seen in Kerry Wood, but no pitcher is immune. Did we overstate the case for Prior’s being immune? Absolutely, but as with most things, it’s a point from which we’ve learned. Prior, at 26 years old, now has the rest of 2006 to rehab and still could have a career ahead of him. Without pain, one would assume that he could return to those same mechanics that allowed him to become the pitcher he once was. There’s a small silver lining here in a dark black cloud over Wrigley.

weird that hes arguing priors mechanics helped contain the problems so they didnt become more serious.

[TabascoElvis]

With a healthy Prior and Wood, the Cubs could have had an awesome rotation. I don't think it's appropriate to be happy that a player is injured, even if they are a jerk.

Aye, but there's the rub!

[StL Dan]

Not that anyone is probably too surprised.

Prior underwent right shoulder arthroscopy by Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala. Andrews cleaned up Prior's right rotator cuff, tightened shoulder capsules and repaired the pitcher's right labrum.

"Obviously he's had some things wrong physically, and he's getting them corrected," manager Lou Piniella said. "So this is a step in the right direction."

Prior's Labrum link

IN OTHER NEWS:

The sun rises in the east.

[heyzeus]

http://baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?p=341

will carrol's take

I interrupt my viewing of Chelsea v Liverpool to bring you today’s big injury news: The Cubs have announced that Mark Prior’s surgery involved a debridement of the rotator cuff as well as repairs of the shoulder capsule and labrum. Sources indicate the surgery was done completely with the scope and involved a Bankart repair and capsular shift.

So what does this mean? First, it means that Prior had been pitching with significant damage for the past two years. Do NOT take this to mean that he was misdiagnosed. MRIs are imperfect instruments but it does show that this surgery was necessary. The cuff debridement is the most significant injury, but indicates that the tears in the muscles of the cuff were not significant enough to make them structurally unstable. Instead, Andrews would have scraped away scar, loose fragments of tendons, and bursae, as well as any other associated debris from the area.

Second, the capsule repair probably involved a capsular shift. In this the surgeon will make a small incision in the front of the shoulder, then folds an overlap to shrink the capsules circumference. It’s like folding over one of those funny pictures on the back of Mad Magazine.

Finally, the Bankart repair involves stapling, sewing or anchoring the capsular ligaments and glenoid labrum into anchors drilled into the scapula. Despite all this, it can be done completely arthroscopically. It’s as significant as it sounds, but since 2000, there’s been some success with this type of procedure, with several pitchers including Chris Carpenter able to come back to varying levels of success.

All in all, this is a very negative result for Prior, but gives him the knowledge that he was pitching with significant damage. His mechanics protected him from more significant damage, such as the complete tears or larger labral tears that we’ve seen in Kerry Wood, but no pitcher is immune. Did we overstate the case for Prior’s being immune? Absolutely, but as with most things, it’s a point from which we’ve learned. Prior, at 26 years old, now has the rest of 2006 to rehab and still could have a career ahead of him. Without pain, one would assume that he could return to those same mechanics that allowed him to become the pitcher he once was. There’s a small silver lining here in a dark black cloud over Wrigley.

weird that hes arguing priors mechanics helped contain the problems so they didnt become more serious.

This writer clearly believes that Prior is magical. Not only will he recover from a tricky surgery and history of injury to have a career year, but he will also travel backwards in time. If by only a year.

[Mary1966]

An article about torn labrums that I remember reading a while back. (It turns out to be from 2004.)

http://www.slate.com/id/2100895/

The San Francisco Giants' Robb Nen, one of the best relief pitchers in baseball, had off-season surgery in 2002 to "clean up loose particles" in his shoulder. What Nen didn't know is that he had a torn labrum, the fearsome modern baseball injury that strikes down pitchers quickly, stealthily, and painfully. Eighteen months and three surgeries later, Nen is still waiting to throw his next major-league pitch. The leading minds in baseball medicine are flummoxed by the labrum. Doctors can't agree on how to detect a tear, don't know the best way to fix one, and aren't sure why, almost without fail, a torn labrum will destroy a pitcher's career.

Leading baseball surgeon Dr. James Andrews estimates that 85 percent of pitchers make a full recovery after an ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction, aka the once risky Tommy John surgery. (USA Today has even called the surgery the "pitcher's best friend.") But if pitchers with torn labrums were horses, they'd be destroyed. Of the 36 major-league hurlers diagnosed with labrum tears in the last five years, only midlevel reliever Rocky Biddle has returned to his previous level [my edit: Biddle suffered another labrum problem after this article came out and is now out of baseball]. Think about that when your favorite pitcher comes down with labrum trouble: He has a 3 percent chance of becoming Rocky Biddle. More likely, he'll turn into Mike Harkey, Robert Person, or Jim Parque, pitchers who lost stamina and velocity—and a major-league career—when their labrums began to fray.

The labrum is a thin matrix of collagen seated between the head of the humerus (bone of the upper arm) and the glenoid fossa (the shallow depression where the humerus fits). It functions both as a shock absorber, cushioning the blow when the bones in the shoulder collide, and as part of the joint's connective structure. The kinetic forces required to throw a baseball—a major-league pitcher's arm moves at 23 rotations per second—routinely rip apart the structures designed to keep the shoulder together. The most common variety of labrum tear is a SLAP—superior lesion, anterior to posterior. The SLAP tear feels like a "catch", a slight click or pop in the normal overhand motion.

Shoulder injuries tend to present themselves as pain and tenderness with a concurrent loss of speed on the fastball. A torn labrum is no different. But because it's positioned between two bones, a damaged labrum is far more difficult to detect than other shoulder problems, like a torn rotator cuff. Doctors are only now getting the diagnostic tools to detect labrum tears, so it's impossible to say how many great hurlers of the past suffered the injury. Even today it's tough to tell which pitchers have labrum trouble. Baseball teams often consult with multiple orthopedists and radiologists in an attempt to reach a consensus. One team's policy is to show an MRI to five doctors—majority diagnosis rules. The only way to know for sure that your pitcher has a torn labrum is to conduct exploratory surgery.

If an operation is necessary, the surgeon either enters the shoulder with a scalpel or pops in one to three arthroscopes outfitted with cameras and cutting instruments. The doctor then cleans up the tear and reattaches the labrum using sutures, much as they would with a deep cut to the skin. While newer techniques involve specialized devices that standardize the anchors and sutures, shoulder surgery is still far more complex and risky than, say, an elbow reconstruction.

Coming off a 15-10 season in 2000, Mike Sirotka was a key player in an off-season trade between the Blue Jays and White Sox. Before he ever put on a Blue Jays uniform, Sirotka's left shoulder started barking. The culprit: a torn labrum. While he had been a coveted commodity just a few months before, the Sox and Jays now treated Sirotka like the plague—Commissioner Bud Selig ultimately had to force the Blue Jays to accept the trade. Sirotka, now 33, did have surgery to repair the labrum. After missing three full seasons, he tried a comeback this year. The Cubs released him in spring training.

The Seattle Mariners, perhaps more than any other team, have suffered on account of the labrum. When Seattle drafted 6-foot-10 Ryan Anderson in 1997, it seemed preordained that the titanic lefty would be the next Randy Johnson. Then Anderson had labrum surgery. He missed the entire 2002 season—and every season since. The Mariners' 25-year-old right-hander Gil Meche has already missed two full years on account of labrum-related ailments. Meche returned to the majors in 2003, but faded badly in the second half.

Position players have labrums too. Angels third baseman Troy Glaus may miss the rest of the year with his "frayed" labrum (there's no difference between a fray and a tear). Last year, Dodgers slugger Shawn Green lost a significant amount of power because of a severe labrum tear. Labrum tears also show up irregularly on the football field—the Raiders' Rich Gannon (throwing shoulder) and the Seahawks' Matt Hasselbeck (non-throwing shoulder) are part of the labrum brigade—usually when a quarterback's arm gets planted into the ground at an unnatural angle.

Still, nothing taxes a shoulder like throwing a baseball. Even if a pitcher has an ideal throwing motion, the labrum suffers. Unlike the rotator cuff, a series of four small muscles that holds the shoulder in place and decelerates the arm, the collagen-based labrum can't be strengthened. As of yet, there aren't any reliable techniques to prevent labrum injuries. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the best way to avoid injury is to keep your pitcher from throwing while fatigued. But fatigue is exceptionally difficult for a pitching coach or manager to measure—and one wrong guess can lead to the operating table.

Roger Clemens returned from a torn rotator cuff to win six Cy Young Awards and an MVP. Kerry Wood struck out 20 in a single game during his rookie year, had his elbow rebuilt, and came back throwing just as hard. But pitchers with torn labrums will have to wait a while longer for their Tommy John surgery. So far, the message from the nation's orthopedic surgeons is: We can't rebuild them. Dr. Anthony Tropiano, a top baseball arm doc, says the best available treatment option today is to do nothing. "We call it conservative treatment," he says, "but that's just a euphemism for a little rehab and a lot of prayer."

[Capt_Morgan]

"I dislike the Cardinals so much that I will not even root for them. I hope that Houston beats their brains in and just sends them all the way back to whoever is in fourth place now." - Mark Prior

This and a number of other quotes does indeed keep me from feeling too sorry for him.

Looks like Steve Kline got his wish(sort of).

yeah.......really