At the one quarter mark of the season, it is far too early to draw conclusions about how the season is going to turn out. However, the early indication is that this is not going to be a good year for two teams with serious title aspirations. The Kings and Mavericks were head and shoulders above the pack in 2013 and the pre-season projections indicated that they were the favorites again this year. But nearly seven weeks into the season, they find themselves in the bottom two spots in the league standings.
So what’s going on with these two recent powerhouses? Well, their problems are fairly obvious and similar. Both have had the strengths of their teams completely neutered by injuries. Of course, disappointing performances from healthy players haven’t helped the cause either, but it is nearly impossible to remain competitive when fielding a short-handed roster. At the risk of this turning into an article in which I whine about my team, that’s pretty much what’s going to happen. So you’ve been warned.
The Kings won the title last year on the strength of their offense. They easily led the league in batting points and finished in the top three of all five offensive categories. So far this year, they find themselves ninth in batting points and last place overall. They are at or near the bottom of every offensive category except stolen bases. Here are their currently injured offensive players: Brandon Belt, Ryan Zimmerman, Carlos Beltran, Jay Bruce, Wilin Rosario, Michael Cuddyer, Aramis Ramirez and Omar Infante. All of those players, except Ramirez and Infante, were major contributors on last year’s championship squad. Belt still leads the team in home runs and was pretty much their only offensive player having a good year at the time of his injury. Among their “healthy” hitters are two more guys who have dealt with injuries earlier this year: Jose Reyes and Coco Crisp. Only five offensive players have been in their lineup basically every day. As much as some of these hitters have struggled this year, the Kings probably weren’t going to be among the leaders right now even with a healthy roster, but these injuries have basically sunk the ship.
Oh, and the Kings pitching staff hasn’t been a model of clean living either. Anibal Sanchez and Jason Grilli are currently on the DL (though both are expected back soon). Three other injured pitchers have been dropped from the roster entirely to make room for injury replacements: Patrick Corbin, David Hernandez and Nate Jones. The first two are out for the year and Jones’ return is a complete mystery at this point. At the time I am writing this, 13 of the 28 players who were on the Kings roster at the completion of the draft are on the disabled list. That’s almost half the roster!
I don’t think the Mavericks are feeling too sorry for the Kings though. The Mavs haven’t had the same quantity of injuries, but the severity of the injuries they have suffered and the fact that they have mostly been consolidated to one specific position has created a grave situation for them as well. Arguably, the Mavericks had the best pitching staff in league history last year. Right now, they find themselves dead last in pitching points. Five of their star pitchers have been dealing with significant injuries this year. Matt Harvey probably won’t pitch this season following off-season Tommy John surgery. Martin Perez became the latest of the long list of pitchers lost this year due to torn elbow ligaments. Clayton Kershaw finally returned to action a couple weeks ago after missing more than a month. Mat Latos and Taijuan Walker are both yet to pitch in the big leagues this season and their return dates remain unknown. Of the starting pitchers who played a major role in the Mavericks’ super staff a year ago, only Stephen Strasburg has remained healthy throughout the early part of 2014 (knocking on wood w/r/t Strasburg). The Mavericks haven’t been dealt the same type of blow to their offensive roster, but the recent loss of Matt Wieters to an elbow injury is problematic.
The Kings and Mavericks find themselves in a bit of a predicament in terms of attempting to upgrade their rosters as well. Due in large part to all of the aforementioned injuries, both teams are running out of available free agent signings. The Kings are down to just four signings to use in the remaining 3/4 of the season while the Mavericks have only three at their disposal. Of course, a few other teams are in a similar bind. But it is safe to say these teams simply cannot afford many more injuries. It’s too early to give up, but the Mavericks and Kings need healthier rosters to get themselves back in the mix.
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the biggest injury casualty of the season to date, which occurred earlier this week. Demigods phenom pitcher Jose Fernandez was diagnosed with a torn UCL and underwent Tommy John surgery yesterday. I think he and Perez bring the number of Tommy John casualties this season up to a staggering total of 20. But Fernandez is the biggest loss yet. After a dominating rookie campaign that earned him the NL Rookie of the Year award, the Demigods selected him with the second third pick in the draft in March. He had already become the ace of the Demigods staff (well, he and Yu Darvish anyway) and arguably the best pitcher in the league. At the time of the injury, he led the league in strikeouts. According to Mike, he was the leading candidate for DTBL Rookie of the Year and very much in the mix for Cy Young as well. Fortunately, he is still only 21 years old and the success rate in returning from Tommy John surgery is quite high. So he still figures prominently in the Demigods future. However, this is a serious blow to their 2014 title hopes.
I would argue that this is the second straight year, and third time in the past five years, that baseball has lost it’s most electrifying, must-watch pitcher to a torn elbow ligament. Last year it was Matt Harvey. In 2010 it was Stephen Strasburg. Fortunately, there are still a lot of great pitchers out there to watch on a daily basis, but it really stinks that we are missing full seasons from these guys at the peak of their powers. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: this elbow injury epidemic is hurting the game. I continue to hope that the best minds in baseball and the medical community are able to solve this dilemma, even if the positive results take years to materialize.