Yankees Rocky Rehab

The second half of the Yankees '09 season started yesterday. A one game deficit in the AL East points to a rousing pennant race. Handicapping the competitors normally starts with pitching, then moves on to offense, defense, depth and management. The traditional list of pennant possibility factors contains one glaring omission--injury issues. No one has to tell Yankee fans about the significance of the walking wounded. The Pavano-esque DL merry-go-round never stops in the Bronx.

Injuries are inevitable. Age and medical history factor in but essentially fate plays a big role in a team's welfare. Getting hurt happens. The organization's responsibility in the process is choosing the best methods available to rehab their assets to an effective recovery. It's not an easy job.

The recent record of the Yankees organization in the vital area of managing recovering players is murky, at best. Two key components of New York' pennant viability, A-Rod and Chien-Ming Wang suffered serious injuries in '08. The rocky rehab road is perplexing.

Tests taken in '08 showed that Alex Rodriguez had hip issues. The Yanks' MVP played on. The off-season came and went, nothing was done. Spring arrived, alarm bells sounded, another hip-check placed surgery in the mix. Panic permeated. Specialists went to work. Alex missed spring training and 28 games of the regular season while recovering from modest hip surgery which would be the precursor to another , more significant, surgical procedure in the off season. Doctors estimated the odds of Alex surviving the '09 season at %70. The MVP reemerged with a booming bat that rippled rejuvenation through the lineup. The Bronx Bombers were back. Time flew, A-Rod assumed the position every day, doctor's orders for regular rest were discarded. Exhaustion followed. The GM sprung into action, after the fact. Scary reports circulated.

Alex Rodriguez has company on the rocky road to rehab. Rotation linchpin, Chien-Ming Wang suffered a serious foot injury in '08. He was pronounced fit for '09. A production pratfall of epic proportions followed. More tests, now the theory was that the foot bone was connected to the hip bone. Back to rehab mountain. Let's catch up with the news:

• "That almost certainly means another trip to the disabled list for Wang, who missed most of last season with a foot injury, the effects of which bled into this season."--(Kepner/NY Times.)
• "An MRI exam showed a shoulder strain and some bursitis, Joe Girardi said, but it is unclear how much time Wang will miss. After the game, subdued Wang, who had a shoulder operation in 2001 and missed nearly two months in 2005 with shoulder problems, said he was very worried...Mostly, I'm afraid it will take surgery to repair it..."--(NY Daily News.)
• Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus, writes: "Wang has had two situations that may have, inadvertently, led to his latest problem. Yes, I think the foot injury and the related "hip imbalance" led to small imperceptible changes in his delivery that ended up causing problems in his shoulder. The problem is, we'll never know. The Yankees, as far as I can tell, have never had a high-speed video analysis or a computerized force analysis done on Wang, or on any of their pitchers for that matter. For a team that spends in excess of $200 million on their payroll, and more still on bonuses, while charging the ticket prices that they do, it's as outrageous as anything in baseball."

The pennant race is on. The winner will have to survive the inevitable gauntlet of injuries. Wish the Yankees luck, they need all they can get.