Well, now we know what Davey Lopes was talking about
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Well, now we know what Davey Lopes was talking about
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
As you can read here, Chase Utley was diagnosed with patellar tendonitis after undergoing an MRI yesterday here in Florida.
My first thought upon hearing the news? The big hullabaloo that erupted last June when first base coach Davey Lopes casually mentioned in an interview with Baseball Prospectus that Utley had been "hampered by a little bit of a knee injury."
At the time, Utley was hitting just .257 with a .451 slugging percentage through 62 games. Both of those numbers were well below his career averages, and there was a lot of concern amongst the fan base that Utley might be battling an injury like the balky hip that plagued him throughout 2008.
Utley insisted that he did not consider himself injured, and that there is a difference between the normal nicks and bruises that players endure over the course of a season and true physical incapacitation.
He then went out and backed up his words, going 2-for-5 with a home run and four RBI against the Twins that night. In his next 10 games, Utley hit .395 with a .419 on base percentage and .553 slugging percentage. Then he tore a thumb ligament sliding head-first into second base in Cincinnati and missed a month-and-a-half.
Listening to Utley talk yesterday, it sounds like he considers this more of a "condition" than an "injury." And if it were the middle of the regular season instead of the beginning of the Grapefruit League, he would certainly be out on the field playing.
Utley said the condition does not affect him at the plate. But it does cause pain when he makes sharp movements, like he would in the field or on the basepaths (the aforementioned Lopes interview involved the subject of base-running).
We don't have a good idea of when Utley will be back at full strength. But we do have an idea about what Lopes was talking about last season.
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been slowly breaking down for years now, stop juicing chase? see what happens...he is done— tooltime- What a tool. It happens to every player. — Grazman
- If this thing is been hampering him for a year or who knows for how long, that's a sign of the tendon slowly being deteriorating and surgery could be on his way. Yikes!— EL Zorro
- Please stop the medical speculation. Baseball players get hurt and always sore during a grueling 162 game season. He will be fine. Must be a real slow news day in Clearwater.— Phront_Runner
- What an ignorant post by "tooltime". Seriously, don't go around implying people use or have used steroids. People want to call themselves "fans" but go around taking every opportunity to spew negative garbage. Is your life so meager that you have to go around spewing hate to make yourself feel better??— Armyofthe15Monkies
- A word to the wise - and not so wise. Tendonitis is a very common disease among athletes. It typically follows excessive stretching. It is seen at every level of athletic competition from the lowest amateur levels to the highest professional ranks. An athlete doesn't have to be on or off the juice to develop tendonitis. Now, that today's Health 101 lesson is over, let's move on to a bit of Law 101. To write, for the purpose of broadcast or publication, a defamatory or slanderous statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual when, in fact, it is not, can be legally prosecuted as libel. Blogging that a professional athlete is juicing or has juiced in the past when such a claim cannot be proved is risky business.
Wow....the crowd turning on Chutley- @Fan. Shut up! What a bore.— PhightinPhil
Well this is not good news. I am not a doc but it looks like he would have to take 6 months off at least to completely heal. That will not happen until his retirement. No wonder his play has been dropping off. So the happiest man in the clubhouse right now is Mr Valdez. Check out this link from the Mayo clinic. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/patellar-tendinitis/DS00625/DSECTION=symptoms
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
- the phillies are getting old fast! :-(— Charidan
- Simon, thanks for that informative link. Here are two interesting excerpts from the Treatment section of the Mayo Clinic site: "You and your doctor may consider surgery for your patellar tendinopathy in select cases if more conservative approaches aren't helping after 12 months of treatment." From the Lopes quote, it sounds like Utley's been experiencing this for going on 12 months. And: "Most people who have had patellar tendinitis surgery are able to resume athletic training within about six months. In some cases, however, recovery may take up to 18 months." In other words, out for the season.— Dave Clemens
- Not good
