Back injury sends Polanco to DL
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Back injury sends Polanco to DL
Bob Brookover
Third baseman Placido Polanco was placed on the disabled list Thursday with lower back inflammation. The team said his roster replacement will be announced before the start of the team's three-game series in Atlanta Friday.
Polanco had missed the Phillies' last three games because of the ailment. Manager Charlie Manuel said the injury is similar to a back injury that bothered the third baseman for much of last season.
The Phillies do not figure to miss Polanco's bat. Since his average topped out at .294 on June 4, he had hit just .184 with five extra-base hits -- all doubles -- in 32 games.
As we saw during Wednesday's extra-inning win over Milwaukee, the Phillies do miss Polanco's glove when he is not in the lineup. Ty Wigginton, playing in place of Polanco at third, committed two errors, including a dropped pop up that allowed the Brewers to score a go-ahead run in the top of the 10th inning.
Because he is considered a solid defensive player, Michael Martinez is probably a candidate to be recalled. Mike Fontenot can also play third base.
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b. robinson could in no way shape or form will ever be mistaken for r. allen who had speed, tremondous power to all fields, hit for avg etc. robinson: mediocre arm, played on high grass to slow ball down in the infield, little power low batting avg ran like wigginton, allen was really a short-stop and was moved to 3rd base in 64" he received many offers from major colleges to become a point guard.— only 9- Polly, Wiggy, Schneider need to be released yesterday.— wo_fat
- Watching him hit during the Cards series last October was utterly excruciating.— CallisonTaylorRojas
- Polanco and Ibanez have worked out about the same for the Phillies.
They were good for the first half of their contracts - poor the secon half.
Chance you take when you give multi year contracts to mid thirty ballplayers.
There may be a lesson there for the future.
Polanco really has broken down physically.
Olt or Castlannos cannot get here last enough !
Lee or Pence trade may be the tool to accomplish that.
I would not trade Le. I think he will get himself straightened out and come back big time next year.
Hunter Pence is a completely different story.
I cannot see the Phillies holding onto Pence, giving him $15M next year in arbitration, and then signing him to a 6 or 7 year contract at the end of next year for around $150M. Just no way that would make any sense.
Some of those guys on MLB said Pence is uncoachable, untrainable and unchangeable. Sound harsh to me, but havivg watched every game this season, I cannot find much fault with it.
The good news is that he should be able to garner us a good prospect from a contending team. They would be getting Pence for their stretch run and could keep him next year before deciding whether they would want him for the long term.— candidly - @Cornerpretzelguy
Are you kidding with your comments about Polanco? He is a lifetime .299 hitter. He has almost 7,000 career at bats with only 508 strikeouts. That is EXACTLY what a contact hitter does. He puts the ball in play. Does he have power? No, but he never has. He has delivered exactly what should have been expected from him, great defense, good situational hitting, lots of singles and occasional doubles. What did you expect for $6M/season? David Wright.— foreclosure11 - He will be much more valuable to an AL team... Ur GM can market him as both DH and fill in 3b. Ibanez has done well for us taking a similar role DHing and filling in part time in left.— Km3737
- Polanco has a lifetime OBP of .344 with below average power. This year it is an even .300, which qualifies him as an automatic out. His BA is totally meaningless.— princeton22
- There's a familiar friend posting on here tonight (whose screen name is also his IQ) telling us Dick Allen was actually better than Brooks Robinson. Gee, I can't imagine why he thinks that!— dasher
- Polanco has been one of the most overrated players in baseball for the last 10 years, IMO. Yes, he has a lifetime .299 BA. Since coming to the Phillies he has not hit .300. As a matter of fact his BA has been declining each season. He a singles hitter with no speed. He would have trouble hitting HR in a Little League park and always has been streaky and injury-prone. Yes, he plays pretty good defense, but so does Daniel Descalzo and a lot of utility guys. I said when they signed him that it was a mistake, especially down the road. I rather see Martinez, who plays good defense also plus a lot of positions, has better speed and at least brings a little bit of enthusiasm, play the rest of the year at 3B. Polly is a microcosm of what is wrong with this team: a boring, injury-prone and over-the-hill baseball player.— EL Zorro
- Brooks Robinson was one of my idols growing up because I played 3B also. When he retired, George Brett became my favorite third baseman. Robinson was superior defensively than Richie Allen. However, he was no match offensively. His best season, (his MVP season in 1964 - .317, 28 HR, .899 OPS) was bested by Allen’s Rookie of the Year Campaign (.317, 29 HR, 91 RBI, .939 OPS, 125 R and 13 3B). In his career Robinson was a .269 hitter with an OPS of .723. Allen was a .292 hitter with .912 OPS. As good as Robinson was defensively, he committed 263 errors and had a .971 FP in his career. As a matter of fact, if you take away his first 4 seasons where he had cup of coffee, and his last two when he was a part time player, he made more than 10 errors in his 17 seasons as a regular, including seasons of 21, 15, 16 (twice), 17 and 18.— EL Zorro
- And if you ever had a broken down car and needed someone to push it for you, Crash Allen would be the guy.— dasher
- Oook, thanks for the insight dasher.— EL Zorro
- @ElZarro --good post, you actually shoot down some of the aura of your idol Brooks Robinson who got a lot of attention for his great 1966 Series, but was really not great offensively.. and Dick Allen was actually underrated and should probably be in HallofFame as he was one of 3 or 4 best players in baseball for a couple of years in a pitching dominated era... in my mind Schmidt was much better than other third basemen with his combination of offense and defense (with Brett a close second), and indeed his major weaknesses -- batting avg and over 100 strikeouts --- are considered much less today when many great players strike out over 100 and people pay more attention to on base pctge and OPS, in which Schmidt dominated... of course for pure hitting, Wade Boggs won 5 titles, Chipper Jones has been as good as anyone (and one of best clutch hitters in history), Rolen would be up there if not for his injury history and David Wright if he keeps up what he's doing this year (and there's of course Arod)... what is upsetting is how Phils get zero production from a position that for past 50 years requires something and I am serious that Phils still miss Pedro Feliz who had some big hits for Phils in the no. 7 spot (including game-tying HR in 2009 Series) along with terrific defense (better range than Polanco) whereas Polanco has been uselss clutter in the no. 2 slot and is the defnition of a utility player ..Phils should not have let him go to retain David Bell, but they compounded their error by handing him a starting job after he's completely washed up— warbiscuit
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