It’s no secret that the Los Angeles Dodgers have had an awful year in terms of pitching injuries.
Two staples in the starting rotation, Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell, have combined for just seven starts this season as they both currently find themselves on the 60-day injured list.
Luckily, manager Dave Roberts had promising updates for the pair of All-Stars as they progress back to the mound.
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“Tyler threw today,” Roberts said Tuesday. “Really encouraged with his bullpen in Los Angeles. Blake threw today here. Really encouraging. So, yeah, you can start to see us get to the other side. It’s stuff to look forward to.”
Both All-Stars are shelved due to shoulder inflammation. Snell could only muster two starts in a Dodgers uniform as Glasnow went five before their injuries kept them off the mound.
Pitching coach Mark Prior also spoke on the updates and what he has seen from his injured pitchers.
“Seeing Blake today live in front of us was great. His arm looks, for the first time probably all year, free and easy,” Prior said Tuesday. “(Glasnow) really has been feeling good and the ball has been coming out really good.
“Snell’s going to throw another bullpen for sure and we’re going to kind of wrap our head around on Glas and try to figure out maybe what the next seven to 10 days look like for him, too and try to see what that progression looks like.”
Long-term pitching health is still at the forefront of the coaching staff’s minds as they work with their rotational arms. The two pitchers will be welcomed back whenever they are available, but instead of risking a few regular season starts, the team is slow playing them to ensure they’re healthy in October.
Glasnow tossed 134 innings last season before elbow tendinitis shut him down in August. Snell — a two-time Cy Young award winner — is notoriously a much better pitcher during the second half of the year.
If these two can play their best baseball of the year when the stakes are highest, the missed starts that are steadily adding up in the regular season will quickly be forgotten.
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Photo Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
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4 Responses
The most encouraging update I could imagine for these two would be that they have retired.
It happens so often that the Dodgers make a big splash over signing Cy Young candidates to huge, multi-year contracts, who have been sidelined most of the previous year with injury. Betting that their multiple past injuries are a thing from the past, they showcase these pitchers as the solidifying force that will bring another championship to LA.
This is true, until it isn’t. It’s beginning to look like Friedman gets scammed with such regularity that Walters et. al. should put a stop to it. These two can take their millions and go away. Next?
I was skeptical about Glasnow when Friedman made the trade. Pepiot was looking pretty solid. And low and behold, he is having another good year. He has made every start with a 3.30 ERA. Now Glasnow has a much higher upside; but we need a healthy starter. Snell is another wild card. If HE is healthy–high upside. It does look like both are on the way back, so maybe we will be OK on both fronts. The one pitcher I am hoping comes back soon is Emmet Sheehan. He had a really explosive fastball.
I would like to see Dave Roberts say nothing about injured pitchers and defer that to Mark Pryor, I think it is better to only say that “we will know more after tests…” initially rather than be doom and gloom when that nay not even be the case. Glasnow was saying it was just a tweak and Roberts was saying it was terrible new.s. Which is it? We all want to know the truth but all this instant bad news tell us nothing, and only makes Roberts look like he is out of the loop. Don’t guess or speculate. FACTS ONLY.
Roberts says and does what he is told by AF/BG. He is a marionette clown.