Elbows

Johan Santana was scratched from his first spring training tuneup because of a sore elbow yesterday. Jerry Manual said it was no big deal and that he has a history of elbow soreness this time of year.

Johan had knee surgery this fall which seems completely unrelated but maybe it isn't:

Santana, who had arthroscopic surgery Oct. 1 on torn cartilage in his left knee, didn’t think the tightness in his elbow was related to rushing back from the knee surgery too soon, but rather from overuse early in camp.

“I’ve been throwing bullpens here every other day, and I don’t think I’ve ever done that in the past,” Santana said. “The reason why is because we wanted to test my knee and make sure everything is fine, throwing every other day off the mound.”

He's thrown more pitches than he usually does at this point and because of that he's now feeling soreness. He had surgery on his knee not his elbow, but extending your self more than you normally do to test your knee could hurt your elbow, no? It's likely to be nothing that rest can't fully heal but it's still not something to just completely set aside. I'm no expert in pitcher injuries, but elbow soreness often equals Tommy John.

A basic fantasy baseball strategy is to not draft pitchers in the first few rounds, and this is a reason why. If Hanley Ramirez skips 2 games because his quad is bothering him no one cares and you take him 1st or 2nd. When a pitcher skips a turn with elbow soreness I figure more bad news could await. Even if Johan slips to you in the 2nd round do you really want to draft him?