A-Hip

By now I'm sure you know about Arod. He had a bum hip 10 months ago and after a MRI showed some abnormalities, the Yankees decided to be patient and wait until now to give him another one only to find out he has some sort of cyst and a torn labrum and could miss 4+ months. They pay Arod $275m, I guess whatever the costs are for another MRI were too expensive.

Like I said, it could require surgery which would keep him out for 4+ months but the Yankees have decided that the ole R &R (rest and rehab) is enough to get Arod through the season. I guess none of the Yankees were paying attention to Jorge Posada's shoulder last year? They said instead of surgery just rest and rehab will get his shoulder straight, well Posada got surgery in the middle of the year.

I'm no doctor, but I've read a tad of doctors talk about this thing and from that they say this is tt gets worse over time without surgery. That would tell me whatever Arod is feeling now is playable, considering Mike Lowell had a similar thing. And Mike Lowell sucked at the end last year and wasn't roster worthy in the playoffs. I assume in Aril Mike thought this is alright I can deal with this, and by October he couldn't. If Arod has surgery today, it's likely he could be back by mid July. That doesn't seem that bad, it's kind of like getting the best player in the league at the trading deadline.

Again, I'm not a doctor but I find it incredibly hard to believe that Arod is going to be even close to full strength come September, when they will need him most. Wouldn't the Yankees rather insure themselves of a healthy Arod for at least part of the season than rely on some patch work to get Arod through the year? I'm not going to be surprised in July when Buster Olney breaks this story, "Yankees Arod Shut Down, Plans to Be Back by the Spring".

For all we know maybe the Yankees figure Arod is useless when it matters most in September and the playoffs due to his knack for the unclutch. With that thinking it makes sense to push him to play, get what they can out of him from April-August and then let him have surgery, sure beats a couple ofers against Boston and the Rays in September right? All kidding aside, Albert Belle was out of baseball by age 34 because of a bad hip, I'm not going to assume Arod will go down that same path, but he's 33. If he opts to play over surgery it's not out of the question that he won't be the same player he is at 34 as he was at 33.