...either the players aren’t being honest with themselves about the extent of their injuries, or they’re not being honest with the team, either way, after all the serious injuries/surgeries this season, something is broken.

I don’t follow other teams closely enough to say (except for the fiasco with Church and his head injury, though that’s probably more on the Mets management than on Church). Is this something that happens on other teams? With the Nats being so snake-bitten by injuries right from the start, did Kearns, Zimmy, and Hill try too hard to tough it out? Does this represent a problem with the coaching staff? You have to figure that players are changing their swings and their deliveries to compensate for the injuries (as we all talked about with Hill from the Spring)—why didn’t the coaches notice? Or, why did they assume ‘slump’ instead of ‘injury’? Fire Lenny?

Either way, the fiasco with the Chief is inexcusable. We knew he was hurt, we could all see on the stadium radar gun that his stuff wasn’t there. Why did we lose nearly a half-season of recovery/rehab time before getting a correct diagnosis and realizing he needed surgery? Is the “contrast” MRI really so much more invasive/expensive than a normal MRI? WHO KEEPS BREAKING OUR PLAYERS!

—-I mocked Bumden for signing so many outfielders this off-season. Is the Nats’ outfield built on some Ancient Burial Ground ? Glad WillyMo’s surgery went well. Heal-up WillyMo…
I think another contributing factor has to be that the Nats have signed a lot of players with a history of injuries. I know that Patterson, PLoD, AK and WillyMo have all followed a pattern of breaking down just about every season.
Luckily guys like ThrillyHarris and JesusFlores have stepped up their games with the added playing time. The young pitchers are starting to learn winning at the BigLeagueLevel. Could be an interesting last two months for the Lil’Nats. Now if they can just play the rest of the league like they play the Braves, Ya’ll could be in business…..

—-17 hits allowed .vs. the Nats on Sunday, 2 for the Fish on Monday…..This Yo-Yo’s Makin’ Me Dizzy….......

i don’t know the answer to whether this is an epidemic or not. although, i do watch the injury reports very closely and you just don’t see this many catastophic injuries to one team like this. seven of the eight fielders on the opening day team, plus 3/5 of the starting rotation, the closer, and several of the key back-ups have spent significant time on the DL already this year. i can’t recall a more devestating run of injuries to a team. and let’s be honest, this team could ill-afford major injury, as we are seeing the results unfold before our eyes.

but whether this is a player issue or team issue, they need to figure it out. because playing through pain and playing with an injury are two completely different things.