Calling Dr. Howard Dr. Fine Dr. Howard

Over the past week in Major League Baseball quite a few star pitchers have gone down with injuries. First it was Jered Weaver of the Angels hurting his elbow in his pitching arm putting him out of action for at least a month. Then it was Zach Grenke breaking his collar bone in the fight with Adrian Gonzalez. Finally just a few days ago it was Johnny Cueto of the Reds injuring his triceps in his pitching arm, putting him on the sideline for around a month. So we have pitchers dropping like flies at the moment.

Now with the injury to Jered Weaver, it puts a bit of a hamper on the Angels pitching staff. Lets face facts here, Weaver is the Ace of the pitching staff. No disrespect intended to anybody else on that pitching staff but facts are Weaver is the best pitcher on that Anaheim staff. At the moment the Angels sit at 4-9 which puts them 4th in the AL West. C.J. Wilson, Jason Vargas, Tommy Hanson, Joe Blanton, and Garrett Richards are the starting five man rotation for the Angels at the moment. When Weaver gets healthy I can see Richards being the one who gets pulled from the rotation and the Angels get back to their playoff form, at least as far as their pitching is concerned anyway. Weaver got hit hard in his first few starts but when he is on his game is one of the best pitchers in that American League West.

Now that's the story for Jered Weaver. As for Zach Grenke, his injury was a bit stranger, and hurts the pitching staff more so than Weaver's does.  Grenke broke his collar bone in his non pitching shoulder during a fight with Adrian Gonzalez of the Padres last week, after Grenke hit Gonzalez in the back. The injury itself seemed to be a freak thing but it could have been prevented just by the way Grenke was standing. Now this injury puts a damper on the pitching staff of the Dodgers. Everybody knows Grenke isn't the ace of that Dodger staff, that belongs to Clayton  Kershaw. But with Grenke out as the number two starter in that rotation, Hyun-Jin Ryu takes his spot in the rotation. Ryu has surprised a few people and put up good numbers in his starts this year, 2-1 with a 2.89 ERA and 20 K's. I think though that it makes a difference having Grenke as the guy behind Kershaw. Ryu has been great I won't take anything away from him by any stretch, but I think its more intimidating having Grenke behind Kershaw. That of course could just be me.

Now with the Cueto injury, that is just a case of minor, somewhat, injury. He has pitched under 500 through his first three starts of the season, and for a guy who is normally a dominating pitcher, that's a tad low. The Reds are a game under 500 in the standings as of this writing, and are still in really good shape, but not having there best pitcher in the rotation is going to be a bit of a problem. Cincinnati has one of the most potent offenses in the game today, but what is going to get them deep in the playoffs is pitching. Trust me the Reds are a better team when Cueto takes the hill than when he doesn't.