Under The Knife 7/23/25

Gimmick Free, Since 2003

Sorry for missing Monday’s UTK. I was at the Alliance Fastpitch national tournament here in the Indy area all weekend for NTangible and simply couldn’t get the calls made necessary to do a good UTK. I’ll always skip rather than put out something that doesn’t add value to your subscription. I hope you understand.

The WNBA All Star Game was here in Indy and it was a show. The league basically changed the rules of the game. Logo 3? Make it worth 4 now. Free throws? Gimmes. Hockey subs? Go for it! They did everything but institute the Elam Ending - which every league should - and while it could have felt gimmicky, it came off feeling like the future. High scoring, quick action, while still looking and feeling like basketball, mostly.

Of course, the MLB All Star Game could and did do the same, adding in the challenge system. Ok, fine, but the challenge or full ABS should already be in place, so I’m not giving anyone full credit for this one. Swing off? Can’t say I loved it, but it was dramatic. I certainly prefer it to the Manfred Man extra innings abomination.

I’m not even sure what else baseball could do that isn’t gimmicky. Is a 425-foot homer worth an extra run, or would that just encourage everyone to swing as hard as possible and miss more? Meh, I’m no crusty old baseball conservative, but even I don’t like that idea. Bill Chuck has suggested changing the sub rules and I wouldn’t be against it. Almost everything else I can think of or find comes off like some Rock N Jock softball rule, or something so Calvinball that I can’t even understand or explain it.

The thing is, baseball is fine. Yes, we have an injuries crisis, but in a sport where teams are valued in the billions at the extreme low end and where players are comfortably being paid in the nine figure range over the long term, the sport is fine economically for now. Fixing the broadcast landscape? Sure, but that alone shows that the game itself is fine. We don’t need a golden ticket pinch hitter, a hit-the-bull target in the outfield, or movable walls. We just need baseball.

Now, on to the injuries:

DODGERS BULLPEN

Tanner Scott is heading to the IL. Ben Casparius might be following him. Dave Roberts says “this better be rock bottom” as injuries and overuse are hitting the Dodgers bullpen. This is the point where Andrew Friedman ducks into the phone booth and comes out wearing a cape, flying in to the trade deadline and picking up pieces that allow Roberts and Mark Prior to pick up the pieces of a wounded pen.

Injuries are holding back everything, in the sense that on talent, this is probably a 120-win team and right now, but any team with eight relievers on the shelf is going to struggle. There’s still talent, but Scott’s elbow and Casparius’ hamstring strain won’t be minor losses. Roles will shift, adjustments will be made, but this is a struggling unit that seems to be spiraling. Unlike with the rotation, there’s not “too much” if it was all healthy.

For Friedman, he’s got to rely on his medical staff, but also take some of the load off them. Some decisions need to be made, as in “this player might come back and needs X amount of man-hours, while this player is going to have to be written off and filled in.” There are arms, inside and outside the organization and more than enough to get those outside arms in, but if this is rock bottom, the bounce will come from change.

GRAYSON RODRIGUEZ, SP BAL (strained lat/inflamed elbow)

I hate the term “injury prone” but at some level, there’s not something better when someone clearly can’t hold up under the load of being a major league player or pitcher. We don’t know why - is it genetic or workload? is it nature or nurture? is the player overdoing it or is he “soft”? Even inside teams, it’s tough to answer these questions because even with all the data we have, finding where chronic injuries are going to happen is nearly impossible. Humans are bad at finding long term patterns and taking a long term view.

For Grayson Rodriguez, he doesn’t care about all that, even if the Orioles do. He’s facing another rehab from another injury. This one is an elbow issue and it’s unclear if it’s new or related to the one he had before the lat strain that ostensibly has him sidelined now. He went for imaging and results should come soon. Reports are that the elbow discomfort came up earlier this month, so I’m not sure why there’s a gap between event and imaging. It certainly isn’t a good sign.

There’s a broad gap between the possibilities here, from a “get back out there, kid” to “we’re going to need to do surgery.” I don’t think an elbow surgery would surprise anyone and might just be the full re-set he needs, though his range of problems won’t be solved by simply rebuilding a joint. Instead, they might have to rebuild everything, including his mindset, during any rehab if it happens. And if it doesn’t, they need to do the same things in a shorter span of time, though it’s pretty clear Rodriguez isn’t coming back this season.

There’s more on the Orioles at the deadline, Cards issues, and a lot more pitcher injuries below the paywall. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber now.