Looks Like No Medlen In 2011

Hello again everyone from southeast Michigan, where I’m happy to report a cold front has blown through, restoring us to more normal temps of 80 degrees or so and low humidity. About time I got one of those “payments” for the bad winter torture!

Scanning the baseball wires today, things were quiet until David O’Brien of the AJC.com broke a story on the current situation with Kris Medlen. It seems that the second setback that he suffered was more serious than originally thought.

The Braves now intend to shut Medlen down for six weeks, through early September, to allow his ailing elbow to “settle down” and hopefully have the lingering soreness he is experiencing to settle down. Unfortunately, by that time virtually all the minor leagues will have completed their seasons, thus leaving nowhere for Medlen to compete to build up his arm strength.

While the Braves apparently have no yet given up on 2011 for Medlen yet, reading between the lines it looks like even they recognize that it would be a real long shot for him to come back this year. There’s no way to get back in game shape without playing in games, and no one seems to know of any place where he could play against reasonable levels of competition at that time of year.

The good news is that Dr. James Andrews examined the elbow again and declared it to be structurally sound. If anyone would know, it’s him. To me, Medlen contributing in 2011 was always going to be a bonus, not something to be counted on. There are other places in the organization to turn to get high quality starters, or the same starters to serve as long men out of the pen. The more critical need is to get Peter Moylan back, as the team needs more depth in middle and late relief, especially right handers.

For more of David O’Brien’s article, you can read it here.

That’s my take. What’s yours?