Vazquez Had Knee Surgery in November? Hanrahan on the Shelf

Pirate relief pitcher Joel Hanrahan has a right flexor-pronator strain (elbow).     Evan Meek will be our candidate to soak up Hanrahan’s innings if this is anything serious, but what a blow for the Bucs just hours into spring training.  No timetable has been set for a Hanrahan return.  Ugh.

Everyone’s favorite roster cut, Ramon Vazquez also made the news today.  Vazquez is coming off knee surgery.

The front office knew of each injury, but didn’t elaborate on any of these details.  Perhaps nobody asked.  We heard Hanrahan had some mild pain in his elbow, but nothing further was mentioned.  Either way Hanrahan will be sorely missed in the bullpen.  The young pitcher, who we felt would be groomed  for an eventual closer role, has a tender elbow.  Tender enough for a second MRI.  This isn’t good Bucs fans.  Hanrahan will see Dr. James Andrews within the next week for further tests.  (What, we can’t bump line?) Rob Biertempfel who broke the story has the details below.

Pirate infielder Ramon Vazquez had arthroscopic knee surgery in November and will be limited in spring training.   Sounds like Freddy Sanchez this offseason doesn’t it?  We found a great article here on why the Giants kept Sanchez’s surgery a secret.  Go check it out.

"Giants trainer Dave Groeschner spoke on a conference call the day after Bochy’s slip, and claimed that the team didn’t announce the surgery at Sanchez’s request. Groeschner said Sanchez didn’t want his health to be a topic all winter.But Sanchez told us a different tale today. He said he never told the Giants such a thing. He was surprised at how the team tried to spin the situation last month, but didn’t seem too annoyed by it. Sanchez doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who holds grudges…….LATER IN THE ARTICLESanchez is aware of the rep he’s developed with Giants fans and he hopes he can change it.“Obviously, none of this was planned,” Sanchez said. “I couldn’t do anything about it. Two freak injuries just happened. I don’t want to look back and think about what I or we could’ve done. It’s about looking forward and being positive.”"

Sanchez doesn’t commit to being ready for opening day in this video [Here is the link just in case as we had some difficulty with it]

Bucs Insider released the Pirates injury news about 950 am after a tweet scoop by Mr. Rob Biertempfel at 930am from the Tribune Review.

Both injuries were in August and the players played through the pain.  Yeh, that makes sense on a 99 loss team.   Article from the scoopmaster in Bradenton, Mr. Biertempfel