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Run by The Trentonian's Nick Peruffo, this blog will provide daily multimedia coverage of the Trenton Thunder.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Injury updates from Nardi Contreras

I spoke with Yankees pitching coordinator Nardi Contreras earlier this week, mostly about the rash of injuries the system's have suffered through the first two months. Here's what he had to say: 

On Jose Ramirez: I believe he's got his sub muscle under his armpit (hurt). All these injuries are crazy injuries. It's not like bad shoulders or elbows. These are all tweaks. Jose's got a strain underneath his armpit, so we shut him down.

On Dellin Betances: He's got a cracked fingernail that he's trying to pitch with. He's not a command guy. We want him to control the baseball. If he controls it in the strike zone, with his power, his curve and his change-up, he'll have a lot of success. Any little thing like (the cracked nail) will affect control, because you have no feel. It does affect him some, and affecting him some takes away from the ability to throw within the strike zone on a consistent basis. 

On Manny Banuelos: Manny's got a tired arm. There's nothing structurally wrong. He said his arm was tired, so we shut him down. That's easy. He did the MRI and stuff, and there's nothing structurally wrong. Whenever something bothers our guys, we get the MRI and make sure everything's OK, and everything's OK.

We'll give him seven days and then go from there, seven days of no throwing. Seven days of charting, running -- I'm not sure he'll do any weightlifting, because you've got to use your arm to do that -- that's it. 

On Dan Burawa: Danny Burawa will be pitching in extended spring training. He did a BP yesterday (Monday). He's going out twice, 35 pitches, then he'll have a couple of days off and then pitch in the extended spring game. (When he'll join a full-season team) will be the call of the people seeing him. They'll talk to me and let me know how he threw the baseball, but they see him. If I was there, then I could say, 'this is what we'll do.' 

On Jeremy Bleich: He's pitched twice, one-inning stints. I was there on his first one. He pitched really well. In the 90s, curveball for strikes. Then he pitched again on Saturday and he pitched another inning. He's coming. 

I believe we'll pitch him as a reliever in a pre-determined innings (scenario), so when he does break the extended spring program, there's a chance that, wherever he ends up going, you'll say, 'OK, today's Tuesday, he's going to pitch two innings,' and then two days' rest and go out there and pitch again.

On Jairo Heredia: Heredia was given the OK today or yesterday, so he'll start throwing (Wednesday). I think he has something wrong internally that is affecting him from being able to perform in the field. Something internally. What it is, I don't know, but I know he was OK'd yesterday.

1 Comments:

Blogger Peter Lacock said...

Great stuff Josh!

Good to see at least some of these guys on the road back.
Just like everything in life there are peaks and valleys.
It'll be nice when these injuries calm down.

Not worried about Banuelos. I think he just needs time to grow into being a man that pitches for a living. A couple years anyway.
Betances on the other hand is a little concerning but because of his stature I think he should get extra patience. If this were next year at this time I might feel different.

May 27, 2012 at 3:43 PM 

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