The Rangers are the only AL West club in action tonight, as a win over the Royals can stretch Texas' lead in the division to six games over the A's. Here's the latest from the AL West…
- Athletics right-hander Brandon McCarthy underwent surgery last night to stabilize a skull fracture and remove an epidural hemorrhage, according to a team press release. A CT scan taken today revealed that McCarthy's condition improved, and A's GM Billy Beane is quoted as saying McCarthy is "stable, awake and alert." McCarthy was struck in the head yesterday by a line drive off the bat of Erick Aybar.
- Scott Miller of CBS Sports relates how, in 1996, then-Angels GM Bill Bavasi tried to hire Sparky Anderson as the Halos' manager, with the idea that Joe Maddon (then a coach with the team) would take over from Anderson after two years. The idea didn't come to fruition but Maddon remained on the staff and served as Mike Scioscia's bench coach when the Angels won the 2002 World Series, before eventually moving on to manage the Rays.
- Jurickson Profar tops MLB.com's latest ranking of the 100 best prospects in baseball. The Rangers shortstop made his Major League debut on Sunday and homered in his first plate appearance. From that same list, the Mariners have the highest overall ranking for their multiple prospects, led by starters Taijuan Walker (fifth) and Danny Hultzen (ninth).
I was at the Coliseum when McCarthy took Aybar’s line drive off his head. This sound it made was just about as loud as the ball off that bat. It was pretty disturbing. We all (15,000) just stood there in silence and watched for a couple minutes while he was down. It was pretty scary and reminds you that this game can be dangerous. Wishing McCarthy a speedy recovery.
It sounded terrifyingly loud on TV as well. Very scary. I sincerely hope he makes a full and quick recovery and is able to play again, if he wishes.
I was watching the game also and it was a horrible thud, then he finally walked off of the field himself and was hoping he would be ok and now see this..
A shame for him and for the A’s.. God Speed to his recovery and may he get better soon.
I was rather surprised that he remained conscious. Hopefully he can come back healthy!
In addition to the sound, the way he went down wasn’t the most promising either. It looked like his hand went up to try and touch it, and then just shut down and fell (as he did) to the ground.
That was always the one thing that prevented my mom from coming to games when I was scheduled to pitch when I was younger. And definitely the biggest reason that I think that all ball players from High School and up should switch over to wood bats….
And today Profar sits next to Elvis on the bench while Michael Freakin’ Young is at SS.
Duh. He is the unofficial official Captain. When he wants to play SS he just walks out there.
Best of luck to Brandon McCarthy.
Ok this is why it would be a good idea to institute pitchers wearing helmets. If batters have to wear one then why shouldn’t a pitcher who is sometimes having a ball hit at him as hard as he threw it. Seems to me a ball that is hit is more random than a pitched one. It probably has more chances to go straight at the pitchers head than one coming from the pitcher.
I can’t agree with this. The reason these injuries get reported as widely as they do is because they happen so infrequently. It takes a batter swinging at the right time, with a pitch in the right location at the right speed to make it possible for this to happen. If the batter swings .01 of a second earlier, this is a groundout to the shortstop. Or if he swings .01 of an inch higher, it is a groundball.
Best of luck to Brandon McCarthy, and his recovery. And here’s hoping that he knows the chances of this happening again are slim, and gets back on the hill…
I go 50/50 on this. If a protective device turned a 1-in-10,000 chance of injury into a 1-in-40,000 chance, wouldn’t it be worth it? Maybe instead of helmets, a liner like Bob Montgomery wore in the 70s. Pitcher would still have his bell rung, but would probably be okay.
I agree. I’m not saying a full on batters helmet but SOMETHING is better than nothing. Its a little precaution that may save a life.
What a terrible thing to happen to someone. I’m not sure why, but I wasn’t surprised when I heard about this. McCarthy just always seemed like the kind of guy who has horrible, horrible luck. I really hope he fully recovers and goes on to live a healthy life.
Brandon doesn’t need to rush back into anything. I remember in 2005 when Matt Clement got nailed in the head from a Carl Crawford liner. Never the same pitcher again. Arm went bad, possibly from altering his delivery in a self-defense mode. Take your time, Brandon.