Oooof Course He Did...

Maybe he hurt his elbow taking this picture?
Photo by @CardsInsider

Fine: I'll admit it. When I got home from work yesterday and the first thing I heard was that Adam Wainwright - my boy, my favorite - might be shut down before his last start of the season after sleeping on his elbow wrong of all things, my only reaction was to say 'Of course he did!' out loud, alone, standing in the middle of my apartment. At this point, nothing will shock me.

Let's take a stroll down memory lane, shall we? I think we need to look at when all of our busted up boys were shut down...

May: Brad Penny pulls his oblique while hitting a grand slam. He is never seen from again.

June: David Freese rolls an ankle while running the bases. While rehabbing he drops a weight on his toe and breaks it. When he is finally sent out for a rehab assignment in Springfield during the first days of August he injures the same ankle rounding third bases. He has since had surgeries/procedures performed on *both ankles. Sheesh kid. They're called ankle braces. My volleyball girls wear them. You make more money than them. Invest.

Good thing you're cute... still, Erika's calling you
'Prince Boo-Boo Foot'... are you going to take that?
Photo from STL Post-Dispatch

August: Jason LaRue takes multiple shots to the face and head from the cleats of one Reds pitcher whose name is no longer mentioned within the confines of this blog. After suffering a severe concussion, the effects of which are still lingering over a month later, LaRue decides to retire from the game of baseball. His farewell posts have almost read like eulogies to me, so I don't even want to link 'em up for you (Sorry Erika...).

September: One year removed from Tommy John surgery, Jaime Garcia throws a career high innings total that eventually begins to catch up to him. Despite a very solid year in which he leads all rookie pitchers in pretty much every possible category, he was shut down by the team - not for physical issues, but as a preventative measure. I'm still on the fence about this one I guess, but I definitely will throw a 'plays like a Cardinal' tag on his locker for his plea to the powers that be to keep pitching after the premature announcement was made to the media for his abrupt end to the season before telling Jaime himself.

Ooooh the aching knees...
Photo by Scott Rovak

Also in September: Yadier Molina is a workhorse of a catcher. In the past two years he has caught more innings than all but two catchers in all of baseball. Squatting for minutes a day is no fun, so turn those minutes into hours and it's pretty clear that Yadi's knees have taken a beating. After being sent back to St. Louis for an MRI the announcement was made that Yadi's kaput for the year as well.

More in September: On Saturday in Chicago Blake Hawksworth was smashed in the face by a line drive off the bat of a Scrubbie (oops, forgot I'm not supposed to take shots at the Cubs on here. Hi Grandpa!) and was immediately taken to the hospital. I screeched when I saw it happen, and my first thought was 'broken nose' because those just suck (Personal experience? Yes). Somehow Blake escaped with no broken bones, but around 30 stitches to his upper lip and face. Yikes! Needless to say, I will not be seeing Blake over the last week of the season.

September isn't over yet?: Yesterday, as stated above, the announcement was made that Waino might be done for the year as well.

Please make it stop. There are only five of us here at the CDD, and we can only bandage so many boo-boos at a time. We love you boys and we want to take care of you, but we would really prefer that you take care of yourselves as well!

Of course, the announcement of Waino's possible end of the season came as I was writing a Baseball Digest piece about him. Do me a favor and head over to read it anyway, would you? It's called "Twenty Wins Is A Serious Number"... apologies, it was just too good a title to pass up! :)