Plouffe out at least a week

During the game, it was announced on the radio that Trevor Plouffe was scratched with a calf strain, and that he was day-to-day. Following the game, Gardy announced that he is out at least a week, and if it were the regular season, Plouffe would be put on the Disabled List.

This isn't a negative on the training staff. Likely there was an initial report that was enough to take him out of the lineup. Then he was evaluated and they determined the extent. But, this is an unfortunate setback for Plouffe who was hitting well since his return from another "minor injury."

Hold it now... didn't someone report the other day (Miller on twitter?) that he saw Plouffe icing his calf and he asked him about it and Plouffe's answer was something like "precautionary maintenance"?

Likely more than that.

Calf "strain" can be 2 things: Either a cramp or a tear. Having had both of those things, a cramp is not a DL-type situation, but a tear is not a "just a week" situation. It is more like about a month situation and then you are not 100% for a while. Just hope he is ok and starts the season healthy.

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Originally Posted by Seth Stohs

This isn't a negative on the training staff.

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Important dates in science fiction history:

August 4, 1997 - SkyNet becomes self-aware.
August 29, 1997 - SkyNet launches preemptive strike against the USSR.
March 10, 2013 - SkyNet launches preemptive defense of Twins medical staff.

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Originally Posted by LaBombo

Important dates in science fiction history:

August 4, 1997 - SkyNet becomes self-aware.
August 29, 1997 - SkyNet launches preemptive strike against the USSR.
March 10, 2013 - SkyNet launches preemptive defense of Twins medical staff.

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March 11, 2013 - Predicted postemptive response from BW and ON (in unison): "Talk to the hand"...

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Originally Posted by thrylos98

Hold it now... didn't someone report the other day (Miller on twitter?) that he saw Plouffe icing his calf and he asked him about it and Plouffe's answer was something like "precautionary maintenance"?

Likely more than that.

Calf "strain" can be 2 things: Either a cramp or a tear. Having had both of those things, a cramp is not a DL-type situation, but a tear is not a "just a week" situation. It is more like about a month situation and then you are not 100% for a while. Just hope he is ok and starts the season healthy.

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The Twins injury cycle begins again: ....nagging injuries become chronic.... while sometimes accompanied by incomplete/inadequate rehabbing and/or curious offseason surgery timings , thus exposing lack of Plan B personnel depth....."day-to-day" statuses ultimately morphing into DL listings.... players returning at less than full-strength, leading to......nagging injuries becoming chronic....

Another string of Plouffe's bad luck, a Twins Curse or, Incompetence, is hard to quantify, but in the real world it might very soon be time for the local writers to repolish those glittering stories about how well the presumed-by-default opening-day starter, Escobar, plays 3B.

my point on the change from the in-game report (being evaluated, but day-to-day for now) to the post-game (he's been evaluated, it's going to be awhile) isn't on the training staff. They need to do the evaluation before having any confidence. They couldn't say that same thing until they had seen him.

Hopefully, a week does it, and Plouffe is healthy and ready to start the season on time. Figuring out whether Plouffe can be an everyday player has to be among the top goals for 2013, and it'd be nice to get a full season to do that, without "ifs" or "buts" to factor in. I'd also like to say, in this particular instance, I think Seth is right...there have been some instances where there was reason to question the Twins training staff, but at first blush this isn't one of them.

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Originally Posted by Seth Stohs

my point on the change from the in-game report (being evaluated, but day-to-day for now) to the post-game (he's been evaluated, it's going to be awhile) isn't on the training staff. They need to do the evaluation before having any confidence. They couldn't say that same thing until they had seen him.

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It seems to me like there's an old story that Mark Twain once comforted a friend who was nervous about giving a speech by telling him something like "Don't worry, they're probably not expecting much."

And that's pretty much where I am with the Twins trainers and medical people. All they have to do is make it through the season without performing an unnecessary amputation or incinerating a player with a massive Bengay overdose, and I'll be happy.

Plouffe's injury, if it lingers, is the kind of thought exercise I'd want to avoid if I were hitting the division contender Kool-aid especially hard this season. How many competitive franchises in MLB would be forced to admit that their best backup option at third base is an adorable hobbit with 13 career home runs and an AARP card?

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Originally Posted by USAFChief

I'd also like to say, in this particular instance, I think Seth is right...there have been some instances where there was reason to question the Twins training staff, but at first blush this isn't one of them.

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Totally agree. Just thought it was interesting to see that the staff is pre-exonerated for... whatever this turns out to be. At this point I'm much more interested in seeing the Twins field players worth keeping healthy than I am in the Chicago Hope theatrics of the people who are supposed to keep them healthy.

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Originally Posted by jokin

The Twins injury cycle begins again: ....nagging injuries become chronic.... while sometimes accompanied by incomplete/inadequate rehabbing and/or curious offseason surgery timings , thus exposing lack of Plan B personnel depth....."day-to-day" statuses ultimately morphing into DL listings.... players returning at less than full-strength, leading to......nagging injuries becoming chronic....

Another string of Plouffe's bad luck, a Twins Curse or, Incompetence, is hard to quantify, but in the real world it might very soon be time for the local writers to repolish those glittering stories about how well the presumed-by-default opening-day starter, Escobar, plays 3B.

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All this becase of a calf strain? In Spring Training?

He's hanging on by the skin of his teeth avoiding a candlelight vigil carpetbombing. Oh Plouffe, we hardly knew ye.

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Originally Posted by thrylos98

Likely more than that.

Calf "strain" can be 2 things: Either a cramp or a tear. Having had both of those things, a cramp is not a DL-type situation, but a tear is not a "just a week" situation. It is more like about a month situation and then you are not 100% for a while. Just hope he is ok and starts the season healthy.

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Depends of the grade of calf strain, not nearly as b&w situation as you paint it, but when you possess no objectivity on such things, it usually results in misinformation to make your point.

MRI came out favorably, evidently...saw on MLB network bottom line.

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Originally Posted by twinsnorth49

All this becase of a calf strain? In Spring Training?

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The latest update with the very good news of a positive MRI result revealed previously undisclosed information from Plouffe that this recent injury isn't as bad as "when he initially sustained the calf strain while working out before Spring Training." So to straighten out Plouffe's comment, the injury is in fact, at the least, a month old.

What does that tell you, other than that the injury either wasn't properly reported by Plouffe, diagnosed, treated, rehabilitated or, all of the above, in the initial phase? Why not an MRI then? Plouffe said this in regards to how he'll handle the injury from this point on: "...I'm not too worried about it, but we'll take some time with it. I'm sure I won't be in there this week at all."

Hopefully, the rest approach yields positive results and this is just a Grade 1 strain blip, the Twins can't afford to place yet another pint-sized bat in the starting lineup on opening day.

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Originally Posted by jokin

The latest update with the very good news of a positive MRI result revealed previously undisclosed information from Plouffe that this recent injury isn't as bad as "when he initially sustained the calf strain while working out before Spring Training." So to straighten out Plouffe's comment, the injury is in fact, at the least, a month old.

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Actually, we knew this right? I'd forgotten, but two weeks ago he missed the first few days of spring training because of a calf strain. We talked about it quite a bit:

http://twinsdaily.com/twins-talk/521...sore-calf.html

I'm not ready to start piling onto the med/training staff just yet, but it sounds like he came back from this too soon. And that they at least were a little worried that they had under-diagnosed it originally and did this MRI.

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Originally Posted by thrylos98

Hold it now... didn't someone report the other day (Miller on twitter?) that he saw Plouffe icing his calf and he asked him about it and Plouffe's answer was something like "precautionary maintenance"?

Likely more than that.

Calf "strain" can be 2 things: Either a cramp or a tear. Having had both of those things, a cramp is not a DL-type situation, but a tear is not a "just a week" situation. It is more like about a month situation and then you are not 100% for a while. Just hope he is ok and starts the season healthy.

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I pulled both of my calf muscles in my early 20s.. It took about 2 weeks to heal up. I'm not sure my situation was either.

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Originally Posted by diehardtwinsfan

I pulled both of my calf muscles in my early 20s.. It took about 2 weeks to heal up. I'm not sure my situation was either.

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Dancing in heels is a bitch, isn't it?