Behind the Fence: Minor Leaguers on the Backfields 3/4-3/5

[Bob Sacamento]

On Friday, the major league club had a scheduled game at 1pm in Bradenton, the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and because of that the team bus left Fort Myers around 930am. In most cases, this being one of them, most of the MLB players DO NOT make the bus trips to visiting teams. I believe the MLB rule is 4 MLBers must be on the roster for visiting games and most teams take that to heart by sending only four players. The rest of the team didn't take to the field til about 10am and it was apparent that the Twins bus ride didn't contain many MLB caliber guys as Buxton, Sano, Rosario, Dozier, Plouffe, Park, Mauer, and Suzuki appeared from the locker room to take the field.

 

 

Practices like these are usually very abbreviated with less structure, giving the players more free time to converse with each other and fans. As the players took to the field, they started with light jogging warmups and soft tossing before they started their hitting, fielding, and base running practice. The first group to the batting cages were Plouffe, Park and Mauer while Sano, Buxton, and Rosario worked on reads and running down balls in the outfield. Afterwards, they the trio came back to the dugout where Sano could be seen and heard complaining about his right foot. Now it could have been nothing but from my own medical background and personal experience, the area that was bothersome looked to be the plantar fascia which is an issue no one wants just ask Albert Pujols.

 

 

 

Park said through his translator he was trying to work on his follow thru, thus swinging at the tee with his backhand solely on the bat. Whatever he seemed to be doing worked out as he hit a grandslam in his next at bat the next day.

 

 

All while this is going on at or near Hammond Stadium, Field 2, 3, and 4 were being used by the lower level minor leaguers whom were mostly all in town despite their report date not being til the 8th. Players of note were Nick Gordon, Stephen Gonsalves, Kohl Stewart (hair about shoulder length), and many others. I can tell you first hand that Nick Gordon spent ALOT of time in the weight room this offseason in Orlando and it looks like it has paid off as the SS has added at least 10 pounds of muscle.

 

 

Even with the added pounds, Gordon still moves extremely well at SS making a few nice picks and throws. Here are the official Workout Groups for the Minors, Group 1 is the AA squad, Group 2 is High A, Group 3 is Low A, and Group 4 is E-town/GCL. None of it is written in stone as guys in MLB camp get sent down but it gives one a good idea what the organization is thinking about slotting which player and where. I didn't see any big surprises. The minor leaguers start playing real games the 16th but start facing each other the 13th.

(Full Roster and Schedule coming up later this evening upon scan)

Til next weekend!

[scottz]

 

 

Afterwards, they the trio came back to the dugout where Sano could be seen and heard complaining about his right foot. Now it could have been nothing but from my own medical background and personal experience, the area that was bothersome looked to be the plantar fascia which is an issue no one wants just ask Albert Pujols.

 

Now knock it off, Bob. Put that plantar fascia talk in your pipe and smoke it.

 

 

[scottz]

Also, thanks for the post. Fun read.

 

Other than that plantar fascia talk. That should be in the pipe, burning.

[Bob Sacamento]

 

 

 

 

Now knock it off, Bob. Put that plantar fascia talk in your pipe and smoke it.

 

 

LOL, like I said probably nothing. I only reported it because in all my years of going to spring training, gcl, extended spring, instructs, I've never seen a player (minor or majors) take just a shoe off and start vigorously massaging the bottom of their foot....just saying

[Thrylos]

 

 Sano could be seen and heard complaining about his right foot. Now it could have been nothing but from my own medical background and personal experience, the area that was bothersome looked to be the plantar fascia which is an issue no one wants just ask Albert Pujols.

 

if where his fingers are is where he is hurting, it is not likely plantar fasciitis.  Heel spurs (another name for plantar fasciitis) hurt at the arch end towards the heel.   This looks like in the toe base area.  Maybe he just needs different cleats

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xSgImaimFm8/UYE8iB_DxuI/AAAAAAAAAjo/3ne-wEV9pFQ/s1600/Plantar-Fasciitis%5B1%5D.jpg

[Bob Sacamento]

 

if where his fingers are is where he is hurting, it is not likely plantar fasciitis.  Heel spurs (another name for plantar fasciitis) hurt at the arch end towards the heel.   This looks like in the toe base area.  Maybe he just needs different cleats

 

 

That's just where the camera snapped with the best picture of his face  The trainer is sitting by him.   As a Doctor who works with plantar fasciitis, I know the symptoms when I see it.  Like I said could be nothing, but he was rubbing the length of the fascia and the metatarsal heads as well as dorsiflexing his foot and extending toes which is the hallmark stretch for the plantar fascia.  It could be a one time thing but it's usually not as it takes awhile to irritate. In my clinical experience, the biggest culprit usually is when a patient starts to run especially if it isn't done incrementally.  Sound like a plausible scenario for our career infielder Sano who's not accustomed to running as much as he has been in the outfield....just saying something to look out for and I'm sure the trainer is on it.

 

And heel spurs are NOT synonymous with plantar fasciitis, it often leads to plantar fasciitis but the two are not the same

[Broker]

Maybe his foot just itches.

[Thrylos]

 

 he was rubbing the length of the fascia and the metatarsal heads as well as dorsiflexing his foot and extending toes which is the hallmark stretch for the plantar fascia. 

 

Dorslifexing one's foot is the hallmark stretch one needs to do to get rid of a gastrocnemious muscle cramp as well  

 

Back in the day the tell-tell sign of Plantar fasciatis was pain after periods of inactivity, like hard time walking when waking up.  Also, pain that was relieved when you did the roller stress test (get a solid cylindrical object -like a bat- and have the patient place it under their arch and roll back and forth).  If pain went away very likely was plantal fasciatis.  The other thing a trainer (or an MD) would do is to put pressure with a thumb or a finger at the area of the red stuff up in that foot.  If pain went away, it is plantar fasciatis.  These days I suspect they might even use MRIs to diagnose it, but that's after my time practicing. 

 

Seriously. Look at where those cleats are.  And that looks like a brand new pair of shoes. Miguel is likely having a shoe breaking in issue, or something of that sort

 

(and yeah heel spur is technically a calcium deposit that can lead to PF, but non-technically they are  synonymous)

[Bob Sacamento]

 

[Bob Sacamento]

 

Dorslifexing one's foot is the hallmark stretch one needs to do to get rid of a gastrocnemious muscle cramp as well

 

Back in the day the tell-tell sign of Plantar fasciatis was pain after periods of inactivity, like hard time walking when waking up.  Also, pain that was relieved when you did the roller stress test (get a solid cylindrical object -like a bat- and have the patient place it under their arch and roll back and forth).  If pain went away very likely was plantal fasciatis.  The other thing a trainer (or an MD) would do is to put pressure with a thumb or a finger at the area of the red stuff up in that foot.  If pain went away, it is plantar fasciatis.  These days I suspect they might even use MRIs to diagnose it, but that's after my time practicing. 

 

Seriously. Look at where those cleats are.  And that looks like a brand new pair of shoes. Miguel is likely having a shoe breaking in issue, or something of that sort

 

(and yeah heel spur is technically a calcium deposit that can lead to PF, but non-technically they are  synonymous)

Yes dorsiflexing is a great stretch for gastros but dorsiflexing AND extending the toes is the hallmark stretch for the plantar fascia, hell I sell sleep boots for it! Here's an example

 

http://www.braceshop.com/media/catalog/product/cache/2/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/images_swedeo/base/fxt1.jpg

 

Yes, pain after inactivity and waking up are signs for it, but a young physically active person taking one 's shoe off, massaging, tapping and stretching the fascia after activity is another.

 

As for the cleats, being the issue, so whats good about the left shoe and not the right shoe?  Is that left shoe broken in quicker than the right?

 

And NO heel spurs ARE NOT the same as Plantar Fasciitis!!  A spur in the heel is an osteophyte formation, it is formed out of repetitive stress and bone reaction formation.  I've xrayed 100s of feet in my lifetime, and many have heel spurs with no symptoms.  

 

I'll tell ya what, when I see him on Friday, I'll ask.

[scottz]

 

I'll tell ya what, when I see him on Friday, I'll ask.

 

That sounds good. And if he responds with anything that rhymes with "canter mashia", tell him to shove it in his pipe.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

This is not the type of information I came to this thread to read!

[Bob Sacamento]

 

This is not the type of information I came to this thread to read!

Well...how about that Nick Gordon!!  Kid gets knocked all 2015 for his size, lack of power, and slow start; uses it as motivation in the offseason by putting on 10 pounds of muscle---I'm looking for 2016 to be Nick Gordon's coming out party.

[Willihammer]

No offense Bob but if it turns out you've diagnosed plantar fasciitis on Sano before the Twins medical staff does, I might have a stroke.

Really worried about what Sano is going to tell you Friday.

[gunnarthor]

Bob, if Sano starts the season on the DL we are all blaming you.  

 

And then we'll kill you.  

[alarp33]

If the Twins were concerned Sano had plantar fasciitis he would not be playing RF back to back days. 

[Willihammer]

 

If the Twins were concerned Sano had plantar fasciitis he would not be playing RF back to back days. 

You might even not put him in the outfield in the first place, if you had that concern.

[Bob Sacamento]

 

No offense Bob but if it turns out you've diagnosed plantar fasciitis on Sano before the Twins medical staff does, I might have a stroke.

Really worried about what Sano is going to tell you Friday.

I'll tell you what Alan Rail (Miracle trainer) told me last year, "You only know what you know unless you see if happen first hand....  You can't make the player tell you they're hurting....  These kids will keep playing until you stop them or worse."  Rail used an example lets call him Player X who hurt himself in in-game action and if Alan didn't see the mechanism for injury, the player wouldn't have been pulled from the game because he wasn't saying anything and he didn't want the "soft" tag to get labeled on him.  Needless to say, Rail made the right call for the team, the player, and the future.

[Craig Arko]

Sano hit his first spring homer today, and threw out a runner from right field. Presumably he was not crawling while he did these things?

[Bob Sacamento]

 

 

Really worried about what Sano is going to tell you Friday.

"Caliente del pie" = hot foot

[jsteve96]

 

 

Jean Carlos Arias not in florida? damn it i was really hoping he'd be with the GCL team...

[Platoon]

That's just where the camera snapped with the best picture of his face  The trainer is sitting by him.   As a Doctor who works with plantar fasciitis, I know the symptoms when I see it.  Like I said could be nothing, but he was rubbing the length of the fascia and the metatarsal heads as well as dorsiflexing his foot and extending toes which is the hallmark stretch for the plantar fascia.  It could be a one time thing but it's usually not as it takes awhile to irritate. In my clinical experience, the biggest culprit usually is when a patient starts to run especially if it isn't done incrementally.  Sound like a plausible scenario for our career infielder Sano who's not accustomed to running as much as he has been in the outfield....just saying something to look out for and I'm sure the trainer is on it.

 

And heel spurs are NOT synonymous with plantar fasciitis, it often leads to plantar fasciitis but the two are not the same

I don't think I have ever dorsiflexed anything?