Giants just announced the Lowry is having surgery to remove the first rib on his left side, because of symptoms from “thoracic outlet syndrome.” You’ll recall, Lowry had surgery on his forearm back in March 2008 because of a condition in which the sheath surrounding his muscle was compressing his nerve. They said it was a relatively minor, albeit unusual, thing, and Lowry would be back by late April.
He hasn’t pitched since.
At this point, the Giants can’t really be expecting anything out of Lowry. If he ever pitches again, it will be a nice comeback story.
(UPDATE: There’s a new wrinkle here. Lowry’s agent tells ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick that the Giants misdiagnosed Lowry initially, and have been treating him for the wrong thing for nearly two years.)
Nate Schierholtz is not playing tonight because he’s got a bruised rib from colliding with Aaron Rowand yesterday. He could pinch-hit tonight, and he might be back to 100 percent within a day or two.
Sergio Romo is throwing tonight for San Jose, and he’s going to make five or six more outings before he’ll be ready to be activated.
Andres Torres is going to start his rehab assignment for San Jose tomorrow. He’ll get about 30 to 40 at-bats.
Bruce Bochy discussed what’s been wrong with Jonathan Sanchez, who is pitching tonight. He said Sanchez “looks like he’s lost some concentration. (Pitching coach Dave Righetti) has talked to him about it frequently… It might be frustration, but you’ve got to keep fighting out there.”
OK, now onto something new. I’m always looking for new cool ways to make my blog different. If I can use gadgets on my iPhone, even better. I’ve discovered AudioBoo, which is like Twitter, only you record audio clips and post them. It’s lacking some features because it’s brand new, but it’s still cool.
So here is an interview I recorded just moments ago with Andy Baggarly of the Mercury News. Since Baggs is the Baseball America guy and knower of all things about the Giants farm system, we talked about the Giants top prospects. (Mobile users try this.)
A while back I asked you if you were ready to believe in Barry Zito, and mostly you weren’t. Well, you’ll be interested in this from a story I just wrote for FanHouse about Zito’s resurgence…
“Barry is back,” a major league scout said. “He’s pretty close to what he was. I’d say he’s 80 percent of what he was, at least. He’s got his velocity back. He’s not back to 2002, when he won the Cy Young, but he’s a competitive, championship-level pitcher again.”
That’s not me. That’s a major league advance scout who has seen a lot of Zito over the years.
Click the link above to read about how Zito got back to where he is.
It’s funny to look back at spring training and remember that we actually believed (well, some folks did) that Eric Chavez really was going to be healthy, or relatively healthy, this year.
He’s on the DL with an elbow problem, but it turns out his rehab has now been slowed by a back problem.
There’s really not much else to say about it at this point. I’m officially calling Chavez, in the immortal words of of Ken Macha, a “non-entity.” Wake me up when he plays 10 games in a row.
Steve Young showed up at the Coliseum tonight. He’s apparently pals with Blue Jays first baseman/DH Kevin Millar. Young shagged some flies and took some BP. I was impressed the way he went about his BP. He actually started by laying down a bunt, just like the real players. When he was done, he went and picked up the balls. He mixed in with a regular hitting group. He did manage to break a bat during BP.
“It was OK,” he said. “I didn’t strike out.”
Hall of Fame QB swings lefty, just like he threw
Toronto manager Cito Gaston gives Young some hitting tips.
