General manager John Mozeliak said on Wednesday that Brendan Ryan has undergone arthroscopic surgery on his right wrist and will be limited at the start of Spring Training. Ryan is expected to be ready to play by Opening Day. "He went into the offseason thinking it would go away with rest, and it didn't," Mozeliak said. "He ended up having a very benign 'scope' done on his wrist. ... He'll be limited at the beginning of camp. He won't be swinging a bat for three weeks now."

It's always something with this medical staff.

Even I remember Ryan missing time in Aug/Sept last year ... you'd think the team AND it's new batting coach ... who Ryan has been working with for some time now ... would have been a little closer to this situation ... than BOOM !!!! .... SUPRISE!!!! ... cut and stitch.

The Card's med staff needs to switch to another brand of bandaids. Wait all offseason and have it done now ? I read where Ryan was working out with Mac, surely he could tell something wasn't right. Then, maybe he did and the med. staff botched another one. We have too many halfast medical problems for something not to be wrong with the staff. Our guys need gov. health care. But then, maybe that's what they have.

Mo sez Ryan should have brought it to their attention sooner and the story goes on to say,

Ryan appeared in 129 games last season while taking cortisone injections in the wrist.


I would think that in itself would be reason enough to suspect something wasn't the way it should have been. I'm starting to believe the teams medical policy is, Shake it off, it'll be better before your career is over.

It's up to Ryan to deal with it. This is on him, not the medical staff.

What in God's name does McGwire have to do with it? McGwire told him to get a second opinion because the ramped up the workouts and he felt discomfort. This isn't a big deal anyway. He'll be good in a couple weeks.

Yep, nothing to worry about. After all, Carp was good the first time, Rolen was good and Glaus came right back. With our track record, not hing to even be concerned about? I hope not. There's no way a fan can know the whole story but it does seem we have too many stories like this. they say Ryan was making progress working with Mac this off season, I hope this doesn't set him back.

Maybe the team should send out a detailed drawing of the body sometime around the end of the season and the first of every year and have the players put a mark on any part that hurts. Then it could be looked into

Gantz wrote:It's up to Ryan to deal with it. This is on him, not the medical staff.

What in God's name does McGwire have to do with it? McGwire told him to get a second opinion because the ramped up the workouts and he felt discomfort. This isn't a big deal anyway. He'll be good in a couple weeks.

I'm against you on this one, Gantz.

This smells just like the Rolen/Glaus fiasco we have had in the past.

Its the medical staff that give the injections (Unless your Big Mac ) and its also the medical staffs responsibility to report shortcomings to the coaches. I'm sure Mac just pointed out the obvious and told him to go get it checked after the discomfort.

This should have been handled in Dec 2009, NOT Feb 2010

Our Medical staff doesn't have the best track record and no amount of spin can spell it otherwise

It says in today's story that he hasn't been able to even do a push up for 4-5 years.

It also talks about the multiple cortisone shots ... and they didn't check it out further when the season was over?

I read yesterday that they were terming this a debridement or what I guess is a cleaning up of the wrist. I'm assuming this was something that was done because they had run an MRI to determine this needed to be done.

If the problem has been there for 4-5 years and a MRI is what it takes to diagnose the problem .... ????

Sure I'm speculating a bit but I doubt they'd just do exploratory surgery hoping to find something.

General manager John Mozeliak described the development as disappointing, adding that he did not learn of Ryan's persistent pain until last Thursday.

"I think everyone recognizes that this is not the best of timing," Mozeliak said. "But our understanding is that Brendan should be able to participate in spring training and be available for the start of the season."

The Cardinals admitted surprise at the rapid turn of events involving Ryan, which led him to consult with Shin on Friday.

"In a perfect world, Brendan would have brought this to our attention sooner," Mozeliak said. "I can understand how people feel their body will heal after rest. But he should have let our medical staff know."


Ryan did not indicate a problem with his wrist during last month's appearance at Cardinals Care Winter Warm-Up, but grew concerned when the problem worsened after he returned to California. McGwire eventually insisted Ryan get the wrist re-evaluated.

"It was like after the first couple swings I'd have to take the knife out of my wrist," Ryan said Wednesday. "The first 20-25 swings was pretty bad. It hurt. But then things started to ease up a little and I could continue. ... It just got worse and worse the last couple of weeks, so this wasn't even something we could discuss until recently."

Curveball76 wrote:

Gantz wrote:It's up to Ryan to deal with it. This is on him, not the medical staff.

What in God's name does McGwire have to do with it? McGwire told him to get a second opinion because the ramped up the workouts and he felt discomfort. This isn't a big deal anyway. He'll be good in a couple weeks.

I'm against you on this one, Gantz.

This smells just like the Rolen/Glaus fiasco we have had in the past.

Its the medical staff that give the injections (Unless your Big Mac ) and its also the medical staffs responsibility to report shortcomings to the coaches. I'm sure Mac just pointed out the obvious and told him to go get it checked after the discomfort.

This should have been handled in Dec 2009, NOT Feb 2010

Our Medical staff doesn't have the best track record and no amount of spin can spell it otherwise

I didn't say we have a great medical staff. I'm just saying that a nagging wrist injury with a long history should not be up to the medical staff to find. The staff doesn't do anything until Ryan says, "Hey, this isn't right. Do something about it." It's his fault for putting it off. He's a big boy, if he hasn't been able to do push ups for years then he should initiate some sort of medical procedure.

I understand that he's fighting to prove himself and was afraid to lose his job because of time missed. But if you need to fix an injury, fix it early so it doesn't turn into something more.

And it's not a big deal as far as surgeries go. The incision is about an inch long. It can't be compared to Carpenter, Glaus, or Rolen because their injuries were much worse.

He'll probably be fine, but how many other times have they said the same thing?

They are not to be trusted on medical issues.

One other point. They have a lot of money tied up in their players and when they know one has had a problem for some time, has had multiple cortisone shots, and missed playing time, they should have ordered what ever diagnostics that discovered the actual problem long ago.

Simple common sense.

And he should be able to do a minimum
of 50 push and pull ups, repetitively.

So how come he hasn't done it for 4 or
5 years, or ever?

But we'll know soon enough.

It's about 50 days till opening day.

BGCF wrote:He'll probably be fine, but how many other times have they said the same thing?

They are not to be trusted on medical issues.

One other point. They have a lot of money tied up in their players and when they know one has had a problem for some time, has had multiple cortisone shots, and missed playing time, they should have ordered what ever diagnostics that discovered the actual problem long ago.

Simple common sense.

You mean like Albert Pujols? Why doesn't anyone mention how well they handled Pujols. He managed to play well enough while he was hurt and they did his surgery at the correct time.

It's not like they're sabotaging our own players. We don't know what the story is. Fans from every team wonder this kind of thing with their medical staff. How do you think the Mets felt last year? Or how the Cubs feel every year?

Rolen had a serious injury. It doesn't mean it was handled any way that any other team would do it. Same with Carpenter and Glaus.

I'm thinking the problem is when guys like Lohse or Carp try to hard to get back early (or like Ryan try to hard to keep playing) and screw it up more. Is it the medical staff's fault? If one of these players say they can play, they're going to play.

And I'll say again, I'm not saying our staff is perfect and hasn't made any mistakes. But I think we're too quick to blame them instead of stubborn players.

I don't understand why these players wait until the last minute to do anything medical. I can see if the team docs said one thing but most people I know get second or third opinions and do whatever the majority said. What I'm afraid of and what I think is the players regardless of what team it is, is they believe the team docs are the end all and be all of the medical profession. I believe if I were a player and they all make good money and can afford to go outside that box. I'd seek a professional or 2 knowledgeable specifically in what ailed me. Are the players afraid of offending these guys or what?