Mood Music - Third Stone From the Sun by Jimi Hendrix
As of this moment, the severity of the hamstring strain suffered by New York Yankees starting pitcher Bartolo Colon remains unknown. These types of injuries can range from very minor to very severe, making it hard to know exactly where Colon falls on that spectrum or predict the time that it will take to get him back on the mound. As he walked off the field under his own power, I'm holding out hope that he got off relatively easily. Here's Girardi (link):
I don't think we'll really know until tomorrow. He just kind of stretched his lower hamstring, and I think we'll have a better idea what we're dealing with tomorrow.
When more comes out, we'll let you know, as Colon's health and recovery may prove to be hugely important to the Yankees. In other news, it appears that with Russell Martin inching towards a return, there is no immediate plan to change the catching situation. With Martin nicked up, the entirety of the catching duty has fallen on Francisco Cervelli. Girardi again:
I don't really worry about Cervy catching six or seven days in a row. He's a young kid, and [it] used to be done all the time. So I don't think it's going to be six or seven days, I really don't. But if it is, we're OK, and I would catch Cervy. I don't have a problem doing that.
I'm really hoping that Girardi is just posturing to show support of his player and I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. As I'm not the manager, I won't do any posturing: There is no excuse for Francisco Cervelli being an everyday catcher. He's hitting a paltry .220/.283/.341 this season, good for a 78 wRC+ and -0.1 WAR. His defense seems to get worse every game, with roughly 95% of his throws being fielded by Curtis Granderson.
If Russell Martin needs to miss some time and recover from injury (which, given his injury history and current status seems very likely), Cervelli is simply not the answer to step in to a starting job. All of my posts are going to end with this until it actually happens:
Call up Jesus Montero.