DiFelice has shoulder surgery, will probably miss 2010 season

[battlekow]

Haudricourt:

Brewers RHP Mark DiFelice has shoulder surgery to repair torn labrum and rotator cuff. Not a good omen for the 2010 season.

[Oldcity]

Brutal. When he was healthy he was a great setup guy. The Brewers' pitching situation is looking worse and worse.

[sheethead]

I was pretty much expecting this. I wonder if his new pitch ruined his shoulder.

[jwill535]

Well throwing as hard as he does, he was on borrowed time before he blew out the shoulder.

[trwi7]

DiFelice likely out for the 2010 season.

[hawing]

Dang. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/frown.gif

On a less essential note, who will cut the Brewers' hair now?

[JoeHova]

arrggh! That's terrible news. I feel really bad for Mark, he finally got his chance and now his career is in jeopardy. Hope to see him in 2011 but those are tough injuries to come back from.

[thebruce44]

I was pretty much expecting this. I wonder if his new pitch ruined his shoulder.

Isn't a cut fastball easy on the shoulder? I suspect that it was the increased workload that got him. It seems like sometimes it is just bad luck also.

[jwill535]

A cut fastball is the same as regular fastball just with a different finger placement

[Invader3K]

Well, Melvin has shown a knack for finding serviceable scrap heap relievers, so I'm not going to worry too much at this point.

[Teatoe993]

How come this wasn't addressed in October?

[sheethead]

I was pretty much expecting this. I wonder if his new pitch ruined his shoulder.

Isn't a cut fastball easy on the shoulder? I suspect that it was the increased workload that got him. It seems like sometimes it is just bad luck also.

I'm not sure that any pitch is easy on the shoulder, but I would go with increased workload and bad luck. Good points.

[Funketown]

Definitely not good news for the crew. I know I'll miss my favorite ROOGY.

[Gobias Industries]

Damn. It's always nice to see a guy come up and do well after he was thought to be organizational fodder. What terrible luck. It will be tough for him to make it back.

[jerichoholicninja]

Any chance we get Lindstrom?

[areacodes]

How come this wasn't addressed in October?

From the story on the pursuit of Wolf from Haudricourt:

DiFelice began experiencing discomfort in the shoulder in August and eventually was placed on the disabled list in September. An MRI revealed no significant damage and both Raasch and Los Angeles specialist Lewis Yocum recommended that DiFelice undergo physical therapy.

When the shoulder failed to come around, DiFelice requested an arthrogram, which revealed the tears.

"I don't think the timetable mattered as to having the surgery now or right after the season," said DiFelice. "The damage was extensive enough that I'm probably going to miss all of next year."

 

 

They'll obviously non-tender him and it appears that they have interest in signing him to a minor league deal a la Capuano according to Ash, via TH's blog.

Ash said the Brewers might re-sign DiFelice to a minor-league deal and see if he can bounce back from the surgery after 2010.

"We'll entertain something like that," said Ash. "We have the obligation to rehab him anyway."

 

[TooLiveBrew]

Why did the patient have to find the proper method of diagnosis? That's really troubling to me.

 

This obviously stinks, but I guess at least it wasn't a SP.

[pretendastronaut]

I really feel bad for DeFelice. I really liked his story and was happy to see him finding success finally.

[JohnBriggs12]

All the more reason to make a serious effort to bring back Claudio Vargas.

[Thurston Fluff]

He was a starter in the minors and already had major surgery before he added the cutter so I don't think it was workload or new pitch related. I think it was just wear and tear. I feel bad for him but even if his career is over he did get a chance to play in the majors for a full season and was successful. Granted he wants more but given his history his is still a wonderful story of perseverance and success.

[endaround]

Kind of crappy the Brewers are nontendering him. It won't save much money but it will kill DiFelice's pension (service time for FA isn't a real issue here)

[mletto157]

It is pretty concerning to me that he had to request the arthogram himself. I am having an arthogram on my shoulder in a couple weeks and the physician that I saw said if you're going to do an MRI on the shoulder that you should always do an arthogram (inject dye before the MRI) - because otherwise you can't really see what's going on with the tendons in the shoulder. I don't really understand why they wouldn't do that in the first place for DiFelice.

[TooLiveBrew]

I've been reluctant in the past to cry 'foul' at the Brewers' medical processes/personnel, but I think I'm starting to feel more & more like the team needs to make a change there.

[battlekow]

The Brewers re-signed DiFelice to a minor league deal. Has to be for more than one year, right? No point in signing him for just one year since he won't pitch and they're already on the hook for his rehab costs.

[battlekow]

Has to be for more than one year, right?

I guess not.