March 26, 2006
LaRue to miss 10-14 days with knee surgery.
By
Geki
Posted at 11:25 pm
Looks like the Latin Love Machine is gonna be our opening day starter at catcher. LaRue apparently tore his meniscus, though it's not entirely clear when he did so. While it seems to be minor surgery right now, knee problems in a catcher are never a good thing. I don't think he'll start the season on the DL if he'll be out for only 4 or 5 games, but this does mean David Ross is almost assured of being on the roster opening day.
Yea very ironic how that worked out.. supposedly the injury just happened, so it was extremely fortuitous we grabbed D. Ross when we did. Quite frankly I’d like to see Valentin get way more at-bats then he did last year. His offensive numbers were nothing less than phenominal and he deserves more playing time. No reason for LaRue to rush back to action, no matter how tough he is… like you say, the knees can be problematic for a catcher. Anyhow, if Valentin explodes out of the gate, like we all know he is capable of, he very well may end up with the bulk of the catching load this year.
You can tear your meniscus about any time and not necessarily even realize that you’ve done it until the little piece of cartilidge floats into some place where it causes pain or inhibits joint movement. He might have done it fishin’ or ropin’ cattle or whatever he does in the offseason.
It *is* kind of suspicious about how they happen to pick up another catcher and then LaRue needs his knew scoped. Maybe the team wanted to keep it quiet to maintain their position of strength with catchers. Or maybe he just now brought it up to make him less likely to be traded. Or maybe it’s the baseball gods at work. Perhaps LaRue’s presence on the Reds is the doing of a divine being!
Or a coincidence. Whatever.