April 23, 2006

Eric Milton to Have Surgery

Marc says:

Early word this morning that Eric Milton will have arthroscopic surgery tomorrow to “debride the meniscus in his left knee,” according to the Reds. Doc Kremchek will do the deed, of course. The injury apparently was revealed in an MRI taken last night.

I'm no orthopedist, but based solely on the definition of “debridement” from dictionary.com, it sounds like what Milton is having done is similar to what LaRue had done. In LaRue's case, the cartiledge was torn and they trimmed off the tear so it wouldn't be flapping around and tearing more. In Milton's case, a piece of cartiledge has already torn off and is floating around.

If it is a similar procedure, then I expect the out time will be similar: two weeks more than the original estimate.

Marc goes on to guess that Darrell May will be called up to take his place. Darrell May is someone I have never heard of, so I checked the RLN Organizational Depth Chart and see that he's the first pitcher listed at Louisville who isn't on the 40-man. His ESPN player card isn't at all helpful explaining when he came to the Reds, as the last story about him implies he was sent to the Yankees. Thank you, ESPN.

What crappy timing. We need the Good Eric Milton all season if we are to have any hope for 2006. How amazing to think that I'd be upset that Milton couldn't pitch. Last year I was praying for something like this.

Silver-lining time: maybe May will turn out to be freakin' awesome. Or maybe the continued pitching woes will inspire our front office to make some pitching moves.

UPDATE: In fact, we'll be seeing Elizardo Ramirez starting tomorrow against the Nationals. He came up for a spot start last May against the Indians and it prompted me to post this, but I have higher hope this time around.

7 comments to “Eric Milton to Have Surgery”

  1. smartelf says:

    Well Paul Wilson is re-habbing so he could take Milton’s place eventually… but in the short term I’d look at Matt Belisle based on his last outing. Then May can do long relief. Or maybe trade laRue for another pitcher, or at least some good AAA pitching prospects.

  2. KC2HMZ says:

    Kriv-dawg signed May to a minor league contract on April 1.

    Prior to this he’s been with the Braves, Pirates, Angels, Royals, Padres, and Yankees. His best season was probably his 10-8, 3.77 with KC in 2003. His worst was probably 2004 when he lost 19 games for the Royals and was second in the AL in home runs allowed.

    HMZ (John)

  3. Red Hot Mama says:

    Oh boy, another HR pitcher.

  4. smartelf says:

    Supposedly “Easy” Ramirez hasn’t walked a batter yet this season, so that is a good sign. Additionally, RFK is damn hard to hit a home run at, and Livan Hernandez has been struggling thus far… so I think we can pull it off. Hopefully Belisle takes the next turn though because I doubt Ramirez is ready for the big time.

  5. KC2HMZ says:

    Tonight, Ramirez got his first major league win, his first major league hit, and he did give up a walk, but only one in seven-plus innings.

    That’s only one game, and against the Nationals at that. But he looked like a totally different pitcher from the guy who was here for part of last season and sucked. He retired 12 in a row at one point. Of the six hits he gave up, five were singles.

    It was enough to make it worth giving him another start to see if he can keep it up. He looked better tonight than Williams has all season.

    HMZ

  6. smartelf says:

    He was pretty god damn impressive.

  7. Red Hot Mama says:

    I agree. After a pleasant surprise from the new kid and a not-horrible outing from our number 5, I’m totally afraid Arroyo is going to give it up this afternoon against Ramón.

    That must be some kind of neurosis that comes from being a Reds fan.