What Did The Rags Say

 



Will Carroll on Harvey rehab –

The next four to six weeks won't be a normal rehab for Matt Harvey and the Mets medical staff. For the most part, they will allow Harvey's arm to rest and for the ligament to heal while continuing to be monitored for any signs of change. That will likely include regular imaging, probably by ultrasound (which can look at the ligament in real time). One technique regularly used in cases like this is called platelet-rich plasma injections (or PRP). Recent research has indicated a good deal of success with precisely this kind of situation. In a research study from Kerlan-Jobe, led by the late Dr. Lewis Yocum, 88 percent of athletes had success in returning to play. (I'll admit, anecdotally this seems very high.) While the Mets did not say that Harvey had or will have PRP, it is a standard technique. In 2011 at the ASMI Injuries in Baseball course, Dr. James Andrews said he intended to use PRP in every case of elbow inflammation and elbow surgery that he performed, despite the lack of clinical studies to validate the use. Beyond PRP, Harvey will have a full complement of sports medicine modalities at the hands of both the team medical staff and the staff of Dr. Altchek at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1751189-10-things-you-need-to-know-about-matt-harveys-elbow-injury-and-recovery

 

John Harper on Harvey –

But then again, considering that Alderson said he was aware Harvey had been dealing with forearm tightness in recent weeks, it’s fair to wonder why the Mets didn’t act sooner. “Forearm tightness is usually the first sign of an elbow problem,” a former major league pitcher said by phone on Monday. “If he was getting treatment on it, I can’t believe they didn’t do an MRI earlier.” It also seemed curious that Terry Collins said he wasn’t aware Harvey had been getting treatment for the forearm tightness. Weren’t the Mets supposed to have solved the injury follies that haunted them in recent years? http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/harper-decision-wait-hurt-mets-article-1.1437917#ixzz2d9aGK5xM

 

Mike Vacarro –

“Everyone thinks good mechanics prevent arm injury,” tweeted former pitcher Mark Mulder, who himself saw his career derailed by his million-dollar left arm. “Doesn’t matter, people. Either you get lucky or you don’t.” Matt Harvey officially falls into that second category now, after spending so much of the past year in that rare place athletes always crave: at the top of their profession, on top of the world, young and invulnerable and bulletproof. Until you slide into an MRI tube one morning at the Hospital for Special Surgery, your arm achy but not wracked with pain, safe in your innocence and your naivete and your belief the doctors will find a little tendinitis, maybe suggest skipping a start or two. http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/mets/no_predicting_arm_woes_but_that_Ygw2q1aMCbol46eeQMFMbJ?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Mets

 

Scott Miller –

This isn't to say Harvey is doomed. Only a doctor reading the MRIs can say how Billingsley's tear compared to Harvey's. But Harvey was shocked at his MRI results, and Monday's news is especially sobering not only to the Mets – especially to the Mets -- but to all of those who have so enjoyed watching him pitch during his breakout season. Pitching, eventually, is a losing proposition. Almost always. You just hope the bad stuff stays away until a guy at least has a chance to establish himself. http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/writer/scott-miller/23334854/mets-matt-harvey-you-just-hope-the-bad-stuff-stays-away-from-young-pitchers

 

Adam Rubin -

So now what? Certainly resources that could have gone to bats during the offseason might need to be diverted to signing another starting pitcher. Or, perhaps, a young pitcher the Mets might have entertained trading for a bat now must be retained because of the potential loss of Harvey for the entire 2014 season.  According to J.B. Kurtz of ESPN Stats & Information, four pitchers since 2010 have landed on the disabled list with some type of UCL tear: Jose Contreras, Danny Duffy, Jorge De La Rosa and Stephen Strasburg. The quickest to return to major league action was Contreras. His absence: 11 months, 3 days. http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/76412/morning-briefing-harvey-day-of-reckoning 

 

 John Coppinger –

This is what we all get for having a little bit of hope. Many have had more than me, but I swear I was coming around. Now? A few people on the interwebs have mused that this injury will force the Mets into putting some money back into the product to improve the team. Bullshit. First off, nothing forces the nimrods in the owners box to do a damn thing. Second, what's to stop these guys from saying "Look, there's no Matt Harvey, the free agent class next year stinks, why not punt again?" We have plenty of recent history suggesting the Wilpons will take that route and none to suggest that they will actually try to improve the team significantly without Harvey in the mix. So you tell me how I should be optimistic next season. (And don't give me Anthony Recker, Matt den Dekker and Robert Carson coming up to the majors as reasons. I don't care unless John Buck and Marlon Byrd are traded for Clayton Kershaw.) http://www.metstradamusblog.com/2013-articles/august/the-audacity-of-hope.html

 

Ryan Lawrence –

As the Phillies dressed for batting practice, New York Mets All-Star righthander Matt Harvey was down the hall in a news conference room talking about an injury that would end his brilliant 2013 season and very likely take away his 2014, too. Harvey has a partial tear of lunar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow. Although Harvey plays for a division rival, Phillies coaches and players watched the Mets pitcher on TV screens in the visiting clubhouse and were disappointed with the news. "It sucks for the game," Michael Young said.  http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/20130827_Phillies_Notebook__Phillies_react_to_news_about_Mets__Harvey.html#CJuS6zx0jLTR5qKV.99

 

Joel Sherman -

Now we go through all the various stages of grieving and evaluating. We abandon our sense of modernity and ponder if the Mets are actually, of all things, hexed. We think about supernovas such as Mark Prior and mull just how nasty of a thing throwing a baseball hard is, and how it can turn genius to ex-genius with hardly a pause.

Harvey talked boldly about trying to avoid Tommy John surgery and the Mets left opened that possibility. But the vast majority of pitchers who incur a partial UCL tear need the scalpel and then the 12-14-month rehab phase. With the elbow as opposed to, say, Johan Santana’s shoulder, there is a well-prescribed roadmap back to full health, full ability and — particularly important in this case — full velocity.

But what goes slow — even when you have done everything as fast as Harvey — is the time. In this likely scenario, the Mets play 2014 without their most important player and the sport is deprived of hard, harder, hardest; our need for speed less fulfilled.

Poor kid. Poor Mets. Poor us.

Sadness.