Howie Kendrick Among the Dodger’s Walking Wounded

Brandon McCarthy, Hyun-jin Ryu, Yasiel Puig, Carl Crawford, Scott Van Slyke, Paco Rodriguez, Pedro Baez, Brandon League, Kenley Jansen, and now Howie Kendrick. Those are the names of the ever growing list of Dodgers that are hurt or have been on the disabled list. Or that are currently on the disabled list. You can add Howie Kendrick to this list.

Kendrick injured his knee sliding into third base in the Wednesday night series finale against Colorado at Coors Field in Denver. As usual the Dodgers said nothing about the injury to the media. Kendrick was taken out of the game, and was not in the starting lineup on Thursday evening when the club returned home to play the Cardinals.

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Kendrick received an MRI on the ailing right knee and the good news is there was no structural damage. His knee is just sore. The bad news is we have no idea when he’ll return to the lineup. Don Mattingly gave his usual wishy washy response. Basically they’ll see how he feels on Friday. Which normally means that he’s going on the DL any day now. Who knows which bum gets called up in his place if he does.

Right now the Dodgers are a club that have the following players on their Major League roster, Chris Heisey, Alberto Callaspo, Daniel Coulombe, Josh Ravin, Carlos Frias, and Enrique Hernandez. That’s like a triple-A club. I like Kike, and Frias, and I think they’ve done a commendable job. Those guys aren’t the point. The point is every season half of the roster is on the DL by June. Crawford gets hurt, Puig gets hurt, now even the reserves are getting hurt. Nobody can stay healthy, and nobody can figure out an answer as to why. 

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Maybe the Dodgers should take a deeper look into the medical staff? Or maybe the Dodgers should take a deeper look into if the players are making an attempt to prevent injuries? Would preventative maintenance make a difference? I don’t know. There has to be some kind of solution. Maybe there is no solution. Maybe I’m just frustrated. Yes that’s it, I am frustrated.

Because there is no way the Dodgers can continue to be in first place with half of the active roster on the disabled list. Yes I understand injuries are a reality, and part of the game. Every club has injuries. But this is getting ridiculous. Perhaps making the medical staff partially accountable could be a start to figuring this all out. (END RANT)

Now that my rant is out of the way, expect Kendrick to be out of the lineup again on Friday night. Kendrick is batting .285 with 5 home runs, and 23 runs batted in while playing in 52 games for the Dodgers this season.

I am getting really sick of watching triple-A lineups every night. This is annoying. Figure it out Dodgers.