Reds cautious on how to handle Griffey injury

[CincyRedsFan30]

Reds cautious on how to handle Griffey injury

By Hal McCoy

Dayton Daily News

CINCINNATI | — The dilemma on Ken Griffey Jr.'s partially torn foot tendon is to let him see if he can tape it and play some games the rest of the season or to shut him down the rest of the season and hope it heals.

Griffey is running and is taking batting practice and said before Thursday's game, "See you in a couple of days when I'm taped up and out there running. As soon as I feel I can do what I want to do, I'll be out there."

The club is calling the injury a sprain, but trainer Mark Mann said, "It is inflamed tissue and can be associated with a tear, a tearing of tissue. Yes, there is tearing to some degree."

Griffey tore a tendon from his foot two years ago and it was re-attached and Mann said, "That tendon is intact, but an MRI showed some inflammation in that area."

Manager Jerry Narron is the one faced with the dilemma, because Griffey wants to play.

"We'll probably play him in some games to see how it is," he said. "The problem is that if we let it go the rest of the year and wait for spring training and we find he needs to get it fixed we lose him for a long period of time at the start of next season."

Mann said it is premature to make determinations.

"We don't know how things might progress in two days," he said. "He's running 60 to 70 percent, but we need to see how he reacts to changes of direction."

Will Dunn bunt?

The Milwaukee Brewers employ the exaggerated shift on Adam Dunn, moving the shortstop to the right side of the infield, leaving the third baseman covering the entire left side from the shortstop position.

When Dunn came to bat in the third with one out and two runners on, he shortened to bunt on the first pitch — and it looked ugly.

"I had too much pine tar on my bat and when I started to slide my hand up the bat it stuck, wouldn't move," said Dunn. "I wasn't going to bunt there, I was just showing it, making them think I might. I wouldn't bunt with runners on base. Maybe I might with no outs and nobody on base. And, hey, I'm the best bunter on the team."

Freel's importance

Ryan Freel came off the disabled list and directly into Narron's lineup for several reasons.

"He has been on the DL almost for more days than he has been able to play (45 days on the DL, 79 games played," said Narron. "We need to get him out there as much as possible to get him back in playing shape.

"We've missed him the last couple of months because he is so aggressive and makes things happen," Narron added. "Like the night he stole five bases in LA and won the game by himself. Nobody else on our team can do that.

"Plus he plays so many positions and plays them well, it gives us a chance to rest people," Narron added.

Freel played second base Tuesday, enabling Rich Aurilia to play third and Edwin Encarnacion to rest. Freel played left field Wednesday, enabling Adam Dunn to play first and Sean Casey to rest.

The other Ryan

Remember Ryan Wagner? He hopes the Reds remember him.

Wagner has been on the disabled list since July 15 with a right shoulder problem, "But I've been doing the same thing I've done for several weeks now — throwing 50-pitch bullpens every other day. I threw my slider the last two times and it was good," he said.

Asked if he'll pitch again this year, Wagner said, "I want to, but they haven't told me a thing."

[Providence A's]

Why risk it? They've got nothing to play for besides pride I guess.

[Wally Mo Pena]

i suffered the same injury that it sounds like griffey has last year, the sprain with a tear.

Granted i don't have a team of trainers telling me the right thing to do with excersise everyday, but i didn't have the surgery because i didn't want to be out of comission for a few months, and now, nine months later, i'm still not moving at 100%.

I'm all for griffey playing as many games as he can for the end of this season, just to see how much he can make of his resurgence, and let all of his fans see him as much as possible. But my advise (and i'm no doctor) would be for Griffey to have the surgery as soon as possible after the season. Narron is right to be concerned about the beginning of next season.

[Geki Ace]

Yeah, I don't see why Griffey couldn't just have surgery right after the season.