Riske Business

[love_that_reefer]

The odds of reliever David Riske pitching again for the Milwaukee Brewers this season are not good. In fact, there's a possibility he won't pitch for the Brewers again, period. The second opinion Riske sought on his ailing elbow from Los Angeles specialist Lewis Yocum confirmed the diagnosis by team physician William Raasch. There is laxity, or looseness, in the ulnar collateral ligament, a very bad thing for a pitcher. Riske will try to strengthen the elbow with three to four weeks of physical therapy. If that fails, Riske will undergo "Tommy John" surgery to replace the ligament with a transplanted tendon. Pitchers who undergo that procedure normally need at least a year of recovery time before returning to action. Riske, who signed a three-year, $13 million free agent contract prior to the 2008 season, had surgery to remove a bone spur in the elbow last September. As it turned out, that spur prevented the laxity in the ligament from being symptomatic.

Good lord! The bullpen troubles just keep piling on for the Brewers. Terrible luck with Riske as he was one of the better relievers when they signed him. Brewers need to start looking at guys like Mike MacDougal and Luis Vizcaino where were just DFA'd by their teams.

[Hardy Blonde]

Actually Riske wasn't very good last season. So I don't think it would have hurt our team any.