"Are you injured or are you hurt?" is one of those alpha sports phrases that aims to inspire a hobbled body to rise above pain.
Miguel Cabrera's body has embodied this. He's been hurt most of the time over the last several years, but he'd still averaged 143 games a season over the first four seasons of his 30s. He's also batted .314/.395/.536 over that stretch, showing that he could still hit at 80 percent. The missing 20 percent just stole from his defensive and baserunning capabilities.
But Cabrera was more on the "injured" side of the spectrum in 2017, posting a below-average OPS for the first time in his career and missing 32 games. Entering Tuesday, his performance in 2018 rebounded (.299/.395/.448), but his health hadn't. He'd appeared in just 37 of the Tigers' first 67 games due to hamstring issues.
In his 38th -- and final -- game of the year on Tuesday, a different part did in him. He ruptured his left biceps tendon on a swing, and given the pain he'd played through, you knew it had to be bad when he simply dropped the bat and walked to the clubhouse.
Cabrera still has five years and $162 million left on his deal, which pays him $30 million annually through 2021, and $32 million the two years after that, with an $8 million buyout for a club option afterward.
Spare parts
Jose Abreu stands a decent chance at becoming the first White Sox position player to be named an All-Star starter since Frank Thomas in 1996. He leads Mitch Moreland by 26,000 votes at first base.
Teddy Greenstein was the one who asked Rick Renteria if they had thoughts about sending Lucas Giolito down during his mostly maddening 2018 season, and this is why.
Carson Fulmer's story arc runs alongside Giolito's as a pitcher who struggled a little worse, and who the White Sox have returned to the minors multiple times. Rick Hahn finally floated the idea of the bullpen in a way that gave it more gravity.
“We’ve told you before that we’ve tried to accumulate as much potential front-of-the-rotation talent and that ultimately there’s probably not going to be room at the end for everyone who is capable of being in a big league rotation and some of those will play a role in bullpens,” Hahn said. “It’s possible in our view of him as a starter or not, it’s possible Carson is one of those guys who winds up being a dominant reliever, but for now we’re going to continue to give him opportunities to pitch in the rotation in Charlotte.”
The White Sox scouting director spins some yarns about draft night. He admits up top that somebody in his position is always going to express confidence about his draft, but he mentioned the need to take chances with high school players later in the interview.
I made up that headine because not one story quite sums it up, but Haniger and Trout both homered twice, and they both made incredible defensive plays. Trout made a leaping catch at the wall, and Haniger gunned down a runner at second (with assistance from a slick tag by Jean Segura).
And finally, thanks to Jed for making everybody aware of this video from a couple years ago, in which Noah Syndergaard gets ejected for throwing at Chase Utley, and Terry Collins goes nuts for not getting a chance to avenge Utley's dirty slide in the postseason the year before.
https://twitter.com/TigersJUK/status/1006699315912495104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sbnation.com%2Flookit%2F2018%2F6%2F13%2F17458160%2Fterry-collins-mic-video-mets-ejection-video
It's fun to hear the politics underneath the decision, and the desperation in Collins' plea is a surprisingly affecting ("You gotta give us a shot!") considering his pitcher tried to commit assault with a fastball.
