Mysterious ailment puts Wilson on edge on eve of shoulder surgery

[missionhockey21]

Mysterious ailment puts Wilson on edge on eve of shoulder surgery

By Doug Harris

Dayton Daily News

CINCINNATI | Reds pitcher Paul Wilson despised the two major arm operations he's had so far, but those procedures were at least tolerable because he knew going in what was wrong.

He is scheduled for season-ending exploratory surgery on his shoulder today, and the mystery is practically unbearable.

The Reds' medical staff won't be able to tell Wilson why his arm feels like linguini until they open him up. But the right-hander has given the docs a succinct request.

"Whatever's broke, fix it," he said.

Wilson, who is 1-5 with a 7.77 ERA, had a torn labrum repaired in 1996 and Tommy John surgery in '99. He's been on the disabled list since May 25 and doesn't like being idle.

"It's the worst," he said. "Not only am I having surgery, but my season's done. And ball players have routines and do things to make sure we stay sane."

Wilson, who was 11-6 last year with a 4.36 ERA, emerged from spring training with no problems. But by the end of April, he was kaput.

He said he tried "everything known to man" to regain arm strength, including rest, rehab and cortisone shots, before agreeing to go under the knife.

"It's tough," he said. "This isn't helping the team and it isn't helping me, either. But it's the next step. I have to figure out what's going on."

Lopez hoping

Reds short stop Felipe Lopez is fighting the temptation to think about making the all-star team, but it's getting harder everyday.

The 24-year-old Lopez is batting .297 and leads National League short stops in homers (10), RBIs (36) and slugging percentage (.542). He also has made just three errors in 51 games.

"I have thought about it — it's getting close," Lopez said of the July 12 game. "But I'm just concentrating on playing day by day. If you start thinking about trying to do too much, the next thing you know you've developed bad habits."

Lopez went into the season just hoping to be a regular. The Reds acquired former San Francisco Giants star Rich Aurilia in the offseason and assumed he would become Barry Larkin's successor at short.

But while Aurilia has battled injuries, Lopez has thrived. And he's hoping Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, who picks the NL reserves, has been noticing.

"I think I have a pretty good chance," Lopez said. "We'll see."

Pena admits mistake

Wily Mo Pena knows he looked like a buffoon getting thrown out on a failed double attempt during Wednesday's blow-out. But he's not the first player to get victimized by the Green Monster.

Pena hit a laser to the left-field wall at Fenway Park, but the ball was returned to the infield quickly for a rally-killing out.

"In any other park, that's a double for sure," said Pena, who trotted to first before shifting into high gear. "I should have recognized the wall is closer there. I should have just stayed at first."

Pena went 1-for-10 with seven strikeouts in the sweep by the Red Sox, and dropped a fly ball in right that was generously ruled a hit.

Contact Doug Harris at 225-2125.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/sport...uth=%60N_NUObN[UbTTUWUXUTUZT[UaUWU^UbUZUbU%60UcTYWYWZV

[missionhockey21]

From BP:

Sometimes you just have to look. Paul Wilson will go under the knife so Dr. Tim Kremchek can take a look inside his shoulder to see what the process is. Kremchek feels that he needs to "get aggressive" with the shoulder, since the conservative rehab Wilson had been doing had produced no results. Many are speculating that Wilson has a torn labrum, but until the scope slides inside, there's really no use guessing. Wilson is likely out for the season with an outside chance of a late August or September return.

[Wally Mo Pena]

i had no idea that the surgery was going to take paul out for the season, that stinks. The season is all but over anyway, but it's tough for what he's done so far to be his whole year, it would have been nice if he could have had some good time as well.

and on a side note, what is it about rich aurilia that makes him imune to critisism? Why can't the media ever just say that lopez is far better than him? I guess aurilia has battled injuries, but not if you ask him. Remember when he first got put on the DL he said he felt alright and was surprised. We all speculated that it was just a way to get him out of the lineup because he was so bad. "While Aurilia has been terrible for the most part, Felipe has been the teams most consistant offensive producer." What's wrong with that sentence? Why can't the media say it?

[AdamDunn#44]

i wish they would have listened to me when I said not to resign Wilson.

[Wally Mo Pena]

did you think he would get injured? If so i guess you had it figured. I thought the wilson signing was a good one, especially in the market, but i didn't think he would need season ending surgery.

[Saber]

This will be career ending surgery. Count on it.

[missionhockey21]

Per Lancaster's blog:

Exploratory arthroscopic surgery on Paul Wilson's shoulder today revealed a partially torn labrum and a partially torn rotator cuff, both of which were repaired by Dr. Tim Kremchek.

Sounds like it will be four months before Wilson can begin throwing again.

[missionhockey21]

This really sucks! I wasn't sold on the Wilson signing this offseason but that wasn't due to having future predicting abillities or just dislike for Wilson. I have always appreaciated the way Wilson acted like a professional, on and off the field and I really do believe he is one of baseball's good guys. His career is all but done though.

Wilson should just hang them up and look into coaching, I bet he has the potential to be a great one.

[AdamDunn#44]

did you think he would get injured? If so i guess you had it figured. I thought the wilson signing was a good one, especially in the market, but i didn't think he would need season ending surgery.

I knew he was a big risk. his arm was held together by tape before this injury. and hes always been a high whip pitcher so I knew all of the baserunners would eventually catch up to him. I think I even said this signing would be as bad as resigning Haynes.

and I didnt like the milton signing

[missionhockey21]

Not many who took a look at his stats line liked Milton when you then looked at his price. I do think a lot of fans tried to fool themselves in thinking while way overpriced, he will help out the rotation to some degree. I know I tried to make myself ok with the signing even though my offseason dreams were of Matt Clement and Odalis Perez. Because with that kind of money committed to him, unless a WS franchise was built in 2005.... we all know it would come back to bite us in the ass. So Milton sucks, Wilson is essentially done, Graves was released, DJ is in AA and Ortiz has been a big disappointment... tsk tsk look at all that wasted money.

Speaking of Milton, when does Dr. K dive into his shoulder with the knife? You know it's coming soon.

[ghettochild]

Speaking of Milton, when does Dr. K dive into his shoulder with the knife? You know it's coming soon.

the sooner the better

[Krazyredsfanguy]

does dunn have to be an all star to compete in the home run derby? its freaking ridiculous he hasnt been there yet