CBRACKE
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There are very few things more irritating that seeing a major league club sit down an injured star for nearly a week, all the while assuming they’ll return in a matter of days, and then placing them on the disabled list. Such is the case with Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal.
I didn’t head into the season targeting Furcal as the starting shortstop for my fantasy teams this season, but when the dust settled from my drafts, I had done just that in two of my three leagues. I was well aware of the injury risk he presented, but somewhat intrigued by the breakout many fantasy analysts have projected for him for the past three seasons…and after knocking out 49 hits in his first 32 games it certainly seemed as though he was on that path.
Then he hit that road bump on Monday, being placed on the 15-day disabled list with a lower back strain that forced him out of the last five games. Dodgers manager Joe Torre told the Associated Press this weekend that he was hopeful Furcal would return to the lineup Tuesday night, but the 30-year old shortstop admitted Sunday he was worried about his back, saying the pain was the same he felt last September when he had to sit out 12 games.
“This is the type of thing where it feels fine one day and it doesn’t the next,” Furcal said, adding he couldn’t run without pain.
So how Furcal’s fantasy owners react to the news? Well, if you’re lucky you finally gave up waiting on his return and plugged in an alternative this week. The alternative the Dodgers are relying on is promising shortstop prospect Chin-Lung Hu, who enjoyed a breakout season in 2007 at Triple-A and took home Futures Game MVP honors during his most productive professional season to date. He’s only hit .208 this season, but it was in just 48 at bats and he hasn’t gotten regular at bats, which is at least partly to blame for him not being able to find his groove at the plate. He’s enjoyed some success at the upper levels of the minors, so it’s conceivable that he could be an above average major league shortstop.
If Hu doesn’t seem like an adequate answer for your team, and in smaller leagues he probably isn’t, check and see if there is any chance that the Reds’ Jeff Keppinger or Rockies’ Clint Barmes are still available on your league’s waiver wire. They probably aren’t, but who knows…you could get lucky. If you need to look deeper, consider the Blue Jays’ Marco Scutaro or Nationals’ Cristian Guzman. The former has put together productive streaks while with the Athletics and should get regular at bats for at least a few weeks and the latter hasn’t been productive in many years, but has certainly rediscovered his stroke this season and could be productive at least temporarily until Furcal returns.
We can hope that like the back injury of Tigers second baseman Placido Polanco, a little rest (and in Furcal’s case a cortisone shot) can do the trick and get him healthy again for a productive run through the last four and half months of the regular season.
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