Team A trades a pitcher to Team B without disclosing to Team B that their medical staff had administered a cortisone shot to said pitcher due to shoulder problems that had been plaguing him since the World Baseball Classic.
Is Team A responsible for the disclosure of medical records pertaining to a player before he's traded?
Is Team B responsible for asking for those records?
How much of a burden of responsibility rests with the pitcher to tell Team B he's being treated for shoulder problems?
Before the GM of Team B (Wayne Krivsky) gets convicted in the court of public opinion, stop to consider the role of Team A's GM (Jim Bowden) and the pitcher (Gary Majewski) in this situation.
Bowden's reputation has long been soured throughout baseball. Majewski admitted his ailment to the Reds only after the urging of his fiancee. Krivsky is none too pleased with any of it.
No question, Krivsky and the Reds got fleeced. But, the question remains: was it their fault?
5 comments:
Majewski was near the league leaders in games, relief innings, and had thrown 15% more pitches than any other reliever in the league. I am not very sympathetic to a claim that Washington was hiding an injury. The guy wasn't hurt enough to miss any games.
You know more about this than I do, but I believe clubs exchange medical records before any trade - or at least have the right to ask for them. Due diligence, etc.
And don't get me started on the "tough guy" mentality that encourages guys to hide injuries - they'd rather cost their team games than admit weakness. This isn't helped by fawning media accounts of "gamers."
I believe Paul Wilson pulled the exact same stunt last year.
I believe it was Claussen who did it earlier this year, when his wife convinced him to tell the team. Though I can't find the link.
Like you said, the medical records should show that he was taking an anti-inflammatory drug.
I don't know that Bowden has a bad reputation of tricking teams into taking broken crap, I think it was more Bowden failing to have a medical done on Brian Lawrence because he wanted to get rid of Vinny Castilla.
He said some stupid things as a GM, but I don't remember him ever having major problems making deals with teams.
That's right. He didn't want to pay for the MRI on Lawrence.
I agree with Chris. I am so tired of these pitchers who are obviously injured but play through it because they are "tough guys". Sure to some its admirable when you play through an injury but more often than not its stupid because it usually has a negative effect on your game and it could make the injury worse which could prematurely end your career.
Now if Majewski was damaged goods and Bowden knew about it then its pretty dirty but not suprising. He did the same thing to St. Louis in the Jeff Brantley for Dmitri Young deal. However at the same time someone (i.e. a scout) should have known that Majewski wasnt anywhere near 100%.
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