First off unless your trying to say he is as healthy as before he hurt his PCL he is going to have issues….

“despite tibial posterior translation on posterior drawer test”
Translation in this case equals MOVEMENT that isn’t really normal and show a lack of stability in the knee joint that COULD lead to further stress on the other ligaments in the knee…
Sure he could get back to performing the way he did before he hurt it but that does not mean he is less (or not more) likely to hurt something else in the knee than some other pllayer who has not hurt his PCL.

They reccomend conservative treatment because there is no RADICAL treatment. They have yet to come up with a way to repair ligaments in the knee what they do is restructure the joint to compesate for the loss of the ligament in ACL and MCLs since there is no way to compesate for a PCL they do what they can do…NOTHING, Build up the muscles around it in an attempt to compensate for the loss of the ligament and hope the muscles add stability to what is essentially an unstable knee!

SO maybe he wasn’t so fragile before the injury…But he IS fragile now…One good hit to the knee or over stressing it can cause the rest of that knee to blow out…
And then d’Arnaud at best will be playing 1B not C anymore.

from a medical journal with a study done in japan just to give you an idea

Conservative treatment is currently recommended for most isolated posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) injuries in athletes. However, it is not known whether conservative treatment is applicable even in high performance athletes with isolated PCL injury. The results in two extremely high performance athletes, professional baseball players with isolated acute PCL injury treated conservatively are reported. A catcher and an out fielder, who were regular players, hurt their knees in baseball games. Magnetic resonance images of the knee detected complete PCL rupture. Following a carefully guided physical therapy program, a 3-week period of immobilization of the knee in full extension was achieved with a knee brace, while performing hard quadriceps muscle strengthening exercise, and then running exercise was started. Six to eight weeks after injury, they were able to return fully to their original sporting activity despite tibial posterior translation on posterior drawer test, and to sustain this activity over 2 years. Switching of weight-bearing to non-weight-bearing in a deep knee flexion is considered to contribute to subjective instability in athletes with PCL-deficiency. Probably because our cases, even though extremely high performance athletes were infrequently subjected to such a situation while playing baseball, they were able to return to their pre-injury level of athletic performance without severe subjective instability through conservative treatment.

Won’t take much to make that knee worse and it certainly won’t be UNSTRESSED with him squatting behind a plate all season.

It may have happened as a freakish accident but now that the damage is done to a player who plays a position that is notroriously hard on knees (even healthy ones) it should remain a concern and steps should be taken by the team to keep a constant check on it to make sure it doesn’t get worse.

The Back is still a concern and will probably shorten his career but thats something to worry about more later on after he hits FA. Lets just hope it doesn’t affect his swing.

and like with every player, if they bust, or get hurt, you move on and find a replacement.

A major-name FA signing like Bay can go down in a crapitude pyre too, and you do the best you can to work around it, the only difference is you are stuck with the corpse for many years!

Ok, here’s the question then, what if we were wrong? Or if he continues to be injury prone ? What then? isn’t this a big set back for us once again? Who you gonna build around when the kids become bust and/or can’t play due to injury? the patter is more to be like the pirates and royals then to be tampa bay

The herniated disk that required surgery happened back in 2010 and from my understanding has not been an issue since. He put in a solid 2011 season that after which while playing for Team Panama during October of 2011 saw him tear his thumb ligament. He had the surgery required to repair it and was ready to go the following Spring and once again showed no ill effects from either the herniated disk surgery or the torn thumb ligament as he was having an All Start season up until going down with the most recent injury to his PCL while breaking up a double play that did not require surgery to heal. It remains to be seen until he gets into some regular game action if the knee or for that matter and old or new injuries hamper his development.

That being said d’Arnaud despite some of his injuries is viewed as a top 10 prospect in all of MLB by many people that have watched him play. The belief is the ceiling is high with him. The Mets clearly took a gamble when they traded Dickey and made him the key part in the deal that d’Arnaud is worth the gamble. Now all we can do is wait to see if they were right.

No, you’re not the only one who has concerns. Remember what Anthony Lapoce was quoted about the other day in MMO regarding d’Arnaud?

“One concern that Iapoce mentioned, however, is that d’Arnaud has spent time on the disabled list in each of the past few seasons, with his major injury – a torn posterior cruciate ligament last summer – shutting him down for several months.

“If d’Arnaud can stay healthy, he’s going to be fun to watch and will hopefully contribute to some competitive Mets’ teams in the near future.”

I know, it is tempting for many of us to say the Mets are getting a potential backstop who might also be prone to injury – expecially because that was the justification from so many (including our general manager) not to re-sign Jose Reyes who was only 28 at the time he declared free agency. BTW – Travis is only 24 but for a catcher with the toll of the wear and tear of that position demands, those extra four years as age is concerned might be a trade off with that of a shortstop.

Also, wasn’t it also a concern with how long R.A. could pitch to the level he has the past three seasons – because of his “hard” knuckler? If anything, BOTH CLUBS took a chance as far as health and stamina are concerned – besides the usual risk of d’Arnaud still being only a prospect.

But even if d’Arnaud is hampered by being injury prone (we don’t know that) , if 32 year old John Buck can average his 20 home runs and .235 BA per year and be the smart catcher than he is, though it would not justify trading R.A., at least we will get something good out of the trade. It’s just that the Mets need more bats in the lineup and except for one season, John has never hit higher than .247. One cannot go by his OBP since he was batting 8th and that would automatically draw a lot more walks. Deducting the 5 intentional walks/plate appearances he got and his OBP drops 18 points and that, of course, does not include the many times he was just pitched around.

But I like Buck behind the plate. He won’t be a long-term solution to our catching situation and hopefully d’Arnaud works out – both in his ability to play on the MLB level and not sustain any more than the usual injuries backstops are suspetable to – to resolve that long-term.

Mets’ outfielder Cowgill being compared with gritty Dykstra

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/mets/the_new_nails_zJ9LcfjYg5vvjeK8bbg7XL?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Mets

Crossing my fingers.

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/mets/high_on_arnaud_lUyRURftLbCpJssNUBbEnM

Don’t forget injury prone….

His bulging disks in his back 2 years ago would worry me more. But that’s the risk you gotta take no?