in a round about way, so have i. but we've really gotten good performances from bradshaw and bourgeois. i'm betting that ross's spot sunday could be in jeopardy if he don't step-it-up.

sometimes i wish that i could just fast-forward through the week to get to gameday. :grin:

If Ranaudo is really suffering from a stress reaction....Just wait till he gets married...House note, car note, babies crying in the night.....:insane:.

if this elbow heals, house note, and car note will be paid in full thanks to a 1st-round MLB Draft contract.

A servant will handle the babies and he will marry a super model. :wave:

The good news is Anthony's pain is lessened and it's not any pain at all when he throws the baseball. He feels pain in the windup (and he felt the same discomfort, while throwing 5 scoreless innings in the opener), so this is still from what I am hearing a precaution.

Based on that video interview with Anthony someone linked to above, he never felt any pain at all from his elbow... that is specifically why he just calls it a "discomfort." He clarified by saying it's just an annoyance if anything, and that he doesn't think it is anything at all... and that it was surprising that his coaches even found out about it being that he wasn't even worried about it.

I know what he's talking about because I've had the same symptoms in both my elbows and in one of my knees. But with my elbows, especially my right elbow, the problem keeps coming back over the years. Throwing the ball doesn't effect my elbow at all... but other activities have caused it to start annoying me (first started when I was working out my triceps with these two specific weight-lifting exercises, so I quit using those). But it doesn't hurt at all at first...just a discomfort or an annoyance when it happens, so I'd ignore it. But, after weeks of ignoring it, I will start to get a tiny bit sore... like a soreness factor of 1 on a scale of 1 to 10. So I'd rest it, quit the activity I was doing to bother it in the first place, and the discomfort went away. Over the years, once I noticed it was re-occuring in my right elbow, I bought the only elbow brace they offered at Walmart, and I put it on my elbow to make the discomfort go away faster (which worked). For example, the discomfort came back recently... it was annoying me for weeks, I just ignored it because it wasn't painful, and then it finally started getting a tiny bit sore so I put the elbow brace on for one 12-hour period and now the discomfort has gone away completely. That's been the pattern... it is annoying but not painful... I ignore it for weeks... then it starts getting a tiny bit sore... so I put the elbow brace on, and the discomfort goes away quick.

Yes, I'm worried that Anthony's discomfort hasn't gone away quickly. If I talked to him, I'd let him know that wearing an elbow brace worked for me. But, he's getting the best medical care. Based on that interview above, he got several medical scans and the doctors concluded that he was in the very early stages of working toward a stress fracture, which is a common injury in sports. And they gave him some high-tech medical gizmo that uses energy beams to heal his bone faster. The elbow-brace worked for me, but maybe I wasn't dealing with a stress fracture situation (my discomfort feels like it is at the tip of the elbow on the bone first, but if I ignore it, then a very mild soreness sets in).

All-in-all, I'm not worried. Yeah, it it was announced that AR was out for the season, I'd be like "F!" Yeah, not cool having your stud pitch feeling something funny in his elbow, but based on that interview, it's not a big deal. He's getting the best medical treatment and they just think it's an early stage to a stress fracture, and that we are lucky that we even found out about it, because nobody even reports this to their coaches at this point because it is so painless. So they want to give him another week for his bone to heal. Wow. I'd do the same thing if I was the coach.

The only things I'm worried about is 1) whether AR's doctors know what they are talking about and 2) whether his symptoms get worse or don't improve. Has anybody reported anything on AR's symptoms getting worse or not improving?

Errr...John. You sure this repetitive use injury in your right hand and arm wasn't from something else besides weightlifting.

I don't know about you, but mine was from repetitive 10 oz curls.:hihi:.

Yes, that's my thoughts as well. The longer this goes on the more I believe the injury is very serious.

yep. i was having a discussion with one of my buddies today and i told him that even without ranaudo we'd be in good shape with our weekend rotation. bourgeois has been solid. bradshaw had a really great outing this past weekend and of course matty ott would have to be moved from closer to starter. then we have matulis, ross, bertuccini, rittiner and mormann -- we're still in great shape. rittiner, i think, will be a very, very good relief pitcher. he reminds me a bit of jason determan. obviously losing AR would suck, but if we can afford an injury at any position, it would be pitching.

The weekend starting rotation is fine, I agree. But without AR, I wonder how many damned mid-week games LSU will lose because those teams will save their ace, and the Tigers will be catching their breaths.

I know it's not critical - but I cannot stand the thought of losing to Southeastern....

I'm also not convinced that mid-relief is deep enough to bust up the SEC without AR as a starter. I get the feeling we may find ourselves in some 5th inning situations where we can't afford to pull the guy on the mound on Frid/Saturday.

Here's an article on how Ranaudo's injury may affect his draft stock.

MLB Draft - Anthony Ranaudo injury puts stock in question - Jason A. Churchill - ESPN

as my friend podkatt put it not long ago.... "lsu is the 5th innings bitch."