Out of unfortunate circumstances comes opportunity.-UPDATED

Yes it has been a few days since the last posting here, but I figure for every day that Glaus gets off I should get one too (I could get a lot of days off in the near future). Some very sad news has come down from the Braves front office that Kris Medlen has damaged his ulnar collateral ligament. This could mean anywhere from a few weeks out in the best case, and Tommy John surgery with 12 months of rehab in the worst possible scenario. This just hits you right in the heart for such a lively, energetic, and genuinely good guy. A lot of people and sometimes even myself included often reference how much these major leaguers make and get a little put off. But this makes me think, in the realistic chance that Medlen is never really the same, he never really made his money. We all say "oh well he makes six million dollars a year to throw a baseball". However looking at it in context, Average MLB players have a window of about seven years to make a sum of money that can sustain them for the rest of their lives, and I am not saying that its not a large amount of money, but when you think about it that way the numbers seem to have a little less impact. So I'm sure you all will join me in saying that hopefully the best case scenario works out for Kris. On a related note, It has been announced that Mike Minor will start in place of Medlen on monday, with Kawakami going down to AAA Gwinnett to stretch out his arm. Its a shame that this had to happen in order for Minor to get his shot, but I can't say I'm not excited to see him pitch. 4-1 with a 1.99 ERA and an ENORMOUS K/9 ratio mean he could be a mainstay in that rotation for a long time to come. I will update as soon as news comes in on the extent of the Medlen injury, and hopefully we have a 2011 rotation of Hanson, Hudson, JJ, Medlen, and Minor.
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The news is not great but not worst case either, after an MRI showing that Kris Medlen has a partial tear in his UCL. As is standard protocol when this happens he will be monitored over the next few weeks and might not require surgery if it is determined that the ligament is repairing on its own, which would be nice because in that case he would be able to start next season in the BRaves rotation. Either way he is out for the rest of this year, a big loss for Atlanta. I like the way Wren played his options here, and also understand the problem Kawakami has with being a reliever (he recently said he didn't come here to be one) but I don't like the Martinez call up as I would much rather have Kimbrel up here while Kawakami is down on the farm stretching out. Just saying.