Sergio Santos Done for the Season

The Blue Jays pitching staff suffered another blow on Sunday officially losing closer Sergio Santos for the remainder of the season.

Santos was acquired by the Blue Jays in an off-season trade with the Chicago White Sox.

He struggled early in the season for the Jays and hasn't pitched since April 20th. He had been on the DL with right shoulder inflammation.

During a throwing session he felt pain in his throwing shoulder and has opted for surgery, ending his season.

No date has been set for the surgery as of yet and the exact nature of the injury has yet to be disclosed.

Jacoby Ellsbury Begins Rehab Assignment

OF Jacoby Ellsbury has joined injured teammate Carl Crawford in the Gulf Coast rookie league in Florida as both prepare to return to the Boston Red Sox lineup.

Ellsbury has been out since virtually the beginning of the season (April 14th to be exact). Ellsbury injured his shoulder on a collision at 2nd base.

Ellsbury was one of the Red Sox best players last season hitting a team high 32 home-runs while posting a .928 OPS.

No time table has been set for Ellsbury's return to the Majors.

The sooner the Red Sox get both players back the better.

Clay Buchholz Uses DL Trip to Party

No Red Sox fan will forget the collapse of September 2011 and the reports that followed about the in game “activities” of the starting rotation. On nights when certain starters (Beckett, Lester, Lackey) were not pitching they descended into the club house to play video games, drink beer and eat fried chicken. The immature actions became the poster of failure for the 2011 Red Sox. It led to Terry Francona being ousted as the manager. It led to Theo Epstein jumping to take the President of Baseball Operations job for the Cubs. It forced ownership to make a change and bring in a disciplinarian (Bobby Valentine). Early in Spring Training all alcohol was banned from the clubhouse. Yet despite all the changes made by the Sox the immaturity of their roster, particularly their starters, continues to rear its ugly head.

On Wednesday night Clay Buchholz, he of a recent trip to the DL, was spotted a charity pool party at Foxwoods which was sponsored by Stoli Vodka. Normally doing charity work would be a positive story but in this case one has to question the judgement of Buchholz. He was released from hospital less than 24 hours earlier after being treated for esophagitis; the ailment that landed him on the DL. It was reported that Buchholz did not drink at the event.

It’s hard to fault someone for doing charity work but Buchholz should have thought about how the media would perceive his attendance at this party.

Buchholz said of the illness, "It was real scary. Whenever you got doctors telling you, 'All right, come on over to my office and we'll check you out,' and you're like, 'I can't get there, I can't walk,' it was pretty scary for about three days.”

If you’re that concerned about your health what is the first thing you’re going to do when you get released from hospital? You’re right I was thinking pool party as well.

The saga continues in Boston.

Crawford Begins Rehab

Boston Red Sox OF Carl Crawford saw his first game action of the 2012 season, albeit in the Gulf Coast League. Crawford is expected to be on a rehab assignment for three weeks before rejoining the Red Sox. He was 0-3 with 2 BB in his first game.

The three week schedule would mean Crawford could be back for the first series after the All-Star break. The Red Sox will be taking on Crawford's former team the Rays in Tampa Bay.

It's good news for the Red Sox who are starting to play well and are starting to get some of their injured stars back.

String of Bad Luck Continues for Blue Jays Starters

The Toronto Blue Jays (32-32) saw their third starting pitcher in less than a week leave a game early due to an injury. Tonight it was Drew Hutchison. The 21-year old rookie was making his 11th start of the season and on his 9th pitch felt something wrong. Manager John Farrell and Trainer George Poulis came to the mound and after a chat removed their starter from the game. The Jays bullpen managed to put together a great outing a secured a 3-0 victory over the visiting Phillies. Of greater concern has to be the health of their starting rotation.

The first injury occured on Monday when Brandon Morrow left after, coincidentally, 9 pitches. On June 13th (retroactive to June 12) he was placed on the 15-day DL with an oblique strain. Two days later Kyle Drabek left after 85 pitches. He was then placed on the 15-day DL June 15 (retroactive to the 14th) with a sprained right elbow ligament. That's never an injury you want associated with any of your pitchers. Then the injury bug struck again, exactly two days later. Whoever is pitching on Sunday might want to call in sick or something. It doesn't seem like a good day to pitch (it's actually Brett Cecil who is scheduled to pitch, fresh up from AAA to replace Drabek).

If the Jays aren't careful they'll run out of arms and this could quickly derail a promising season for the young but talented Toronto squad.