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Heading to the DL?

by Matt Smith

While we would love to see the players on the field making all of the headlines, the recent rush of players on to the disabled list has been the main news over the past week or so.

The AL East seems to be suffering particularly badly. The Yankees have put the likes of Mussina and (surprise, surprise) Carl Pavano on to the DL in recent days, joining Matsui and Wang on the sidelines. The Blue Jays have seen B.J. Ryan and Troy Glaus hobbled by injuries while Reed Johnson has just had back surgery and will likely be out for a couple of months. Even the Orioles have found one category in which they can keep pace with their rivals with Wright, Hernandez and Payton all out of action alongside the unfortunate Kris Benson who will miss the whole season due to a torn rotator cuff. Elsewhere the A’s are pretty banged-up at the moment (oh how my heart sank as the trainer ran out to Rich Harden yet again on Sunday night) and Vladimir Guerrero took a Josh Beckett fastball on his wrist yesterday. The Angels will be hoping that no serious damage has been done and the x-rays reportedly came back negative, which in the funny world of medical science is always a good thing.

In the National League, St Louis are busy missing Chris Carpenter while their Central rivals the Cubs are waiting for the MRI results on Alfonso Soriano’s left hamstring. Soriano was initially confident that it would be a minor set-back, although Baseball Prospectus’s injury guru Will Carroll has today suggested that he may be heading to the DL. Meanwhile, Mike Hampton probably wins the “worst luck with injuries award”. The Braves pitcher missed the whole of last season following Tommy John surgery and then saw his 2007 comeback finish before it had started, suffering a torn flexor tendon in his left elbow which will put him out for another season. Hampton, of course, does have the consolation of winning the “most money for least performance” award, and it’s little surprise that the Braves are trying to obtain some insurance money to help pay his $14.5 million salary this season.

The concept of the disabled list is crucial in terms of administering the twenty-five man rosters, but it struck me today that I’ve never seen the disabled list published anywhere. Each team lists their own injuries on their official website and various fantasy sites provide updates on the injury status of players from that perspective, but the official information isn’t collated into one easy-to-navigate document or page as far as I know.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? Is it publicly available? It seems strange that many baseball players are trudging reluctantly on to the DL, while I want to find it but don’t know where it is.

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