FERNANDO RODNEY CAREER TRACKER

Welcome to the board the analog I.

Check 5 posts back., he joined today.

got it!

We have 110 members now! We may have to do a gameday thing in chat during the games. I think we had 10 people online here before the game today!

and on the other board, their thread was pretty

3000 POSTS FOR ME!!!

lovin' every minute!

I'm still trying to be a Mudhen!

holy ** you will be there before you know it! you have less than 100 posts to go!!!

Friday, March 7, 2008
Tigers' Rodney looks good in workout
Lynn Henning and Tom Gage / The Detroit News

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Fernando Rodney passed his latest throwing test Friday morning as the Tigers set-up reliever attempts to shake his latest bout with tendinitis.

Rodney, a 30-year-old right-hander who is considered critical to Detroit's late-innings relief corps, threw long-toss and also threw from 60 feet at a moderate speed in a 20-minute session with Tigers bullpen coach Jeff Jones.

"He did really good," Jones said afterward.

Rodney was also upbeat, although there is no indication that he will soon throw in a game.

"Good day," said Rodney, who was lost for much of 2007 with tendinitis in his right arm and shoulder. "I was more relaxed."

The Tigers coaching staff is attempting to get Rodney to throw more with an overhand motion and to avoid any lapses into a three-quarters delivery that, it is believed, has helped to create his tendinitis.

Rodney said Friday that he will continue with the long-toss and moderate workouts until he is ready to throw a bullpen session at full strength.

Likely, the Tigers will have Rodney pitch in a simulated game before they use him in a Grapefruit League contest. That date, however, could be days, or even weeks, away.

"I think I know less about our pitching than I did when I came to camp," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "Rodney's on the shelf. If he's healthy and on the team, there's only one available spot."

Leyland's concern does not involve his starting pitchers, though,

"I'm pinching myself right now because they all look good," he said. "I'm very happy with the progress I see. They look good, knock on wood."

One candidate for the bullpen who hasn't been talked about much, but who had made a good impression so far is right-hander Aquilino Lopez, who was with the Tigers for parts of last year. He's worked five scoreless innings in three appearances.

"I like him a lot," said Leyland. "It's a name that never comes up, but I like him a whole lot. He's good. He hangs a slider once in a while that they knock the heck out of, but what does he do wrong?

"He throws strikes, throws a breaking ball over the plate. Looks pretty good to me."

Now behave, Rodney!

Monday, March 10, 2008
Tigers: Notebook
Rodney facing mound test Tuesday
Tom Gage / The Detroit News

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Fernando Rodney is scheduled to throw off a mound on Tuesday for the first time since his availability for the start of the season became an issue.

Manager Jim Leyland is not understating the importance of the session.

"This will be the big week, the telling week," Leyland said about Rodney's hopes to move past the tendinitis that's been holding him back. "But I'm reluctant to emphasize that because I don't want someone rushing himself with the thought, 'If I don't get moving, I won't make the team.'

"We made that mistake last year. We're not going to do it again. But we'll know a lot on Tuesday after a bona fide side (bullpen session). This will be a huge week. We have to find out something."

Leyland has to find out something about more pitchers than Rodney, though.

"In about eight, nine days, I'm going to learn everything I need to know," he said.

What the Tigers have to find out, of course, is whether they need to fill one or two vacancies in the bullpen. Ten spots are all but spoken for with the five starters, plus Todd Jones, Jason Grilli, Zach Miner, and left-handers Bobby Seay and Tim Byrdak.

Leyland said Sunday no other lefty is a candidate to make the bullpen at this point. Macay McBride will be a starter at Triple A and Clay Rapada, though highly regarded by Leyland, has lost time because of tendinitis.

"Rapada would have been a candidate," he said. "He's someone we like and I think he's going to be a very usable pitcher in the big leagues. Unfortunately, he's been behind."

So has right-hander Francisco Cruceta, who's still not here because of visa problems.

"That's a real sensitive issue," Leyland said.

Geez...I remember seeing Clay at Fandemonium. He looked like he was in pretty good shape!

laprimamirala wrote:

Geez...I remember seeing Clay at Fandemonium. He looked like he was in pretty good shape!

With all the tendinitis our pitchers, and other players, are having, something is wrong in Tigertown. Is it improper mechanics being allowed by pitching coach, or conditioning coach or improper nutrition.... something is out of place!

Guys gotta stretch, too...I see most of the players do it but not always the pitchers!

I know if I forget to stretch before working out, I'm screwed :haha:
So maybe that's part of it....

iluvpudge7 wrote:

I know if I forget to stretch before working out, I'm screwed :haha:
So maybe that's part of it....

Probably has a lot to do with it.

I always stretch....then forget to work out!!

stretching = a must!

Fernando Rodney not sharp

Tigers pitching coach Chuck Hernandez said reliever Fernando Rodney wasn't as sharp in his bullpen session Saturday as in his one Thursday, when he threw off the mound for the first time since shoulder trouble kept him out more than three weeks.

Hernandez wasn't surprised -- he felt Rodney might not fully have regained his strength after Thursday.

Hernandez said he expects Rodney to next throw from a mound Tuesday.

Rodney hasn't pitched in the exhibition season, and Leyland said last week that Rodney likely won't be ready for Opening Day.

laprimamirala wrote:

I like that new smiley!!!

i just found it...fit perfectly!

We will be adding some new ones, plus all the players on the 25 man roster!

you know I love you guys for doing that!

03/18/2008 2:10 PM ET
Rodney to open season on DL
Tigers reliever has tendinitis; no timetable for return
By Jason Beck / MLB.com

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Fernando Rodney will open the season on the disabled list. How long the Tigers reliever will stay there is the new question.

The Tigers don't have to make a move with Rodney for another week and a half, but they formally announced Tuesday that they will place him on the DL, along with Joel Zumaya, Vance Wilson and Jordan Tata. Combined with the nine roster moves that the team formally made and the absence of reliever Francisco Cruceta, there are now 32 active players on Detroit's Spring Training roster.

Rodney is physically active, of course, but he's not progressing to the point where he has any chance to be ready for Opening Day on March 31. He threw another bullpen session on Tuesday, his third since coming down with right shoulder tendinitis in late February, and the results were not encouraging.

"He's not where we need him to be," pitching coach Chuck Hernandez said.

The session Tuesday lasted about five minutes, which is shorter than his previous two. Rodney threw all fastballs.

"We still haven't broken through," Hernandez continued, "and we're going to re-assess where we're at."

The Tigers will re-evaluate Rodney's throwing program, although the first step will be to give him a couple days off. An MRI exam on the shoulder a couple weeks ago showed no structural damage.

Even if Rodney's bullpen had gone splendidly, it most likely wouldn't have been enough to put him on track for Opening Day, even by Rodney's estimations. With Rodney needing to throw his other pitches off of a mound, then needing to face live hitters, any appearance in a Spring Training game would have come at the very end, if at all.

Tigers officials began the process of picking out a bullpen without Rodney last week, when Leyland said he considered it unlikely Rodney would return. His status leaves the Tigers needing to fill the eighth-inning setup role Rodney was expected to hold down.

Leyland called the loss a blow last week, but he said the Tigers will find a way to move on. They will most likely handle the eighth inning with various relievers according to the situation and the hitters coming up to bat.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

I'm gettin' tendinitis just reading this! How many more are gonna burn out before we even get started?

And it is not just the Tigers, other clubs are having pitcher problems too.

I sometimes feel like we're the only ones. That's all the ESPN guys could talk about "the big question in our 'pen."
Geez, what did Rapada do? did he pitch today?
When I saw him at Fandemonium, he looked so thin he might blow away!....