Dark Bilious Vapors

They just broke into the ALCS broadcast to tell us that it's been announced that Cards reliever Julian Tavarez has two broken bones in his left (non-pitching, thank heavens, as noted in the comment) hand, and the implication is that he's out for the rest of the postseason.

Julian must have lost a TKO to a water cooler (or maybe a wall) after his meltdown yesterday.

With Steve Kline apparently out for the series (if not the postseason) with problems with his pitching hand, we're now carrying two useless arms in the bullpen. This is not good news.

I have a bad, sinking feeling about this..... Following my philosophy, which is to expect the worst and maximize the chances of being pleasantly surprised, I probably should start steeling myself for an Astros-Yankees World Series....

UPDATE: The announcement's finally been posted on the Cardinals website. According to the story, Tony LaRussa is still confident that Tavarez can pitch, though that appears to be day to day.

Wait a minute here... isn't that Tavarez's glove hand? It seems to me that it's going to be hard for Julian to put his glove over that hand, and even if he can, won't it be quite painful if he has to actually field a ball? Still, I can't exactly fault them for trying to maintain at least an illusion of Tavarez's readiness. It's not like we really want to admit we're two arms short in the bullpen.

UPDATE 2: According to ESPN Radio (which I'm listening to because Fox TV has, of course, stayed with the ALCS game which is currently tied in the bottom of the 11^th), Tavarez lost a TKO to a telephone.

Inquiring minds wanted to know, of course.

Len on 10.18.04 @ 06:41 PM CST