Miguel Cabrera has a small fracture, out a couple of weeks

[Scott37189]

Yeah, it would've nice to get the extra reps at third, but no big deal. Could've been a lot worse I suppose

This.

[SportsFromA2]

Miguel Cabrera has been diagnosed with a non-displaced fracture of the orbital floor in his right eye, Tigers president/general manager Dave Dombrowski told reporters Tuesday morning at Joker Marchant Stadium. He has been ordered off all activity for a week and will be re-evaluated from there.

At this point, Cabrera is hopeful that he’ll be ready for Opening Day, and Dombrowski indicated they aren’t looking at this as a disabled list situation. It’s a much better scenario than what was feared when Cabrera took Hunter Pence’s high-hopper off his sunglasses in the first inning of Monday’s game against the Phillies.

“I don’t think there’s any question that his sunglasses helped him a great deal yesterday,” Dombrowski said. “Who knows what would’ve happened yesterday if he didn’t have the sunglasses on, because you could see the imprint of the baseball on his sunglasses, the seams on there.”

Cabrera, wearing sunglasses, said Tuesday morning that he isn’t in any pain. He said it was the first game he had played the infield with the sunglasses, which he received from Oakley a few days earlier and donned at the recommendation of teammate Ramon Santiago.

Cabrera underwent a battery of tests Monday at Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater after the play, and again Tuesday morning at Watson Clinic in Lakeland. X-ray exams revealed the fracture. He received eight stitches to close up a gash below his right eye.

Cabrera said he plans on resting for the next few days while the swelling goes down in his eye.

http://beck.mlblogs.com/2012/03/20/n...e-for-cabrera/

[SportsFromA2]

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Miguel Cabrera suffered a small fracture in the orbital bone beneath his right eye that will force him to miss at least a week, the Tigers announced early Tuesday.

He received eight stitches and will be reevaluated within a week, general manager Dave Dombrowski said.

Cabrera was struck in the face with a sharp grounder in the first inning Monday in the Tigers’ 4-3 loss against Philadelphia.

He was taken to Mortan Plant Hospital in Clearwater, Fla. where he underwent precautionary X-rays that revealed a non-displaced orbital floor fracture.

“It’s very important to have him rest and get the swelling out and let this thing heal as much as possible,” Dombrowski said.

The Tigers remain hopeful Cabrera will be available for the club's Opening Day game April 5 against the Boston Red Sox.

Dombrowski confirmed that Cabrera’s sunglasses absorbed a brunt of the contact, which resulted in a gash above his right cheekbone.

“Who knows what would have happened if he didn’t have his sunglasses on?” Dombrowski said. “You can see the imprint of the baseball -- the seams -- on his sunglasses.”

Dombrowski said Cabrera underwent additional tests at Watson Clinic in Lakeland early Tuesday and confirmed his vision was unaffected.

“This is, no question, a much better scenario than if he didn’t have his glasses on,” Dombrowski said.

Cabrera, who was wearing designer glasses when he addressed reporters early Tuesday, said teammate Ramon Santiago encouraged him to wear sunglasses during day games.

http://www.mlive.com/tigers/index.ss...cabrera_8.html

[The Black Hand]

He doesn't need his face in order to hit homeruns. Suck it up and get out there.

[SportsFromA2]

Eight black-and-blue stitches stretched beneath Miguel Cabrera's right eye. A broader smile creased his face as he spoke with media Tuesday morning outside the Tigers clubhouse at Marchant Stadium.

"Thank God I have sunglasses on," said the Tigers third baseman after he learned the blow to his face from a ground ball Monday had not done more serious damage. "I'm lucky."

Cabrera, though, will be away from baseball for one week as doctors determine if the "non-displaced fracture of his orbital floor" under his right eye is more complicated than they diagnosed during tests Monday and Tuesday.

The Tigers' most important everyday player, and one of the game's premier superstars, was injured during Monday's Tigers-Phillies game when Hunter Pence's first-inning, one-hop liner crashed into Cabrera's face, buffered only by a sunglass frame and lens.

Cabrera left the field holding a towel against flowing blood. He was taken to Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater for stitches and X-rays. He had follow-up X-rays and tests Tuesday at the Watson Clinic in Lakeland.

Neither the Tigers, nor Cabrera, expect that last year's American League batting champion will miss Opening Day, April 5 at Comerica Park.

"It's a matter of letting it heal," said Dave Dombrowski, the Tigers president and general manager. "We'll know a lot more in a week.

"There's no question that his sunglasses helped him a great deal. You could see the imprint of the baseball on his sunglasses -- the stitches.

"He looks like he got punched."

Cabrera followed Dombrowski during the interview session and said he felt no pain in the aftermath of Monday's mishap.

"I don't feel anything right now," he said. "It's weird."

He discounted notions Pence's smash was a bad-hop grounder that had caromed into his face.

The ball, he said, was simply a laser-like line drive that hit close to his feet.

"That ball was smoked," said Cabrera, who returned to third base only a few weeks ago following a four-year layoff from his original position. "He hit it so hard.

"I don't to blame anybody," he said, downplaying thoughts that a bad infield might have contributed to the blow. "That's part of the game."

Cabrera said there would be no psychological hangover from Monday's accident as he continues in his transition from first base to third.

"I know it's gonna happen," he said, explaining that he had never, during previous years at third base, been hit in the face by a grounder. "I see a lot of plays -- broken nose, broken mouth.

"You can do nothing about it."

Dombrowski conceded Cabrera's initial diagnosis is "a lot better scenario" than could have eventuated after a blow so serious to Cabrera's face and eye.

Kevin Rand, the Tigers' head trainer, said it would be impossible to determine any final prognosis for Cabrera for at least seven days.

"We need to get the swelling down," Rand said. "And then re-evaluate it."

Cabrera's final impression from Monday's scare was that he had not only been fortunate, but that he was also undaunted as he takes on third base and makes room for Prince Fielder at first.

"I can take a punch," he said.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...392/1129/rss15

[SportsFromA2]

So Ramon pretty much saved Cabrera's season.

just for that, he should get the start @ 2b:

Had he left those sunglasses in his locker and not wrapped them around his face Monday afternoon, baseball's world might be talking today not about Miguel Cabrera's close call.

Folks would be wondering how a World Series-dreaming team from Detroit would cope minus its superstar, who might be one of the three best players in baseball.

Sunglasses probably saved Cabrera from a more serious fracture — and perhaps far more extensive damage — when a one-hop rocket of a ground ball from Hunter Pence's bat ripped into Cabrera's face Monday at Clearwater, Fla.

He ended up with a gash and a small fracture of the bone beneath his right eye.

And, yes, with immense relief that his layoff should be closer to one week than one season.

"Thank God," Cabrera said Tuesday outside the Tigers clubhouse, where he displayed his eight-stitch, black-and-blue gash just beneath his designer shades' dark right lens. "I'm lucky."

So are the Tigers. They already had dealt with one brutal loss, in January, when Victor Martinez tore up his knee and was excused for the season.

Had a sunglass lens not gotten between his face and Pence's bullet, Cabrera might indirectly have become the second casualty. Prince Fielder was brought aboard seven days after Martinez's disaster was divulged. Fielder plays first base. Cabrera moved to third because of Fielder's arrival.

Nuclear bombs destroy by way of a chain-reaction.

Baseball seasons can blow up in parallel ways.
Making progress

The Tigers gambled by moving Cabrera to third base. And no matter how they frame it — that no other third baseman would have made Monday's play, which is tough to prove and tougher to believe — they understood why moving Cabrera to an opposite corner was perilous.

It is the most evil position on a baseball field. Balls aren't just hit at third basemen. They attack third basemen. The speed and angles at which they're hit are perilous, as Pence's smash affirmed Monday.

"That ball was smoked," Cabrera said. "That ball was hit hard. Very hard."

It nearly ruined what had been an otherwise upbeat spring for the American League batting champion and manager Jim Leyland's keystone hitter.

He had, in fact, been progressing nicely at third base — better, almost assuredly, than even his bosses had anticipated when they took a gulp, rolled the dice, and said Cabrera was their third baseman for 2012.

What they knew and what they forecasted was on display. Cabrera is deft on ground balls hit within his reach. He has one of the stronger throwing arms in either league. And because he had played third base during his days with the Marlins, he was not an alien at his new position. He knows how to set up, how to position himself, and what to do with a ground ball.

It has not all been pretty, of course. He could use a new choreographer. His footwork and his bulk have not always made for great baseball ballet.

But he had been surviving. It was easy to see the Tigers getting the net return they projected when they decided to go with Cabrera-Fielder at the corners.
Advice pays off

Reality, though, returned Monday. This is a tough position — unforgiving, wicked, formidable in the fusillade of batted balls it can send a third baseman's way.

Ramon Santiago had urged Cabrera a few days earlier to use sunglasses on days when the sun was as relentless as Monday's fireball that rose over Florida.

Cabrera listened. Just in time, he donned protection that ended up saving him from more than a bad case of solar glare.

He was saved from a worse fracture, and maybe from a horrific eye injury.

And maybe, too, from wondering how a season, if not a career, had just been altered by a single, lightning-bolt of a ground ball.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...326/1129/rss15

[FastFreddie]

wow, TY Ramon

[SportsFromA2]

Miguel Cabrera won’t be re-examined by doctors until Tuesday morning, which will determine whether he’s cleared to play in time for the season. The way he’s feeling, though, leaves very little doubt in his mind.

“I’ll be ready. Don’t worry,” Cabrera said.

Cabrera said he has no pain in his right eye. The swelling is down, and he said his vision is fine. The only signs of lingering damage from the high-hopper he took a week ago are the stitches and the scar under his right eye.

Cabrera basically came to the ballpark Monday because he’s bored. He can’t do any physical activity until doctors. He also wanted to see some of his old friends on the Miami Marlins.

“I want to see Hanley,” he said. “I want to see Ozzie. I want to say hi to all my friends on the other side. I say hi to my friends here. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be here for practice.”

With all the free time on his hands, Cabrera said he has watched the replay of his fateful play several times. He wanted to see if there was anything he did incorrectly. He can’t find it.

“I was in good position. I was right there,” Cabrers said. “At the last second, I see the ball in my eyes.”

http://beck.mlblogs.com/2012/03/26/c...dy-dont-worry/