Ron or Anybody: Update on Marshall?

[craig]

I know Marshall missed a lot of time last year with the hand problem, and my understanding was that he was late starting this year for the same reason. Is that true? Or was he held back this spring because of arm trouble?

 

I know that he pitched well, then got shelved with IIRC was shoulder problems. I thought at the time it was described as shoulder tendonitis or tired shoulder or whatever; at the time I don't recall the report being any more severe than when Nolasco got shut down for his bad shoulder during the summer.

 

But whereas Nolasco came back, and must be fine to do as well as he's been doing recently, Marshall never did. But I haven't heard anything since.

 

Is he just resting/rehabbing? Has he had surgery? Is he going to take the Ben Christensen/Mike Meyers route where he has a little shoulder stuff, and will be perpetually two weeks away, until 15 months later he has major surgery and his career is done?

[CaliforniaRaisin]

I know Marshall missed a lot of time last year with the hand problem, and my understanding was that he was late starting this year for the same reason. Is that true? Or was he held back this spring because of arm trouble?

 

He was held back at the start of the season because of the finger, which he reaggravated in the AFL. He missed approximately 1-2 weeks at the beginning of the season (he was exepected to miss about a month of the season;made his season debut on 4/16), before starting the year in Daytona.

 

I don't know much about the injury this year. At first, it was announced that he was missing starts because of a strained muscle in the shoulder. Not sure what it is now, but when ITI said he'd be out for the season in late August, they said it wasn't that serious.

[craig]

I don't know much about the injury this year. At first, it was announced that he was missing starts because of a strained muscle in the shoulder. Not sure what it is now, but when ITI said he'd be out for the season in late August, they said it wasn't that serious.

 

That's awesome news. For a while there, when Nolasco was slumping and injured, before Ryu had risen, before Marmol had done much at AA yet, and while Pinto still seemed like wildman supreme, Marshall looked like perhaps the best bet of the AA bunch.

 

If his injuries are nothing that will limit his future, that's fantastic.

 

Nolasco, Marshall, Ryu, Pinto, and Marmol, all five of those AA pitchers are pretty solid prospects. None are great, dominating ace prospects, but all five would seem to have a solid chance to be decent major league starters, useful relief guys, and/or meaningful trade bait. Some separation (Nolasco probably on top) but given how young they are, and how little Marmol and Marshall have pitched, and how Ryu is a little younger and maybe is the most likely to pick up some mph, any of them could end up being the best of the five, even if it isn't quite equally likely.

 

All five throw more or less in the low 90's. All five seem to be mixture pitchers with standard fastball/change/breaker repertoirs. Pinto's anti-HR profiile is special, unfortunately his control is not.

 

All five were born within less than a year of each other (the similarity in age sometimes surprises me), even though the pitching experience is less comparable. In 1982, Pinto was born in July, Marshall in August, Marmol in October, Nolasco in December, and then Ryu the following May of 2003.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Well, I hope it remains something not too serious - the Cubs have misdiagnosed/made minor league injuries seem less serious than they were (and you mentioned a few examples of that already). I worry about Billy Petrick in a similar manner, since his labrum injury wasn't considered that serious and they expect him back on the mound by the middle of spring training.