Another day, another injury

Wake up.  Coffee.  Let the dogs out, give them some food.  Let the wife out, give her some food.  Let myself out, give myself some food.  Do some light reading whilst enjoying a rare glimpse of sunlight in the greater metropolitan area.  What's that?  Another Braves player is hurt?  It can't be!  I suppose that comes with the territory when your team is made up of the elderly, the sick, and the dying. 

At least, that's how it feels.  The Heyward injury ostensibly seemed to be the climax of the injuries amongst the Braves; it was brutal, it came late in the season, and he's our best player.  What could possibly be worse than that? 

Well, Brandon Beachy is going to visit with Dr. James Andrews on Monday thanks to some elbow soreness he experienced in the last inning of his start against the Mets.  Considering he's fresh off of the DL from his Tommy John surgery, this is the absolute last thing anyone wants to see.  I'm struggling to remember a time when a player went to Dr. Andrews and came back with a full green-light to keep pitching.  I'm sure it has happened, but the instances are few and far between. 

As for expectations of coming out of this, a best-case scenario is for Beachy to miss his start against St. Louis, and maybe one more after that, then resume pitching.  Worst-case scenario is that he's done for 2013 and most of 2014.  While the Braves didn't need Beachy to be the Beachy he was in 2012, not having him at all makes things very tricky going forward.  Without him, the Braves rotation looks like this:

Minor
Teheran
Medlen
Wood
Maholm

The old adage "you can never have too much pitching" definitely applies here.  That rotation is good enough to hold down the fort until the playoffs, and from that point on you only need three starters anyway, which I assume would be Minor, Teheran, and Medlen, although Wood may be able to slide in there if he keeps up the good work, or if they face a lefty-heavy lineup in the NLDS.  Maholm is perfectly capable as a fifth starter, and he can transition to a swing-man role in the playoffs. 

This team has fought adversity all season.  They have stayed in, and now lead, the race for the best record in spite of the injuries.  Questioning their resilience this late in the season, with a large body of evidence plainly showing that they are capable of defying the odds, would be rather uncouth. 

Regardless, the question looms and becomes increasingly louder each day.