BREAKING: Injury Bug Spreading

There’s a running joke at my work amongst myself and the Yankees fans I work with (spoiler alert: I live on the east coast). The joke – and it’s an obvious joke at that – is that none of the New York bandwagon fans can name a single player on the current roster outside of Andy Pettitte. April 29, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Los Angeles Angels center fielder Peter Bourjos (25) scores in front of Oakland Athletics catcher John Jaso (5) during the fifth inning at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports I never said it was a funny joke, so put the tomatoes down. Aside from being A) not funny and,  B) obvious, there’s a certain amount of truth there that shouldn’t be ignored.

That “joke,” however, is apparently becoming popular on the left coast as well. Fortunately, most of the team’s bigger names remain healthy, *rubs rabbit’s foot, knocks on wood* albeit in one case, healthy is a relative term (I’m looking at you Albert Pujols). But two infielders, and what feels like a slew of key bullpen arms have left this team relying on organizational depth that was already razor thin to begin with. Add to that what will at least be a couple of days of rest for Luis Jimenez (contusion) and a DL stint for Peter Bourjos (hamstring). The result is a bomb shelled blogger who is on the brink of powering down all electronics for the foreseeable future.

A lineup that once was expected to include good-though-not-spectacular hitters like Erick Aybar, Alberto Callaspo and Peter Bourjos, will now be littered with players like J.B. Shuck, Brendan Harris and Andrew Romine. Good backup players, but not starting caliber.

And none of this would really be much of an issue if hitters like Mike Trout and Josh Hamilton weren’t striking in roughly one-fourth of their at bats. And don’t get me started on the bullpen which is leaning on low ceiling talents like Michael Roth (Who was shipped out just in time) and Dane De La Rosa who can’t decide if he’s a valuable bullpen asset, or fodder for batting practice duty.

The silver lining, is that Aybar is finally back in the lineup, and not a moment too soon with Bourjos going down. Callaspo shouldn’t be too far behind, and Kevin Jepsen could be back soon. Until that happens though, hope and pray that the starting pitchers dominate and can get deep into ball games. I fear they won’t though. In any case, if you need me, I’ll be in the fallout shelter that I had built for the Mayan apocalypse. At least I’ll finally get some use out of it.