Twins' Baker out for the season with flexor pronator tendon issues: Anatomy Lesson

The Twins announced that Scott Baker will be out for the rest of the season due to surgery on his Flexor Pronator tendon of his right elbow. Most people have no idea what this is, so I will try to explain...

Here is a picture of the inside of the elbow (Think of it as being around on the inside -thumb side- bony part of the elbow) :



The Flexor Pronator Tendon is the one pointed out with the arrow on the top of the picture. The UCL is the dotted blue line (The arrowhead points to a nerve that has been looped out of the way). So the Flexor Pronator Tendon is close enough the UCL to allow misdiagnosis without an MRI.

Clearly Scott Baker had an MRI last week and according to all Twins' sources that MRI was identical to that he had last summer. When Baker received a second opinion by Dr. Altcheck the "tendonititis" that was diagnosed by the Twins' medical staff, was immediately diagnosed as tear scar tissue build up on the tendon requiring surgery.

If the Twins' staff did not misdiagnose and mistreated Scott Baker's elbow injury last summer, he would have had the surgery then and with the 6 months required for rehab, he would have been available and healthy in the beginning of Spring Training. Now his season is lost. And all because of another misdiagnosis and mistreatment. It is about time that the Twins' brass hold the medical staff accountable and replace them ASAP. Terry Ryan spoke about accountability when he was (re)appointed as the interim GM. Let see if he can walk the talk, or he was just blowing hot air.