Joel Zumaya injury: what do we know

Update: Zumaya's MRI revealed a Torn UCL. Ligament replacement surgery next. Out for at least a year.

By now we all know that Zumaya left yesterday's bullpen session with pain/discomfort on "the inside of his elbow" after he threw 15 pitches to Chris Herrmann. According to the observers he was throwing very hard. Terry Ryan announced that there will be an MRI today and the results will be announced either late today or tomorrow.

Of course, the reaction of the Twins' Territory, especially in the light of the injury-filled , and disappointing 2011 season, was nothing short of "gloom and doom". Here, I am attempting to really go through all those reports and separate opinion from facts, look into quotes, reading between the lines and see what the story might be.

John Shipley wrote this report at Pioneer Press, Phil Mackey this update at ESPN 1500, La Velle Neal this piece at Star Tribune and Rhett Bollinger this one for MLB.com. There are some interesting direct quotes from Terry Ryan and other Twins' members. Let's examine them:

"It would be a little less concerning if we didn't have the history he's experienced in his career"

What I read into this, is that the injury/pain/discomfort is not that severe and if it were. let's say Carl Pavano, instead of Joel Zumaya, it might have been a different story about perceptions of severity. This is good news in my book, and is reinforced by this quote by Ron Gardenhire: "He's had some issues and had some arm injuries, and we want to protect him as much as we can". So this might be indeed something not extremely serious, but Zumaya and the Twins are playing it safe, because of his injury history.

A reference was made about the pain the Joe Nathan experience last season in Spring Training because of scar tissue being removed when pitching, a process that is helpful but painful. When Ryan was asked about that, he said "that would be ideal".

Again, it is a good possibility that this is the case. According to everyone he was throwing hard. The harder someone throws, the faster scar tissue breaks and the more painful it is. Danny Valencia is quoted by Phil Mackey saying "He was throwing gas, man,", Ryan said that "We may have to tone him down some."

It is entirely likely that Zumaya's discomfort is actually a good sign: scar tissue breakdown. I agree 100% with what Terry Ryan said, about Zumaya:

"Anytime a guy gets an MRI, there's got to be concern. But, I'm not going to overreact until the results come out. Let's hope it's not something serious."

5 little known facts (and a couple videos) about Twins' Joel Zumaya

It leaked earlier today that the Twins have signed Joel Zumaya to a non-guaranteed one year major league contract that will pay him a minimum of $800,000 and a maximum of $1.7 million if he reaches incentives based on appearances, pending a physical that will take place the coming Thursday or Friday. A non-guaranteed MLB contract works pretty much like this: The player is added to the 40-man roster and the team has until the end of Spring Training to decide whether or not to keep him. If the do not keep him, he is a free agent and allowed to sign any type of contract with any team (including a minor league contract with the team that cut him.) I do like this signing for a lot of reasons, especially the huge upside and the absolute zero risk for the Twins. But I am not going to get much into numbers or details, but instead I will present 5 little known facts and a couple videos about Joel Zumaya:

• His full name is Joel Martin Zumaya and he was born in California (Chula Vista, which is dead smack on the Mexican border - his family hails from Mexico- south of San Diego, the other side of Tijuana, and grew up a Padres' fan.), but his nickname has been Joel "Zoom zoom" Zumaya. And he turned 27 last November 9th. His father's name is also Joel (his mother's is Yvonne) so he could have been a "Junior".


• His fastball topped out at 104.8 mph when cameras were introduced to measure velocity in Pitch fx. His highest stadium gun recorded pitch was an 104 mph pitch thrown against Twins' Nick Punto in Comerica Park on August 7th 2006.


• Zumaya has been injury-prone, but his biggest injury was when sidelined in the 2006 ALCS with a sore wrist, apparently caused by playing Guitar Hero


• In the past, Zumaya used to subsribe to the Miguel Cabrera lifestyle. Hope these days are over. Here is Zumaya's video response at The Detroit News about Cabrera's issues (at the 1:33 mark.)


• Zumaya has been wearing uniform number 54. This number has been (sort of) claimed by Phil Dumatrait for the Twins for the time being, and up until recently it belong to Matt Guerrier.

Zumaya apparently has made at least one TV ad, and not for Mazda (Zoom Zoom, that's coming next) :



and that injury has not discouraged him from playing Guitar Hero: