Truth & Rumors > MLB

10:42 AM ET 05.19 | According to MLB, there were 203 disabled list stints as of May 9, the second most (to 205 in 2008) in the last 10 years. So what gives? Why are so many more players going down every year with injuries? According to Lou Piniella, who was on the disabled list just twice in 18 seasons, once for an inner ear condition and once for a broken thumb, if baseball wants to cut down on the muscle pulls and back soreness, it should do away with the weight rooms and put a limit on how much time hitters can spend in the batting cages. "The season is so long now and so strenuous, you need to rest your body for two-three months after it's over," said Sweet Lou. "But today, these players all have their personal trainers and they work out all winter and put on more muscle. When I played, we didn't have a weight room or a strength coach and everybody took the team bus to the ballpark. We never heard of an oblique. Now guys are going out on their own, five or six hours before the game, going right to the batting cages and taking hundreds of swings a day. It's overdone. The body can't take it. If you ask me, that's where all these oblique injuries are coming from. These kids are in such good shape, but at the same time they're more susceptible to injury because their muscles are strung too tight. You can't work it 12 months out of the year." When he was a player, Piniella said, at the end of the year he handed his equipment bag to the Yankee clubhouse attendants and said: "See you in spring training."

New York Daily News

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09:25 AM ET 05.19 | Ron Washington is deservedly under fire for letting Yu Darvish throw 130 pitches Thursday night in a 10-4 victory over Justin Verlander and the Tigers. It was fun to watch but pointless for him to continue beyond the seventh inning, when he had thrown 115 pitches.

Chicago Tribune

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09:18 AM ET 05.18 | Will Don Mattingly be the Dodgers manager for the remainder of the season? Team President Stan Kasten wouldn't say. "I don't discuss the manager and I never do," Kasten said. "Ever since spring training, we said that, when you wanted to talk about him every day. We had a rough start but we expect to get through this." Kasten was reminded he was asked a yes-or-no question. "What was the question again?" Kasten asked. Will Don Mattingly be your manager for the rest of the year? Kasten offered more substantive information this time, but still left himself some wiggle room. "That's my assumption, yeah," he said. "I assume so because I assume we're going to play the rest of the year even better than we've played so far and I like the way the ballclub is set up." Asked to appraise Mattingly's performance as manager, Kasten said, "I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to have a discussion about any individual."

Los Angeles Times

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07:57 AM ET 05.18 | Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Brett Anderson has been dealing with a foot injury that has kept him out of action since April 29. The A's have been working to get Anderson back on the mound, but the injury has been nagging, and he has been unable to overcome the pain. Now, we finally have learned the full extent of how serious the injury is. Anderson has a navicular stress fracture of his right foot. He will be re-evaluated in four weeks.

FanSided.com

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08:33 AM ET 05.18 | Teams hoping to make a play for star Padres third baseman Chase Headley this summer might have to seek a backup plan. While there's been some early speculation about a trade for Headley since he recently said publicly that he wouldn't discuss a contract extension during the season, people with ties to the team are saying it's "unlikely" that there will be a trade involving the Padres' best player. The Padres acknowledge they didn't get very far in contract talks this winter, and while no figures have become public, it's believed they were hoping to do a deal for south of $100 million -- no surprise considering their market size and spending history. It's believed they were considering a five-year deal, at most, but it's possible they were willing to go to something in the range of $75 million. Headley's side hasn't said what it's looking for either, but agents not involved suggest Ryan Zimmerman's $100 million, six-year extension from a couple of springs ago should be viewed by the player as a baseline. Headley's agent, Casey Close, didn't return a message. "Our first choice is to sign him,'' Padres general manager Josh Byrnes said by phone.

CBS Sports

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