Talked with Alan today. He threw his scheduled workout to live hitters and said everything went very well again. He said his command was good as he was able to locate all his pitches down in the zone on the day. He went on to say he continues to have real good run and sink on his FB's, both his breaking balls were sharp today, and his change-up continues to be good. He said no one really squared up on any balls hit. He seemed most pleased again with the fact that his arm continues to feel strong while he is working as well as when he's through with his workout. He says he's ready to go...just waiting on getting the green light. He should be scheduled to throw to live hitters again either Thursday or Friday and then get into a game next Monday. Continuing to look for good things ahead.Alan sustained this injury on April 10. Barring any further setbacks, he will be returning to live action on May 19. If the Yankees do give him that "green light" for Monday, it will be a total of 39 days missed to the partial tear (otherwise known as a strain) of the biceps muscle in his pitching arm. This is interesting to me, because I haven't closely followed an injury of this type to a pitching arm. It is fascinating that the muscle has healed and regenerated completely with that type of injury in under 40 days. The Yankees training staff is presumably top notch with all of the money they throw around, so I guess I'm not too surprised.
Many pundits predicted that Alan could have an impact in the Yankees bullpen in the 2nd half of 2008. Of course, that was before the bullpen had become an unexpected strength of the ball club. After this injury, it would probably be better for Alan to spend another full season in AAA and then make the team out of Spring Training next season. It is doubtful that he feels that way. We'll have to wait and see what happens.
Obviously, this
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