By Rich Herrera @RBIRich

Horrible news for baseball fans everywhere. Jose Fernandez is a facing season ending elbow injury. My gosh this season we have been crushed with young hurlers going to see Dr Andrews to find out they are lost for the year. No team has been safe from this rash on injuries. Why is this happening. In my last blog I argued for the merits of pitch counts and why teams should treat young arms like works of art to be taken care of like a masterpiece. I still stand by that today. But sometimes that is just not enough.

I have worked on radio for teams that have shut down young arms in September and taken calls from fans screaming why am I buying a ticket to see a team that shuts down their best player just because of some number on a sheet somewhere. The Marlins did everything right with Fernandez. They limited his pitch counts, and even ended his season early last season to make sure they took care of his arm. But even with all that Fernandez is still lost for 18 months.

So why is this happening, all these young arms getting hurt this season. There is really no rhyme or reason. Everyone one is different, there is no one reason why we have had this rash of Tommy John surgeries this season. Some have bad mechanics, some have been over used, some have bad luck, some have bad genetics. For what ever the reason it’s not good for baseball with all these pitchers going on the DL. This year we lost the great Dr Frank Jobe who created the Tommy John procedure. Thank god for Dr Jobe because I wouldn’t want to think of the loss if we didn’t have the Tommy John surgery and the great players we might have lost. Once again thanks DR Jobe.

Fun game last night with the Yankees and the Mets. The Yankees jumped to a lead on a Brett Grardner grand slam. Then Curtis Granderson brought the Mets back to win the first game of the Subway Series. I know it can’t be done, but I wish every inter league game had the feeling of the Subway Series or the Bay Bridge Series, but for every one of those we get stuck with Rays and Marlins or the Mariners and Padres. Oh well we can’t have it all can we.

The A’s have one of the better teams in baseball right now. But one thing they are going to have to figure out is who is going to get the last 3 outs of a game. Keep an eye on the backend of the Oakland bullpen this month to see if they can sort out there closers spot to go along with their strong starting staff.

Brian Wilson has to be a concern for the Dodgers giving up another homer last night in the win over the Marlins. He has been missing his spots and paying the price. He was to be the set up guy for the Dodgers and maybe fill in as a closer now and then. Right now it looks like LA is just trying to get his confidence back on line.

I got a new guy I am thinking of adding to the Good Dude team. Kevin Frandsen of the Nats. He came on MLB Network Radio with me after he hit the game winning homer last night in Arizona. I loved what he had to say. He is comfortable and enjoys the challenge of being a pinch hitter. He understands what he needs to do in that role. He also shared his thoughts on celebrating every win, because you earned it, baseball is a tough game and each win should be savored because they are not that easy to come by. I wanted to order a Frandsen jersey t-shirt but they didn’t have big fajita sized shirts. I am going to have to still keep my eye out for one because I have a feeling he is making my Good Dudes team