I take no particular joy in reporting on what looked to be bad injury, possibly of the season ending variety, to Darin Erstad. But I'd be lying if I said the first thing to enter my mind was something other than the clause in his contract that could have made him $6M next year if he reached 600 plate appearances. I don't want to see anyone get hurt, but I definitely didn't want to see Erstad reach 600 plate appearances.
We've been thinking about next year, the future really, for some time now. It was only natural for my first thought to be about the impact the injury would have on the future clubs rather than the current one. Because if I had been thinking only in terms of the '07 season, Erstad's loss would be a blow. Maybe not a huge one, but there is a dropoff to the Owens/Sweeney/Anderson trio who will be replacing him.
Post injury info and discuss the ramifications here. I'll post a proper recap for that wham-bam-no-thank-you-maam game later tonight.