Sir Aaron

Patellar tendon tear is complicated because he will not even be able to walk for several weeks. Rehab is long and painful. If he tore his ACL instead, he'd have surgery next week, be walking by week's end, and return to athletics at 6 months (assuming he had patellar tendon graft).

I was thinking the same thing. The Angels are perfectly capable of winning out the division this year.

Yes, I bet he did lose it. Most people would. This is a devastating injury. It is painful, requires surgery, and the rehabilitation protocol can be very overwhelming. I asked a well known Sports Medicine Doctor/OS and he said it was close as to which was worse, ACL or Patella tendon tear. He went with ACL but said it was a close one. Keep in mind that he will receive the best physical therapy money can buy which will mean that he will get back a lot more quickly than the average person. Also patella tendon tear is going to be much more painful because the ACL stops hurting after the tear (no nerves to hurt). Some people have virtually no pain when they tear their ACL. I tore my ACL then got up and continued doing what I was doing before.

Best scenario? He could be back for opening day. That would be about 7 months from now. I think a realistic goal would be the 2nd half of the season. He's going to have surgery next week. A lot of this depends on what the surgeon sees and what the prognosis is immediately after surgery. After that, the tendon will need to heal which is something that can't be rushed. The physical therapy will help him get confidence in the leg. My guess is that assuming the surgery is successful, that he'll be cleared to start throwing lightly at about 6 months with full return somewhere around May.

I watched the replay in slow motion several times. It was his left knee and it doesn't look like it was at an awkward angle when the injury occurred. Although to be fair, it isn't entirely clear from the replay when he had the injury. An injury like this as well as ACL tear often cause the fall. People are often under the misimpression that the fall caused the tear but it's the other way around. Sometimes there are muscle imbalances which contribute to these types of injuries and that is often found and corrected during the physical therapy protocols. So professional athletes (and sometimes regular folks too) sometimes come back better. The only worrisome factor is that you aren't just talking about an injury but 4-6 months of not throwing a ball at all, much less pitching at a professional level. But that's the nature of most injuries.

Born in Anaheim. Fan all my life since my father took me to the games. He preferred the Dodgers but I always preferred Anaheim. I couldn't watch parts of the last two games of the world series because I was so nervous.

Come on now. They can do it, especially if everyone hits.

LOL. I share your facetious pessimism over what seems to be the most unusual injuries to Angel players. Yes. The patellar tendon rupture is a pretty bad injury. Fortunately, since he is a pro athlete, he'll probably be on the operating table this week. That will help him get back faster. The surgeon will be able to say how he felt the surgery went and any anticipated problems. After that, they should know very accurately what his rehab looks like at the 4 month mark. At about 6 months, I'd expect to see him start at least light pitching. The biggest factor, however, will probably be psychologically. It's not easy to get back to using your leg properly again and fear of re-injury often limits an athlete's return from injury. But assuming the outlook after surgery is positive, I would expect to see him pitching no later than 12 months. Usually in this situation, there was some sort of patellar deficiency already. Then the pressure exerted on it causes it to tear. This is a pretty bad injury. I can't say that it is worse than an ACL (which is a ligament and must be completely replaced), but it's pretty bad. Very little blood supply there.