Season ends early for Whitecaps Alumns

Joel Zumaya: Former West Michigan Whitecap and Detroit Tiger relief pitcher Joel Zumaya has seen his season end prematurely once again. In 2011, he suffered a season-ending injury that required a screw to be inserted to stabilize a fracture at the tip of his right elbow. Ouch. Zumaya, now a member of the Minnesota Twins organization, just tore his ulnar collateral ligament, and will miss all of 2012. I’m no doctor, but that just sounds bad. Bad to the point where he may have to under go Tommy John surgery, but the so far Zoom-Zoom is undecided on whether he’ll go that route. He’s have to go through at least a year of rehab after having the ligament replaced. His other choice may be to hang up the glove, and pick up the toy guitar connected to his PS3, and go from there. Zumaya’s injury troubles started by injuring his wrist playing Guitar Hero, and hurting his shoulder helping move boxes in this parents attic. His comments make it seem he’s leaning toward retirement:

“Right now, my perspective is probably not (get the surgery). I know I’m pretty young, but I’m probably going to go on six surgeries if I get another one. I’m only 27 years old. I’ve taken a lot of wear and tear on my body, especially my arm, and then rehab, and it just mentally takes a lot out of you.”

The Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland is still close to Zumaya, and stated: “I sure will call him. I hear he’s pretty upset.” Maybe Leyland can give him some advise on the situation. It’s too bad, because guys that throw 100 mph. don’t come along all that often. As a player, he really got the fans to rally behind him and the Tigers on 2006, but has only pitched about 39 innings since then.

Scott Sizemore: Another former Whitecaps and Tiger Scott Sizemore will miss all of 2012 with a torn anterior cruciated ligament. In layman’s terms…he messed up his knee. Now a member of the Oakland Athletics, he hurt his knee during fielding drills on Saturday…the same day of Zumaya’s injury. Sizemore was slated to be the A’s every day third baseman this season. Too bad this kid can’t catch a break. He injured his ankle during play in the Arizona Fall League just after the Tigers announced that they would not be re-signing second baseman Placido Palanco, and that Sizemore would be given the job. His ankle never really had time to heal properly, and he never found his swing to stay in the Tigers lineup. He hit .223 in 65 games for Detroit in 2010-11 before being traded to Oakland for pitcher David Purcey. Last season he hit .249 with 11 home runs and 52 RBI’s in 93 games for the A’s.

I’m glad Sizemore had an opportunity to play in Oakland, and hope next season will bring him some more success there. He was one of my favorite players off of the 2007 Whitecaps Midwest League Championship team. As for this season, though, it looks like these former Whitecaps will be spectators just like us…

Photos courtesy of the Associated Press

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