Breaking news: Madson to miss minimum of 8 weeks

The severity of Ryan Madson's broken right big toe was confirmed just moments ago by the beat writers.

Madson is expected to miss eight weeks recovering from a complex fracture of the toe, according to reports. Madson underwent surgery to insert pins into the toe today and the Phillies have declared the surgery a success. The immediate impact is that Brad Lidge and J.C. Romero's own recovery could be hurried along as the Phillies try to make ends meet in the back of the bullpen, while the adjustment period for veteran Jose Contreras, who has pitched sparingly recently, has suddenly become shorter. Pitching help is generally unobtainable in early May and assistant GM Scott Proefrock has already suggested to the Inquirer that the Phillies intend to get by with what they have for now, noting that he believes Lidge and Romero are 100 percent healthy, although Phillies skipper Charlie Manuel has taken a cautious approach with both. Madson (7.00 ERA) had saved four and blown two before taking out his aggression on a chair, but his ability to pitch late in games and in multiple innings makes him difficult to replace. 

Madson's recovery coincides with the toughest part of the Phillies' schedule, including interleague play. Expect more of the same wildly varied results until players start coming off the shelf. As for Madson, what can the Phillies realistically expect? It's entirely possible that he will become a non-factor for the Phillies this season.

(Editor's note: This isn't Ryan Madson's broken right toe, but I bet it looks similar. Imagine a big muttonhead attached to it, and it's Madson. The next time you want to unload on a chair, use a taser, big boy.)

Comments

[TK]

I hope he never pitches for them again.

Dump him for a Single A prospect when he's healthy.

[doubleh]

TK: Nothing like biting off your nose to despite your face.

He is still valuable to this ballclub; just wish he uses his head for something other than a hat rack when he returns.

[doubleh]

I meant "to spite your face". Typo--my bad.

[Tk]

Is it though? The guy has a mental makeup of a poodle. I'm done with him.

[J. Weitzel]

The Phillies basically go short-handed in the back of their bullpen through the toughest part of their schedule, including interleague. It's going to be a pretty bumpy ride until they can get healthy again. Madson could pitch late innings and multiple innings. He's a valuable guy, despite the BS.

[Sophist]

Thank god TK isn't the GM

[doubleh]

TK: It's not like he's Brett Myers.

[GTown_Dave]

Tk: Has Madson had other off-field Moments of Dipsh*t that I'm not recalling? It's one mistake ... a big (toe) one, but hardly an unforgivable one.

[doubleh]

Also, should be noted that who knows how long it will take Madson to get back to form once he does return since it was his plant toe. This will most definitely mess up his delivery.

[loqiel]

At least when he comes back his arm will be fresh so Charlie can use him every day until he dies like Durbin in '08.

[TK]

AA: That's debatable. I'd bet he gives up just as many untimely, backbreaking hits.

[GTown_Dave]

"At least when he comes back his arm will be fresh so Charlie can use him every day until he dies like Durbin in '08."

It's all part of Charlie's diabolical Master Plan ...

I can't wait to see how he finally disposes of Kendrick!

[TK]

My trade him comment was only half-serious. But I'm seriously infuriated at Ryan Madson for both the injury and the way he's pitched this year and really his entire career. He did well in '08 and '09 overall but I have a hard time forgetting the backbreaking hits he seemed to ALWAYS give up when we could least afford it.

How gracious would we be to him if that Rocco Baldelli HR kept the score even and the Rays won Game 5 in extras? Or if Yorvit Friggin' Torrealba's double wound up forcing the game 5 against the Rockies last year?

[HammRadio]

was listening to Charlie on his new show on WIP this afternoon. It was an interesting show (although, i'm not sure gargano and macnow are the best guys to do that type of interview) regardless...

But @bap might find it interesting because he lays out why he uses the "paint by numbers approach" to the bullpen and why he doesn't like to use closers for 4 outs. Although he doesn't explain why he's using Danys Baez for multiple innnings direclty, I get the sense that he's trying to get Baez out of the CLOSER mind set where your adrenaline is only for one inning at a time, and into a multiple inning sense.

the long and short of the philosphy of paint by numbers keeps your bullpen organized, you can rely on whos available in the bullpen from day to day, and in the terms of the closers you can use them MORE often.

you can find the http://610wip.cbslocal.com/2010/05/04/ant-and-glen-talk-phils-with-charlie-manuel/#more-1925>podcast here:
http://610wip.cbslocal.com/2010/05/04/ant-and-glen-talk-phils-with-charlie-manuel/#more-1925

[GBrettfan]

I figured it would be at least a month, but at least 2 months? Ouch. We also don't know how much longer Happ will be out, although I saw he's throwing again. Looks like Ruben will be busy on the phone if he isn't already, trying to finagle some kind of pitching help.

[GTown_Dave]

TK: I increasingly feel that Madson is a largely average reliever who had one great run. However, I prefer to wait until Ryan has had a chance to get back in the spot where he was most successful -- 8th inning set-up -- before speculating upon which insultingly valueless items I would accept for him in trade.

[ozark]

He should be sent to baseball hell, such as Pittsburgh, KC, Balt, etc. He's an absolute disgrace to his teammates, the organization, and mostly the fans. The team should suspend his pay until he pitches again. It's not like he threw out his back sneezing. His act was a deliberate act demonstrating his utter idiocy. Later, Meathead.

[GTown_Dave]

Salisbury (via Twitter): "Lidge may close tonite, says Manuel"

Of course the Phillies would have to score more runs than Hamels gives up, but petty details aside, it's an interesting bit of news.

[GTown_Dave]

ozark: It was you who wanted to trade Mike Schmidt for "a wagon load of pumpkins", was it not?

[NEPP]

I'm not worried about Lidge...he looked damn good last night against good hitters. His slider was solid and he was locating a decent 93-94 mph fastball.

[roto]

I'm going to assume everyone who's saying the phills should dump madson have never gotten upset when their team is losing. I can't get too mad at Madson considering how many time's i've punched the wall when the phillies lose. I can only imagine if I was the cause of that L.

Also, he kicked a chair. It's not like he expected to break his toe. I'm not trying to completely excuse what he did, just trying to give some perspective.

[GTown_Dave]

Plus, Proefrock says both he & Romero are "100 percent healthy" ... & who am I to doubt the man who though Aumont, Gillies & Ramirez were a good return on Cliff Lee?

[Dan P]

He did mess his wrist up a few years back while shagging balls in BP. I was at the game. Saw him drift back to the wall and try to use his 6'7 self to rob a home run out of the flowers in left. Came down and started shaking his hand and looking at his wrist. Done for several weeks after that I think. But baseball ain't brain surgery.

[Dukes]

I completely agree, roto. These people preaching about Madson act like they've never gotten upset and done something stupid. This guy helped us win a world series and he was doing what we in Philadelphia like - getting emotional about a bad performance. Would you rather him shrug it off and not care? Well, I guess that would have been nice cause he'd still be able to pitch, but you know what I mean.

[Murgatroid]

I think there's a bit of a double standard for athletes. If a pitcher performs poorly and he loses his temper, he's a headcase. If a player performs poorly and he doesn't get angry, then he doesn't care. These players aren't emotionless robots. Yes, Madson made a stupid decision, but considering how I feel after Madson blows a save, I can easily understand why he did it. I don't think people should hold this against him too much.

[NEPP]

Why can't all ball players be relaxed laid back guys...you know, like how Paul O'Neill was.

Give me 9 Paul O'Neill's and I could take over the world.

[GBrettfan]

Mitch just said the funniest thing about the interference call on Blanton last night. He said Blanton was called out for interfering with Schumaker's ability to be 7 ft. tall (in order to catch the bad throw).

I hope I'm quoting accurately or reasonably so - Someone else who heard it, correct me if I'm wrong.

Now I'm all fired up about the call again. Must let it go, games over and Fig still could have blown things.

[Brian G]

I don't get the over the top responses to Madson, highlighted by ozark. In the heat of the moment he did something mildly stupid and is already paying an excessive price for it. Ignore the freak injury for a second... suddenly he's a bad guy because he kicked a chair? Give me a break.

[Bay Slugga]

Hamels broke his hand in bar fight, and people forgot all about it when he was winning NLCS and WS MVP honors in 2008. I'm sure players kick things and punch things all the time and don't get injured - it sucks it had to happen this time. Hopefully, Madson knows he is really letting down his team by pulling a stunt like this and he will rededicate and focus himself throughout the rehab. This isn't an unforgivable offense by any means (Myers beat his wife on the streets of boston), and he will be a welcome addition to the bullpen in the summer.

[rex]

Maybe I'm spoiled by 10 years of taekwondo, but there are definitely ways to kick something without breaking your toe. Preferably you want to kick with the ball of your foot or realistically do a little turn and mule kick something with your heel. Much less chance of hurting yourself seriously. Even a roundhouse kick would have at least given the larger part of the foot a chance to absorb the impact. Putting that much force on that small a point is asking for trouble. I mean he really had to wail on it too. I've broken toes and I kick pretty damn hard but never compound fractured like this. That's an awful lot of anger he unloaded on that poor chair.

He also could have just thrown the chair at Kendrick. Thus getting out his anger and removing Kendrick from the rotation. 2 birds with 1 stone if you will.

[Willard Preacher]

JW, wouldn't "Broken News" be a bit more apropos?

[Willard Preacher]

I'd love to see a Youtube clip of Mad Dog heading down the tunnel, throwing his glove, with a snarl on his face. He walks up to a helpless steel folding chair, that hasn't hurt anyone outside of a lone ECW taping a few years back, winds up and kicks it Morton Andersen style.

He immediately starts hopping around on one foot as tears form in his eyes and he REALLY lets loose on an expletive tyrade. He then limps off to his locker and buries his head in his hands. Mr. Madson, today was not your day....

[Willard Preacher]

Correction, Morton Andersen was left-footed. Let's go with Neil Rackers for the sake of this scene.

Mad Dog quickly became a puppy dog, I'm sure.

[GM-Carson]

maybe while the doctors are in there operating, they can plug up madson's va-jay-jay and install a man package. what an idiot!