But generic "shoulder soreness" is always dubious for a pitcher, so I'm really crossing my fingers that this turns out okay.  I don't know hwy they don't do MRI's right away on things like this.  it isn't like it takes that long and it can be helpful to diagnose sooner...

Take last year. It was pretty clear to most observers that Liriano was headed for surgery. So the sooner you get him under the knife, the sooner you get him back. If he'd been cut on in August when the problem first showed up, he'd be available in September 2007 and the playoffs this year.

Or Kubel. Everyone knew Kubel was hurting last year. You could see it when he ran. But they didn't even give him an MRI until the season was over. If he gets cut on in August, he's 100% going into spring training. As it is, he's just getting up to 100% in May.

We saw it with Ford and Cirillo in spring training: They gave them both cortisone shots knowing that they had meniscus tears and hoping that would clear up the problem. Not getting in there right away, cleaning them up and getting them into rehab cost them at least a week of having healthy right-handed bats available to them. In Ford's case, I think it cost him nearly a month because he did more damage to it trying to run on it with a tear. Even Gardy went through the same rigmarole with his knee and finally got it cleaned out recently.

And this is not a recent trend: Eric Milton, Joe Mays,... If I had more time, I could think of a lot more cases. Who knows, if they cleaned up Radke's shoulder when it started hurting, he might have avoided shredding it altogether and he could still be pitching.

The Twins are waiting until Crain gets a second opinion on his shoulder before announcing any plans for surgery. Crain was examined by Twins physician Dan Buss on Wednesday, when the diagnosis was made.

"Right now, we're waiting on other opinions on things," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "Jesse's been a very, very big part of our bullpen, one of the best, and ate up a lot of innings for us.

"Pitchers have injuries, and it's unfortunate that Jesse has one."

Crain, 1-2 with a 5.51 ERA in 18 games this season, told team trainers after his outing Tuesday that pain in his shoulder kept him from finishing off his pitches. Crain was shut down for a week last month because of tendinitis.

According to Gardenhire, the Twins medical staff said it appears Crain has had the injuries for some time but recently they worsened.

Twins players were stunned to learn Crain had such extensive injuries.

"You don't want to lose any of those guys," righthander Carlos Silva said. "We have one of the best bullpens in the league."

Crain entered the season with a career 19-10 record and a 2.95 ERA. The Twins rewarded him during spring training with a three-year deal worth $3.25 million.

"Obviously for our bullpen, it's a blow," Gardenhire said, "Some people are going to have to step up, but it's hard to replace a very good arm like that who eats up a lot of innings."

Matt Guerrier will assume Crain's setup role.

Mauer progresses

There's good and bad news here.

The good news is from Joe Mauer, who is eligible to come off the disabled list Sunday after treating a strained left quadriceps muscle.

"It's getting really good," Mauer said with a confident nod before heading out to swing off a tee.

The bad news comes from Gardenhire.

"With him supposed to come off Sunday, doubt it," Gardenhire said. "I don't think that's going to happen, and how much longer after that, we just have to wait until he gets going here."

The swelling in Mauer's left leg still needs to subside before he can step up his activities. Wednesday was only the second day Mauer hit off a tee. He spends most of the day rehabbing.

"It's bleeding and we're trying to let it heal and dry up," Gardenhire said. "They are doing all kinds of treatments on it, but he's not straining it anymore, so it's healing. That's the whole theory behind the thing. That's why he's not doing much of anything."

-startribune.com

Kind of a double whammy there eh? Guerrier should do okay I think, but why not Neshek? I <3 Neshek.

That's exactly what we were talking about.  Why wasn't this discovered sooner?  Why didn't they take a look?

Also, did Mauer have any kind of MRI or scan?  Has he received any care other than "rest" at all?