A's and Giants aren't alone in pile of injuries this MLB season

Nothing keeps a good fan going through the dog days of any season like injury whingeing. You know the song, “My team’s been savaged, all our good players are out, I’m amazed we’re doing as we are, can you imagine how good we’d be if . . .” 
 
It’s the very definition of tedium, and the leading cause of people in bars choosing to drink alone.
 
We mention this because our two local concerns, the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants, are on a wounded binge these days. Buster Posey just had hip surgery, Steven Duggar just tore his labrum, and across the pond, starting pitchers Brett Anderson and Sean Manaea just went down with forearm problems, which typically means . . . well, you know.
 
Both teams have been cuffed around pretty well this year by any fair measure. The Giants have lost three fifths of their starting rotation at one point or another, three quarters of their starting infield and their catcher, a starting outfielder and the usual parade of relievers, both valuable and too inexperienced to note. The total: 20 players, 26 disabled list usages, 912 games lost (all figures are courtesy of RosterResource.com).
 
The A’s, on the other hand, have lost their entire starting rotation, some members more than once, two infielders, two outfielders, a backup catcher and the usual parade of relievers. The total: 20 players, 25 disabled list usages, 1,032 games lost.
 
That’s the meta, though, and we all know the specifics. Either way, the point to be made here is that they aren’t the most injured or most victimized teams in baseball, and besides, every team has a sob story or 17, and in the new era of the 10-day DL and teams being overcautious with their “assets” (corporate-speak for “humans”), every complaint comes off as what it is – skull-warping sniveling.
 
The Los Angeles Angels lost Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Justin Upton, Garrett Richards, Tyler Skaggs and Ian Kinsler among their MLB-high 31 DLs and 1,435 games lost. The Washington Nationals lost Bryce Harper, Stephen Strasburg, Anthony Rendon, Ryan Zimmerman, Adam Eaton, Sean Doolittle and Daniel Murphy and Matt Adams (later traded) among 28 DLs and 1,375 days. The Los Angeles Dodgers have used the DL 37 times, including multiple times to the same player 12 times (1,349 days), St. Louis has used it 36 times, (1,090) and Boston 26 times (1,102).
 
In short, good teams have them, bad teams have them, all the teams in the middle have them. The Giants and A’s may have been throttled good this year, but so has everyone else. In fact, seven of the 10 teams currently in playoff positions take seven of the top 12 places in injury impact.
 
Now we’re not saying injuries are therefore good; if that were true, 23 general managers would be hitting their players on the kneecaps with hammers to get in on the next exciting market inefficiency.
 
Nor are we saying players aren’t made like they used to be. Teams use the DL tactically as well as medically, and tend to err on the side of caution more than ever before. Players who cost $35 million a year tend to get pampered a bit more than players who made $100,000 in 1960.
 
We are, however, saying the moaning on about it is at best unbecoming and at worst an invitation to a fist in the ear. The only teams that don’t get harmed by injury are teams with twice as many good players as roster spots, and nobody has that.
 
In other words, the only decent thing for any baseball fan to do at this point is pretend they’re playing poker and hearing someone else at the table giving them the only useful advice there is at times like this.
 
“Shut up and deal.”