Orioles dealing with injuries

Brain Roberts' neck; Derrek Lee's thumb and Justin Duchscherer's hip. All three have flared up a bit recently and forced each player to take some time off.

Roberts' neck issue: not an issue.

Roberts missed three days of work outs when on February 25th he woke up with what he described as a "stiff neck". It was bad enough that he was sent to get x-rays. We then heard the faint scream of Orioles fans racing to their keyboards to over-react. And while these fans were collectively wetting the bed Brian Roberts' "fragility" was brought up. "Do you think he will play the whole year?" was a common question asked. The answer is a resounding yes guys, chill out a minute.

Here are the facts, including last year Roberts has failed to play at least 145 games only two other times. Two of those seasons were the direct result of Bubba Crosby almost ripping his arm off at the end of the 2005 season. (games played in 05 - 143; 06 - 132) and then last year's herniated disk. Before the hernia Roberts was averaging 152 games played over his career as a starter. He is not as catastrophically injury-prone as some people seem to think he is.

I will state right here that Brian Roberts will play in at least 145 games this year, I'll bring him in below his pre-hernia average because of age and everything, He will be fine.

Lee's thumb issue: Concerned

Frankly I am surprised there is such little concern over this. Derrek Lee had thumb surgery this offseason and everyone expected him to be on a slightly slower pace and have some soreness and tenderness in his thumb, but I am not going to sit here and pretend I'm not worried about it. Reimold's ankle surgery at the beginning of last year and how it hampered him throughout. Why am I concerned about this an not Roberts? Because Roberts had the entire offseason to recover and has a clean bill of health as of right now; Lee is still in recovery and until he gets on the same page with the rest of the team I think this is something that should be a bit of a concern.

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