Does spring training last too long? I say yes. The Tigers got a bit of final-week bad news for the thirds straight year: Curtis Granderson’s finger was broken when he took a pitch off it Saturday, Jason Beck reports. He’ll start on the disabled list. The splint can be removed in about two weeks, then he’ll start getting back into rhythm, Beck added. So he should miss about two weeks of the regular season, which is good news.

This obviously stinks. Unless you’re Ryan Raburn, who should now make the team for sure. Or Brandon Inge, who may end up as the starting center fielder. Of course, even then it still sucks, they don’t want to see a teammate injured.

So this is the third straight year that I can remember a starter being lost to the disabled list in the final week. Last year, Kenny Rogers needed surgery on his blood clot. The year before that, Todd Jones hurt his hamstring. Shorter spring training wouldn’t really guarantee future injuries — and maybe it would create more if players weren’t properly stretched out. But right about now, I’d just like to get to the regular season.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 23rd, 2008 at 10:39 am and is filed under 2008 predictions, injuries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.