Baltimore Orioles’ Machado: A Man with Ugly Knees
Aug 11, 2014; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles third baseman Manny Machado (13) goes down with a knee injury after striking out in the third inning against the New York Yankees at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports
There is so much for the fans of the Baltimore Orioles and their third baseman Manny Machado to be excited about. Most professional players his age would be working their way through the minors at about the A-level, if they were even in pro ball and out of college.
He was the #3 overall pick in the 2010 draft. Though Bryce Harper was #1, the second pick (by the Pirates) was RHP Jameson Taillon, who is a career 16-21 and recovering from Tommy John surgery. And the next pick after Machado (by the Royals) was infielder Christian Colon, who has played a total of eight games in the major leagues.
When have we ever seen a third baseman like this? For such a young man it is simply beyond imagination. He has the glove of Brooks Robinson, but there really is no one else with whom to compare his arm. I have never seen anything like it.
He is a plus hitter, again, especially for a man his age. Machado has made such great advances this year after missing the offseason training and all of the spring up to his first appearance on May 1st. For May and June he batted .239; but for July and August it has been .348.
His reflexes and eye-hand skills are simply amazing—rare air sort of stuff. They don’t just give away Gold Glove and Platinum Glove awards.
This is a franchise cornerstone sort of player.
But here is the bad news: He has ugly knees.
On Monday night in Baltimore, he was essentially carried off the field with a knee injury for the second time in his short career. Of course, at the end of the 2013 season, Machado suffered a devastating knee injury on the bag at first base in Tampa Bay, resulting is major surgery.
The Orioles announced Monday night that Machado suffered a sprained right knee and will be re-evaluated on Tuesday. That does not sound too bad, but the look of it at the moment it happened gave an appearance of something much worse. In a swing with a high level of torque, where it also looked like his ankle collapsed under him, he simply went down into a heap, grabbing his knee.
Machado runs with a terribly awkward, knees-knocking sort of gait. Long before the first knee injury, I feared the very situation/situations that had/have developed. As a long-time running coach in cross country and track, I have to say that I don’t know what to offer as a suggestion for it. It is simply his natural bio-mechanical disposition. What I am really saying is that it is not a fixable sort of thing.
Live Feed
Friars on Base
Knee problems and complications have a way of multiplying as well. I’m not sure why God didn’t make knees just a bit more durable. And since I went “God” on you, I don’t claim to be a prophet or the son of a prophet (though I do work for a non-profit organization), but I fear this may be a career-long challenge for this very gifted young man and baseball player.
So what do the Orioles do if he ends up lost to them for a time? Well, it is not as if it has not happened before. All O’s fans want to see him at third base and batting second in the lineup. But with Machado playing this year, they are 46-35 (.568) and without him they are a combined 21-15 (.583).
Actually, since the Orioles spanked the Yankees after Machado went out of the game, they are now 47-35 with him.