ManBan Shut Down For The Season

Via Andrew Marchand, who is usually reliable on news-type stuff:

"The New York Yankees' top pitching prospect, Manny Banuelos, will not pitch again this year after throwing in six games all season, the team's vice president of baseball operations Mark Newman told ESPN New York on Monday.

'He's not going to be back this season,' Newman said.

The left-handed Banuelos, rated the Yankees' No. 1 prospect by ESPN's Keith Law prior to the season, has been out of action since the middle of May with what Newman described as a bone bruise in his left elbow."



My (admittedly negative) take on this news after the jump.

I guess this is what happens when you base your best pitching prospect's rehab throwing plan on hope, huh?  I feel like Russell Casse from "Independence Day" in that scene where the aliens are finally attacking and he's rambling on and on to his son Miguel about how he's "been sayin' it for ten damn years."  It hasn't been 10 years since ManBan was shelved with his elbow problems, but something hasn't felt right to me about this from the moment it happened and the initial diagnosis came back, and I've been hinting at the potential "real" severity of his injury for quite some time now.

At first it was just elbow soreness, then it was a tired arm, now today when the team announces they're shutting him down for the season just weeks after he started throwing again it's a bone bruise.  Maybe I'm just being overly pessimistic because this has already been a shitty day at work and because I want myself to be right on this, but something just doesn't add up here.  And now the Yankees are saying they want to do this to keep Banuelos rested so he can pitch in a winter league.  With as long as these elbow issues have dragged on, I don't think that's a good strategy at all, no matter what the Yankee doctors are telling the front office.  Those guys haven't exactly been batting 1.000 when it comes to elbow injuries this year, ya know.

2012 was already a lost season for Banuelos before this latest setback.  Now my concern is that 2013 could be the same if the Yankees continue down this path of trying to get him to pitch this season instead of doing something to address his continued elbow problems.