Three Months? I Meant Seven Days!

As Emily Litella would say, "Nevermind!"

Leave it to the Nationals to have a doctor who doesn't do sports medicine to make a diagnosis of death on their best outfielder. After having a "real" doctor look at it, they've prescribed rest, and Guillen will be ready to go, swinging bats again in seven to ten days. Who knows what to believe anymore!

The league-run, internet-only news service has the details:

"It didn't add up," Dr. Kremcheck said. "It didn't seem right. If you know baseball players ... this is not a surgical problem. So we looked at the MRI and there's no structural damage. All his tendons and ligaments were normal. He had fluid and inflammation on the top part of his wrist and that's from hitting the ball hard, overdoing it and trying to get in shape for the season. I think he did too much too soon and he aggravated the wrist. ... We hope to have Jose back within a week.

"If you look at the timing of baseball, where we are, it's not going to hurt Jose and the Nationals to keep him out for a week. We just have to monitor what he does when we get him back on the field."

Given his history, they're going to have to watch him very closely. His inclination is to always do too much too soon.

Needless to say, this is huge for the Nats. In a purely numbers basis, the difference between Michael Tucker and Jose Guillen is probably at least three wins over the course of half a season. And that's without factoring in the emotional damage of the team (and the fanbase!), or any complications it could throw in with the A-Sor situation.

Is it too early to start "Operation: 81!" ?