Could these small, minor injuries be the kryptonite that causes the Portland Lumberjacks' season to begin to derail. At 35-15, Portland is off to one of their best starts in franchise history*. But a back injury to Marroquin will force him out for a week and a similar injury to starting thirdbaseman Daniel Frampton will force a similar result. The Lumberjacks announced today they are sending Frampton to the 7-day IL.
"He's played with it for a week or so" commented manager Mons Raider. "He said he was fine, and in fact had some good performances out there with it, but you can tell he's not 100%. So, like with Marroquin, we feel it's in our best interest to let Frampton rest it and ensure he's 100%. We've had a long stretch without many days off and taking a few days off at this point can't hurt."
Raider reported that Frampton stated he was feeling soreness after the team's May 21 game versus Omaha, meaning he played the entire Yellow Springs series with back issues. In the series, Frampton hit 5 for 14 with a run scored and 2 RBI. So clearly the issues didn't affect him at teh plate.
"He could have played and we likely could have kept him off the IL" added Raider, "but we're looking big picture. We'd rather sit him a week now, get him back to 100% than potentially risk losing him for a longer stretch of time. If we didn't feel we had a very versatile group of bench guys ready to fill in, we may look at it differently."
Indications are that Damek Korbel, fresh off his walk-off 3-run homer against the Nine last night, will take Frampton's spot at 3B during his IL stay.
"Much like the injury to Connely that allowed us to use Pruitt in the OF, our offense will take a slight dip with Korbel in over Frampton but our defense just gets even better. We already have the best defense in the BBA but it gets even better with Korbel. Batters will be hard pressed to get a groundball through our infield this week with Korbel over at the hot corner. We'll just have to make sure we can score some runs to go with our superior defense now."
Portland's +26.7 range factor is tops in the league. And for a week, Korbel, a shortstop by trade, will take his 8 range to 3B, replacing Frampton's 3.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* We researched it as best we could and in 2050, the year Portland went 108-54 en route to their lone Pacific Division crown, the club was 29-15 through their first 44 games and was 52-24 after 76 (writing ample team news help find those tidbits I suppose).
