San Francisco Giants: Madison Bumgarner has Fractured Hand, Sky Is Falling

The “sky is falling” portion of the San Francisco Giants fanbase has its catalyst to begin even before opening day starts. Madison Bumgarner has a fractured hand after being caught in the pitching hand with a come-backer in today’s spring training game.

“The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” No, chicken little isn’t on in the background, that’s just the negative nancy portion of the San Francisco Giants fanbase calling the season over before it began.

Madison Bumgarner was caught in the hand by a line-drive come-backer off the bat of Kansas City Royals second baseman, Whit Merrifield. Bumgarner left the game after it happened.

The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly tweeted out that Bumgarner had a fractured hand.

Madison Bumgarner has a fractured hand
— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) March 23, 2018

Being the M.D. that I am, I decided to consult the google machine on how long it takes for a fractured hand to heal. Here is what it gave me from from MedLine Plus:

"Usually, it is for about 3 weeks. If you had surgery, you may have a cast instead of a splint. Most fractures heal well. After healing, your knuckle may look different or your finger may move in a different way when you close your hand."

Cool. The internets told me it should be around three weeks. Sounds go…..crap. As I’m writing this, of course it’s like the worst possible fracture he can have. Dope. Here is that report from bad news bearer Baggs:

Bumgarner having surgery tomorrow to insert pins in fractured pinky knuckle. It will be 4-6 weeks then he has to have pins removed. This is not going to be a short DL stint. But he expects to pitch before the All-Stsr break.
— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) March 23, 2018

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Of course it is incredibly bad luck for something like this to happen, but I’m going to just conveniently blame it on Whit Merrifield. That dude has lit UP the Giants and because he’s such a like-able pretty boy for the Royals fanbase, it’ll be fun to hate him for all of 30 seconds.

So what do the Giants do about this? Well here is a list of the top remaining starting pitcher free agents: none are worth it

Ok so what about trades? WELL. Collin McHugh is apparently available according to Jon Heyman. McHugh is 30 years old, and seems to be the odd man out in the Astros rotation. Since 2014 he has 48 wins, a 3.70 ERA, and a 1.25 WHIP. I’d take that in a heartbeat, and it deepens the rotation whenever everyone comes back to the rotation.

Next: Padres Season Preview

Alright, real talk though, the Giants will be fine. Let’s say it takes him until June to get back on the mound, that’s not bad. I’d take that over what happened last year. This team is much better than last years as well, so for the most part, I think they will be ok. Let’s all truly stop overreacting, considering there hasn’t been one game played all season.

The “sky is falling” portion of the San Francisco Giants fanbase has its catalyst to begin even before opening day starts. Madison Bumgarner has a fractured hand after being caught in the pitching hand with a come-backer in today’s spring training game.

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