It feels like spring training has just kicked off but baseball betting fans have already seen the Arizona Diamondbacks suffer a couple of key injuries. Third baseman Melvin Mora was on his way to the D-backs spring training facility when he got into a car accident and suffered a neck injury. He was struck from behind on the U.S. 101 and was expected to miss as much as a week.
If that wasn’t a bizarre enough injury, the team got a second dose on Saturday. Starting pitcher Zach Duke was hit on the left hand by a line-drive and x-rays showed a fracture. He’s now out until May.
Even though its exhibition, the idea is to knock some rust off but in many cases, it is to get through it without any significant injuries. In the span of a week, the D-backs suffered two. The D-backs would like to get Mora about 550-600 plate appearances this season but we’ll have to see how the neck injury affects him. Ryan Ransom, Geoff Blum and Cody Ransom might all see time at the position filling in for Mora if he misses time.
As for Duke, while he thought his injury wasn’t significant, he broke two bones in his throwing hand and will be out six-to-eight weeks. Considering Duke had an ERA of 7.88 in spring training, an injury like this could mean he won’t get his job back when he returns.
The D-backs should be fine in the long run but early season injuries are not a way to gain any momentum.
