—As I write this, news just broke that David Price has been scratched from his regularly-scheduled start against the New York Yankees in the Bronx. According to manager Alex Cora, Price felt more numbness in his pitching hand during a side session last weekend. It’s the same exact issue that forced him out of a game back on April 11 against the Yankees at Fenway after just one inning of work.
Price is coming off a loss in Texas on May 3, after he allowed nine runs (seven earned) in three-and-two-thirds innings. But going back to his April 11 hand numbness, I told you at the time that I didn’t have a good feeling about it. Mainly because he missed most of last season with an elbow injury. He never had surgery. So, when we were told he experienced hand numbness against the Yankees last month, I thought, “Oh no, here we go. It’s got to be the elbow.”
What’s most shocking to me is that he never had an MRI in April. He made his next start six nights later in LA and allowed one run in five innings. But I still assumed he had an MRI.
Come to find out, there was no MRI, for whatever reason.
If I’m the Red Sox, and I’m paying him $31 million a year, I’m making him get an MRI if I found out he’s dealing with numbness in his throwing hand just a year after making only 11 starts because of an elbow injury. An MRI is a no-brainer. Yet, Price never had one.
When NBC Sports Boston’s Evan Drellich sent Dombrowski an email back in April, wondering why there was no MRI, Dombrowski referenced “HIPPA laws” as a way to avoid answering the questions surrounding Price’s elbow.
Well, no MRI, and here we are a month later with more questions about Price’s throwing hand, which again, I fear, will only lead to some bad news about the elbow.
I hope I’m wrong and he’s fine. But for this to happen again so soon, it has “visit to Dr. James Andrews” written all over it.
—The Golden State Warriors are going to win the NBA Championship again. But they might end up playing the one team that comes closest to imitating their road to success: the Boston Celtics.
Think about it. Before Kevin Durant signed with them, the Warriors had guys playing to their potential. Steph Curry was drafted No. 7 overall. Klay Thompson was drafted No. 11 overall. Those two led Golden State in scoring the first year they won the championship in 2015. Then, of course, they added Durant, who was drafted No. 2 overall.
With Durant, right now, the Warriors are the obvious favorite to win it all for the third time in four years. And even if they didn’t have Durant, I’d still pick them to at least get to the NBA Finals based on Curry and Thompson alone.
The Celtics are currently winning in the playoffs without their best player in Kyrie Irving. But perhaps their success without him shouldn’t be so surprising.
Like when Golden State just “came out of nowhere” to become the dominant force they are today, the C’s just have a few first-round picks playing to their potential. Jayson Tatum was drafted No. 3 overall. Jaylen Brown was drafted No. 3 overall. Marcus Smart was drafted No. 6 overall. Terry Rozier was drafted No. 16 overall. And oh yeah, Al Horford was drafted No. 3 overall, right behind Durant in the 2007 Draft.
Right now, the Celtics have a bunch of high first-round picks who are playing the way they were expected to when they were drafted so high. I wouldn’t pick them to knock off the Warriors, but I do think they’d put up one heck of a fight against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals.
My point is, if the Celtics do somehow end up going to the NBA Finals, even without Irving, maybe we shouldn’t be all that surprised. They’re doing something similar to what Golden State did, and when Irving gets back next year, he’ll be their Durant, and we could get a Warriors vs Celtics NBA Finals more than once in the next handful of years.
—The Bruins’ season is over. The refs were horrible. Tuukka Rask could have been better. The defense was atrocious. And their two leading goal scorers combined for just two goals in the second round against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Did I mention the refs?
Not only did the refs screw the Bruins, they screwed me as well in my NHL 18 World Championship qualifier. That’s right, I played in the NHL 18 World Championship qualifying tournament. You can watch it on video during Episode 3 of my new YouTube series, “363: OFF THE AIR.” Also, in Episode 3, I showed footage of my visit to the PAX East video-game showcase at the BCEC.
Make sure you watch and subscribe.
Listen to “The Danny Picard Show” at dannypicard.com. Also available on iTunes, Tunein, Google Play, iHeartRadio, and Spotify. Subscribe to his YouTube channel at youtube.com/dannypicard.
