Playing Hurt

[NeilHamburger]

Watching Brandon Phillips these last two days (and for the second half of last year) it got me thinking about playing hurt.

Obviously over a 162 game season everyone will play through aches and pains. But, there is also a point where you are hurting the team by playing hurt, if for no other reason than you are being put in a position (the 3rd spot in the order in this case) to perform but are in obvious pain.

Pete Rose has said he has played injured on many occasions because his next contract was related directly to his performance the previous year and missing games meant missing money.

Where do you stand on a player playing hurt? Do you admire someone like Phillips who will strap it up and play even when he's hurting or do you think it hurts the team? When should a manager step in?

[reds1869]

Where do you stand on a player playing hurt? Do you admire someone like Phillips who will strap it up and play even when he's hurting or do you think it hurts the team? When should a manager step in?

I admire his willingness to play hurt, but I think the manager needs to step in a put the team in the best position to win.

[Raisor]

I play hurt all the time. My back is killing me from carrying all of you for 13 years.

[tomnuetten]

If the injury will get worse while playing, don´t play

if the injury will effect your performance big time and a replacement would produce better numbers, don´t play

if the injury won´t effect you that much, playing doesn´t make the injury worse and your replacement is still worse => play

the problem is that those situation are hard to judge from the outside (a manager doesn´t know how much pain someone feels) and the guy who is hurt is not objective.
I think you could break every bone from phillips and he would still think that he should play and is better than the replacement

[OGB]

I'm not saying he should play necessarily, but I'll take tweaked Brandon over healthy Santiago 11 days out of 10.

[oneupper]

Phillips hasn't gotten a hit since he got hurt. I don't admire that.

[Beatlessp]

I bet if Skip weren't hurt, BP would have gotten a day or two to make sure his back is loosened up. didn't get to watch much of yesterday's game (Easter dinner) so I didn't get to see how his swing looked.

[Johnny Footstool]

In most situations, playing hurt is fine. Playing injured is not. You usually end up doing more damage to yourself and the team if you try to play through an injury, especially in baseball. Take a week off to heal, and trust that your teammates can pick up the slack.