This entire sequence makes me incredibly sad.

I guess it’s bad news, but here’s a class photo of all the pitchers coming back from Tommy John surgery who haven’t had to deal with a hitch in the rehab process:

No, that was not bad news. As Shapiro said last night all it meant was instead of being an “express” recovery" it has now become a “fast” one.

By contrast this is bad news:

As for Westbrook, he was originally scheduled to make his third rehab start Wednesday for Triple-A Columbus. When the soreness forced the Indians to scratch him from that start, the team announced Westbrook would instead throw a bullpen session Wednesday. But that backup plan was scrapped, as well.

Now, Westbrook is firmly in wait-and-see mode. The Indians have not said when they expect him to throw again.

“It’s disappointing, because I was real close [to coming back],” Westbrook said. “But it’s one of those things where, when I come back, I don’t want [the elbow] to be in my head. I want to be able to let the ball go.”

Westbrook has dealt with the usual post-surgery soreness in his elbow throughout his return-to-throw program, but the soreness reached a new point after his start for Double-A Akron last Friday.

“We’ll take some days here and evaluate it and see how it responds to treatment,” Westbrook said.

And Pavano’s next start being pushed back because of a sore shoulder is another example of bad news.

Castrovince