Saturday, March 13, 2004

The O's team physician Dr. Chick Silberstein has cleared Luis Matos to resume playing. Matos was diagnosed with a superficial stress fracture, which means there is a tiny crack there, but it's on the outside of the tibia.

"You're talking millimeters," Orioles executive vice president Jim Beattie said. "And it's just on the outside of the bone, not going through the bone or anything like that. So there's no chance you can injure it further."

Manager Lee Mazzilli plans to ease Matos back gradually, using him as the designated hitter before sending him back to center field.

As I said earlier this week, Matos does have an injury history and will always remain a concern until he can string together a couple healthy seasons. I like his potential and see him as decent big league center fielder that could maybe max out with 20 home run power though 15 home runs might be more in his range.
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