(bad) Breaking News: Chipper was right-Schill is hurt

Sox announce Curt Schilling will head to the DL two days after Braves batters speculated on his health

My question is, would we be in this situation right now if Chipper Jones, Brian McCann and other Braves hadn't commented on Schill's startling lack of velocity following Monday night's game, surmising that he must be injured?

Or would Curt, the ultimate warrior and proud plow horse of the staff, have just kept plugging along through this bout of what he classified as a "touch of tendinitis" in his shoulder, only to injure himself further by not admitting in to the problem?

After the outing, a 9-4 Boston loss in which Schill allowed 10 hits and six runs in less than five innings and didn't register a strikeout for the first time since 1993, a span of 348 games, Braves third baseman Chipper Jones had this to say about Curt's less-than-impressive heater:

"The fastball that I saw register the highest was 89, and that was with the bases loaded. Schill always had that innate ability to catch another gear when he needs it, and for me to only see 89 miles an hour tells me, you know, he might be hurt. I don't know."

Turns out he did know.

According to the Globe, Curt said the dropoff in velocity he experienced Monday reminded him of the time he had a torn labrum in 1995, and that he didn't have any pain until the following day. He described the horrible felling of waiting for that pain to return overnight as "an eerie similarity that was playing with my head pretty severely," and who the hell can blame him?

Luckily this time the pain didn't follow, and an MRI showed no structural damage to the area, but still Boston will be without one of its top starters for at least two weeks and possibly more, depending on how he responds to treatment.

With the off day tomorrow Tito will shuffle the rotation so that they won't need to fill his slot until Tuesday, and speculation has already begun as to who will get the nod, previous callups Kason Gabbard, Devern Hansack or rigorously rehabbing lefty Jon Lester.

The Sox fared okay when Josh Beckett missed a couple of weeks in May, going 6-3 while he was out, and with Dice-K, Wake and Tavarez all pitching well of late, the loss of Schilling shouldn't affect the team too much. Plus at his age and with the history of trouble, there's no way anyone would want him to continue pitching with even the slightest discomfort in the arm, so the trip to the DL is for the best.

Although top of the rotation starters visiting the disabled list is not something a playoff ball club wants to have occur at any point during the season, it's better to have it happen early in the year, be cautious with the problem like they were with Beckett, and make sure the hoss is healed up for the stretch run.

Get well soon, Schill.

And please, no more keeping secrets, okay?