Phillies pitching prospect Jesse Biddle has had a tough two years, dealing with the whooping cough as well as a concussion as a result of being hit by hail. The hail destroyed Biddle’s car, imagine what it could do to one’s skull.
Biddle began to struggle in June last season as a result of concussion-related issues. He was specifically diagnosed with a concussion, as CSN Philly’s Jim Salisbury reports. The Phillies shut him down for a while to give him a “mental break”. Interestingly, Phillies GM Ruben Amaro, Jr. seemed to downplay Biddle’s injury. From Salisbury’s column:
It seems neither Biddle nor his doctor shared Amaro’s wishy-washiness about the injury. “I believe with the way it lines up, I was concussed and I was pitching with a concussion,” Biddle said. “I saw a concussion specialist and he said I had a concussion.”
The comment is perplexing because Amaro trashed his own prospect for no good reason. He gave off the impression that Biddle is mentally fragile as opposed to having been hampered by a physical ailment. Furthermore, Amaro perpetuates the non-serious way in which many teams and sports leagues in general approach concussions, though many strides have been made in this area recently.
Amaro has not always been the smoothest when he has a microphone, having also publicly criticized first baseman Ryan Howard and essentially admitting he doesn’t know how some basic baseball statistics work.