Troy Tulowitzki is the best shortstop in the Major Leagues since Alex Rodriguez. The problem is that A-Rod almost never got hurt early in his career and Troy Tulowitzki cannot seem to avoid the injury bug. After only playing 46 games a year ago, Tulowitzki has just been diagnosed with a broken rib and will miss another four to six weeks after playing just sixty games this season.
Tulowitzki has averaged 29 homers and a 105 runs batted in for every 162 games he has played with 66 walks and 181 hits. Unfortunately, he cannot get close to 162 games in a season. He has played now for eight years and has only twice reached the 150 games played mark.
Tulowitzki missed 51 games in 208, 40 in 2010, 19 in 2011, 115 last year and now he will miss 30 to 45 more games this season. I have seen some posts by Rockies' writers that seem to blame Tulowitzki for this problem. How can you blame a guy for getting hurt? It is just plain bad luck. His career kind of reminds me of George Brett and Larry Walker. Like them, he is a brilliant talent who simply cannot get a physical break. Or maybe he gets too many depending on how you look at it.
And 2013 was shaping up to be his best season yet. His triple slash line reads: 347/.414/.629. He had already hit sixteen homers and sixteen doubles. He had driven in 51 runs in just sixty games. It was a monster season in the making. Now it will be on hold for more than a month.
And lest you think those were simply Coors Field numbers, Tulowitzki was a .975 OPS guy on the road this season with eight of his homers and nine of his doubles on the road.
If Tulowitzki could have stayed healthy over his career, he would have been everyone's All Star. He would have been one of the most talked about players in baseball. Instead, his career thus far has been a sad shake of the head, and to some, a disappointment. You cannot call a guy a disappointment because he gets hurt. But you can call it disappointing.
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