Springfield Cardinals outfielder Tommy Pham was found today in the Hammons Field indoor facility and waiting his turn outside the batting cage.
Turns out, it was nothing to get excited about.
Pham will be out at least another week, per doctor’s orders, after he underwent another X-ray Wednesday, the 22-year-old said.
As Pham explained, the scar tissue needed to develop around a small fracture in his right wrist has yet to mature.
And so he sits, allowed to handle a bat only with his left hand.
“That was the bad news,” Pham said, hours before the Cardinals play the Northwest Arkansas Naturals at 7:10 tonight. “It gets frustrating watching instead of playing.”
Pham suffered the injury on Aug. 15 when San Antonio’s Erik Davis ran a pitch inside to the left-handed batter. Pham remained in that game for another two frames before being lifted and has not played since.
His absence has robbed Double-A Springfield of a surprisingly steady bat atop the lineup, as Pham reached the Texas League on July 3 and commenced to hit .339 in his first 121 at-bats, driving in 18 runs.
He also had a pair of breakout games that arguably thrust the 2006 16th-round draft pick onto the prospect map.
From his bat came seven hits, including a pair of home runs and a pair of doubles, plus a spectacular catch in which his 6-foot-2, 195-pound body slammed into the outfield wall.
The Cardinals have re-arranged the lineup, moving Daryl Jones back atop the order.
But Jones, who was added to St. Louis’ 40-man roster last November, has batted a meager .246 this season and carries a disappointing .365 slugging percentage into today’s game.