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Tuesday night was a terrible night for big-named players and injuries.

• Adrian Gonzalez tried to leg out a triple and hurt his knee sliding into third base. Nobody knows the extent of the injury as he’ll be evaluated on Wednesday.
• Mark DeRosa lasted all of three games for the Cardinals before getting injured. He left Tuesday’s game with a left wrist injury.
• Grady Sizemore is going to play through pain for the rest of the season and most likely have off-season surgery to repair his left elbow. So much for Sizemore being a buy-low candidate for the second half.

I recently harassed a couple of my fantasy baseball brethren for participating in mock drafts where Phillies second baseman Chase Utley was drafted way too high. In one case he was drafted seventh overall.

My gripe was due to Utley being only three weeks removed from hip surgery that is supposed to keep him out until late May.

Most of the folks participating in mock drafts over at Mock Draft Central agree with me as Utley’s average draft position (ADP) is 29.67, with him going as high as 12th and as low as 43rd overall.

I have a feeling, however, that news today out of Philadelphia that Utley wants to be ready by opening day may cause his ADP to rise a bit.

Of course, one question was: Can the second baseman be ready to play on opening day 2009?

He thinks he can. In fact, he is planning on it.

“Rehab is going well,” Utley said. “Things are progressing very well. I don’t expect any setbacks. I feel like I’ll be ready to go, but it’s something I have to be careful of. I want to make sure that we rehab this right. I don’t want to have this problem again. But as of now, it’s looking good.”

Prior to the 2008 fantasy baseball season I decided to give up on Albert Pujols. This was right around the time that the rumors were flying that he’d go down with an unjury at any moment, or whenever the Cards were “officially” out of the race Pujols would opt for surgery.

In a stroke of genius, in the keeper league I am in, I traded Pujols and Curtis Granderson for Mark Teixeira, Alex Rios, and a 6th round draft pick (Cole Hamels). I was expecting Rios to completely break out and contend for the 30/30 club and I wanted Teixeira to blast 40+ with 120+ home runs. Had it not been for the extra pick (and the fact that I grabbed Hamels with it), I think I would have declared myself the loser in the trade. Rios didn’t hit for the power that I expected him to, and Pujols, not only didn’t go down with an injury, but had another MVP caliber year.

The reason for writing this post isn’t to look back at my trade, but to inform you all that Pujols finally had surgery on his elbow.

The Cardinals first baseman underwent a 25-minute outpatient procedure at a West County facility shared by team medical supervisor Dr. George Paletta, who performed the procedure.

Pujols is expected to begin rehab this week and should resume baseball-related activities within three months, according to Paletta. General manager John Mozeliak said the club is “very encouraged” that Pujols would be ready for full participation in spring training.

That’s much better news for fantasy GM’s that stuck with Pujols, not to mention all the Cardinals fans out there. And if you really want to dig in and get an in depth look at what the procedure Pujols had was all about, you can find more info on relocating elbow nerves in baseball players here.

It’s not too early to talk about Spring Training 2009. Especially, if you’ve already been sent home for the season.

• Oakland’s Justin Duchscherer’s season was cut short by what we now know was loose cartilage in his hip. His 2008 record was 10-8 with a 2.54 ERA, but jumped into fantasy notoriety for his great results in the month of June. In June he was 4-1 with a 1.45 ERA and joined most fantasy rosters at that time. According to Duchscherer, he’ll be ready for Spring Training.

Justin Duchscherer’s right hip problem at the end of the season was the result of loose cartilage, which was cleaned out in an arthroscopic procedure, the A’s All-Star right-hander said Wednesday.

“Now I know I’ll be ready to go during spring training,” he said.

The recovery time is two months, according to Duchscherer, and he expects he will not miss any time next spring. He’s currently on crutches, but he said he’ll be walking in less than a week.

• It turns out that you can beat the Marlins on short rest and with torn cartilage in your left knee. At least you can if you’re Johan Santana. An MRI earlier this week revealed the tear, which Santana has since had surgically repaired.

New York Mets ace Johan Santana had arthroscopic surgery on torn cartilage in his left knee and is expected to be ready for spring training. The injury was revealed in a magnetic resonance imaging Tuesday.

1. Diamondbacks top prospect Max Scherzer is continuing to build arm strength and raise his pitch count.  In each of his last four appearances he’s pitched one inning more than the last and his strikeout to walk ratio over that period has been 3.25 (26:8). If When the Diamondbacks need another starter, Scherzer should be the man.
2. Pirates closer Matt Capps has a Double-A appearance on Wednesday and a bullpen session to throw on Thursday. If both go well, he could return to Pittsburgh on Friday.
3. Even though Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright feels like he’s ready to return to the rotation, the Cards may force him to make another rehab start, if Chris Carpenter is ready to return soon.

Not that you’re dying to get his 3-11 record with a 4.76 ERA back into your lineup, but Aaron Harang seems to be ready for MLB action action after being placed on the DL before the All-Star break.

Harang pitched in a Triple-A rehab game Monday night and went six innings while striking out six and walking none. He threw only 69 pitches, 46 for strikes, and allowed only five hits.

Dusty Baker would like to see Harang make another rehab start in Louisville, but Harang would rather pitch in Cincinnati next. With the power of this great performance last night, Harang might get his way and be back in Cincinnati by this weekend.

Although Harang’s record is sub-par this season, he’s still a strikeout machine. And he is coming off of back-to-back 16 win seasons. Harang is an easy start in mixed leagues, and if you can get him really cheap via trade, you might try and do so.

In ten starts this season, Astros pitcher Chris Sampson is 3-3 with a 6.04 ERA and a 2.08 strikeout to walk ratio (25:12). Those numbers don’t exactly make Sampson rosterable in many fantasy baseball formats, and they won’t keep him in the rotation either.

As Wandy Rodriguez comes off the DL today, the Astros plan to move Sampson to the bullpen to make room. Brian Moehler will be the 5th starter.