Silver lining to losing Yhency Brazoban for a year

You might know it by now, but we just learned today (and it's supposed to be a Good Friday ;)), that Yhency Brazoban is out for season due to a torn ligament in his pitching shoulder. He suffered it on the popup to Burnitz in the series finale in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

The arm condition seems to be bad, according to the Dodgers trainer, Stan Johnston:

"He pulled a piece of the bone off with the ligament,
[it's] very severe."

Brazoban will require a Tommy John surgery, which will sideline him for the rest of this season.

While this information (following the turn of events with the Eric Gagne injury) alone is quite depressing (Baez and Carter as only non-rookies among relievers), it does have some silver lining. Namely, due to the fact that Yhency was placed on the disabled list earlier today, the Dodgers could activate Kenny Lofton from the DL and NOT lose recent outfield sensation, Cody Ross (who could have been designated for assignment to make roster space for Lofton).

If Nomar Garciaparra is coming off the DL as scheduled next Tuesday, one of the five outfielders (Ledee, Cruz, Lofton, Repko, Drew and Ross) needs to be sent to the minors. At this point, it seems it's gonna be Jason Repko, who, unlike Ross, is not out of minor league options. Sending down Repko keeps the lefthanded bat of young James Loney on the roster.

To round things off - Yhency's timely injury information sends only one player off the roster - himself. As much as it complicates the bullpen situation, it's nowhere near as bad as it could have been. Imagine Yhency pulls the ligament tonight or tomorrow in LA: he's gone for the season anyway, just one day later, while in the meantime the Dodgers lost Cody Ross to another club via waiver wire. While I'm not happy Brazoban is down with injury, we're lucky enough to lose only one player (not two) in the process.