Tyler Skaggs is OK and Garrett Richards is progressing...whoa, actual good injury updates!!!

If the news of Tyler Skaggs getting scratched from tonight’s start because of some tightness in his arm sent shivers down your spine, then trust me, I can relate. We’ve sort of become accustomed to hearing about some tightness in our pitchers’ arms, followed by some devastating MRI results that lead to the dreaded Tommy John announcement.

Shoot, we even saw that same story progression with Skaggs himself in 2014, let alone the stuff we’ve gone through with Garrett Richards, Andrew Heaney and Nick Tropeano this year.

But we finally have a little good news to report...by “good news”, I mean that there’s simply no Tommy John on the horizon...quite the low bar, I know, but it’s just been reported that Skaggs’ UCL is fine and he appears to be OK, more or less:

Thank the Baseball Gods, because I don’t think I could handle another great, young Halos arm being put on a shelf until 2018. I’m going to chalk this up as a little victory.

Also on the good vibe front is word that Garrett Richards is going to be upping his arm workouts and drills, which is proof positive that his stem cell treatment is still going quite well. He’d been long tossing a week or so ago, increasing the distance of his throws, which is always a good sign. Then today, we got a little update from Richards himself:

That a boy, G-Rich. I’m sure it’s tough having to take it so slowly, but it sure beats the alternative of surgery. Richards in 2017 is looking pretty good, as is Skaggs. We’re not used to getting good news about Angels arms in 2016, so let’s all take a minute to let this soak in and enjoy it.