Note all the questionable cases raised are of pitchers:

Sissies!

Carlos Silva is on the DL right now with a case of Inflamed Suck. It’s basically an open secret that there is nothing actually wrong with him.

Mr. Calcaterra-

Off the baseball topic, but you know as well as I do that the IME process is manipulated as bad as plaintiff’s-side docs.  How “independent” is the exam when it’s paid for by the adverse party.  I suspect you and I can both name the same 12 IME docs in Cols.  In fact, there are several from whom I have never seen a favorable conclusion for the plaintiff.

Nonetheless, if the teams aren’t bothered by DL manipulation, why would the league bother investigating?  The league is the teams.  Now, I suppose an ins. co. can ask for their own determination and I suspect they do.  I would guess that the opinion of some of the docs players routinely use are pretty hard to refute, e.g. I would doubt there would be too many orthos who would disagree w/ James Andrews.

True deposition excerpt from the Journal of the National Court Reporters’ Association (paraphrased, because I saw it several years ago):

Q: Do you know what Doctor (so-and-so’) specialty was?

A: My lawyer told me he was a good plaintiff’s doctor.

I was on a jury in a personal injury case a couple of years back. (Quickly, the woman, 5ish years prior, had been rear-ended by a probably drunk driver. it affected her work for a while, but she seemed to get over it and put in an insane amount of overtime in the next few years. Eventually, though, she reinjured her back and was unable to do her work as an MRI tech anymore. The trial was about whether the re-injury was something new, or an aggravation of the car accident injury).

The injured woman and her lawyers brought out a doctor saying that, yes, indeed, she re-aggravated the prior injury. The insurance company lawyers, however, brought out their own doctor saying that, no way, it was a new injury. Supposedly, each doctor was “independent”. She was asking for something like $1.5 million.

In the jury room, we decided that we could trust neither doctor, since they were both getting paid by their respective sides, and so everyone seemed to go off of their own feelings (and maybe some of their own prejudices… but maybe that’s just what it seemed like). Which is a shame, because I’m sure one or both of those doctors were right to some extent, but no one knew which it was.

Oh, and spending a week of your life listening to people argue about MRI tech duties and overtime and tanning salons and all of that is about the most fun you can possibly have. Everyone should try it!