From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
April 28, 2010
It's taken longer than Jordan Schafer expected, but the center fielder is making significant progress toward returning from wrist surgery.
He's played in a few games the past week at Braves extended spring training camp in Florida, general manager Frank Wren said. Schafer steadily increased his workload in that stretch, going from two at-bats to a scheduled full nine-inning game on Monday.
That's quite a bit ahead of where he was last month at the end of spring training, when Schafer, the Braves' 2009 Opening Day center fielder, still wasn't ready to face live pitching or hit on consecutive days. He had surgery on Sept. 5.
Barring setbacks, Schafer making a May return to Class AAA Gwinnett seems likely. The Braves said during the winter that they hoped to have Schafer, 23, ready to rejoin the major league team by midseason.
With the team getting little production from outfielders Melky Cabrera, Nate McLouth and Matt Diaz, it could be interesting to see how soon Schafer might be called up.
As a rookie in 2009, Schafer hit two homers in the opening series at Philadelphia, and then injured his wrist in the home opener in the fourth game of the season.
He didn't divulge the pain involved and tried to play through the injury, which eventually was diagnosed as a fracture.
