Here's something that I haven't really seen discussed as a key point for Josh Hamilton. We are all familiar with typical recovery time for broken bones, but rib fractures are in a bit of a unique category because "staying off" of them is virtually impossible, unlike broken limbs, and it is difficult to stabilize them. One characteristic that I have heard about cracked ribs from those who have experienced them and from one physician is that the intense pain is generally present right up to the end of the six-week recovery period, but then seemingly miraculously disappears.
↵Hamilton's injury was not something that could be diagnosed immediately, but the eventual diagnosis was that he had two small cracks in his ribs. The potentially good news: the collision that caused him to feel like he'd been in a car wreck occurred on September 4. That makes tomorrow the six-week anniversary.
↵Now, Hamilton says that he was fine during the Rays series, presumably thanks to two late-September injections, and that he "just sucked." It's possible that he's telling the truth, but for those who watched his movements closely during the LDS, that's a little hard to believe. I hope that he has been perfectly fine physcially and that he's spent the last ten days simply fine tuning his timing and mechanics. But if there was still some pain in there - and I'd be pretty surprised if there weren't some - chances are decent that it could disappear any day. Finding that rhythm at the plate has to be much easier when there isn't any pain right in the middle of your torso.