Paul Konerko wants to play with broken hand

In the final swings of what has been a sterling career, Paul Konerko suffered a fractures sesamoid bone in his hand. Though the pain and swelling is too great to play immediately, Konerko is hoping to return to the field in about a week or so, and wants to play through the injury to finish his career:

"There are injuries you can play through and stuff you can tough out, but if you can't swing a bat or catch a ball from an infielder, you have to get to that level first, and I know I'm not really close to that right now," Konerko said. "I think if this was any other part of the season, I would be on the DL today. But I'm going to try to speed that up as quickly as I can and get back."

Konerko has only managed to play in 74 games this season, and hasn't been particularly productive when he has been in the lineup. His triple slash is .220/.272/.344, and he has just 5 HRs and 22 RBI in 202 plate appearances.

For his career, Konerko is a .279/.355/.488 hitter, and has 439 career home runs and 1,412 RBI. He is an interesting case for Hall of Fame consideration, and represents a broad swath of pretty good-not-great players that are at the borderline of most HoF standards. He is certainly one of the better hitters of the past decade, but his defensive ratings have killed much of his offensive production. He may end up in the same category as players such as Fred McGriff, Kenny Lofton, and others.