Young was placed on the 15-day disabled list after the game, and his initial prognosis was good. However, as the swelling has gone down, more injuries have been realized and his two-week disabled list stint has now changed to "out indefinitely."

Though no one ever wants to take a line drive to the face, Young's fortunate his injuries weren't more severe. In 2002, Dodgers pitcher Kazuhisa Ishii took a liner off the head, suffering a nasal fracture much like Young's. However, Ishii required immediate surgery and needed a titanium plate to fix the injury.

While Young didn't need emergency surgery, his injuries are worse than initially thought. First diagnosed with a simple nasal fracture, other injuries have been discovered as the swelling's gone down. He has multiple fractures of his nasal bone, fractures of other facial bones, a small crack in his skull and a deviated septum. The one positive is that he wasn't diagnosed with a concussion, which sometimes can have lasting effects like with third baseman Corey Koskie, who suffered a career-ending one.

Still, the timeline for his return being extended means Young likely won't be coming off the disabled list to help out your fantasy team anytime soon.

Even before the injury, Young had been struggling this season as he tried to win games with a disappointing Padres team. Before his 2 1/3-inning performance that night, he sat on a 4-3 record, a 4.18 ERA and a 49-29 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He actually exited his final start with no runs allowed, one out and the bases loaded after the single by Pujols, so he hadn't been pitching terribly. However, his final line showed three earned runs, because reliever Cla Meredith allowed all his inherited runners to score. This negatively affected Young's stats, and he now sits at 4-4 with a 4.50 ERA on the season.

Trying to figure out why Young's struggled thus far this season is simple when his righty-lefty splits are examined. Young, a right-handed pitcher, has dominated right-handed hitting both this season and throughout for his career. This year, he has a 1.11 WHIP and a .186 opponents' average with 36 of his 51 strikeouts. Right-handed hitters are obviously not the primary cause of his struggles this season, as his numbers in '08 are better than his career numbers (1.12 WHIP, .211 opponents' average).

Lefties have troubled Young more than usual this season. In his career, he has a 1.28 WHIP and a .233 opponents' average against left-handed hitters. This year, he's been far worse than those career numbers, with a 2.01 WHIP and .309 opponents' average. In addition, lefties have gone deep off him six times already this season, whereas last year he only allowed six home runs to left-handed batters all year. It's apparent he needs to work on getting lefties out once he gets back from his injury if he wants to improve his overall numbers.

Young's fortunate enough to pitch in an extremely pitcher-friendly ballpark, in this case San Diego's Petco Park. This shows in his home and road splits. He's been All-Star worthy at home this season. In five home starts, he's 2-2 with a 2.57 ERA. Once you factor into that his 2 1/3-inning, three-run injury-shortened start as part of these numbers, he was nearly unstoppable at home this season. However, he can't pitch at home every start.

Though 2-2 in road starts this season, he sports a 6.58 ERA away from home and a 1.73 WHIP. Of his five road starts, only two have come at hitter-friendly ballparks (Arizona's Chase Field and Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park). Rather than that being his problem, it seems he just isn't as comfortable on the road as he is at Petco, where he can be extremely dominant.

It remains to be determined how long Young's injury will hold him out. He's come out and said he'll be ready to pitch and that he won't be scared, worried or otherwise hesitant on the mound. This is good news for fantasy owners, as he most likely won't be pitching around hitters upon his return.

Last season, Young was among the best pitchers in baseball with a 3.12 ERA and a 1.12 WHIP. A year later, it's difficult to imagine he's already lost whatever made him great last year. As extreme as his left/right and home/road splits have been this season, they were there last year too, just not as large. His success with those splits last season should give hope to owners currently frustrated with him and his unfortunate injury.

While the injury and the poor stats may have given owners reasons to abandon ship and trade the 29-year-old pitcher, he's worth holding onto if you can afford to wait however long it is he's out. He's a good buy-low candidate for owners looking for pitching. Once he comes back, he should be able to rack up the strikeouts (he was 12th in the National League last year) and hopefully improve upon his early ERA and WHIP numbers. This injury isn't one that generally affects a pitcher's physical mechanics and performance.

His career stats have shown he's a better pitcher than he's shown this season, and his home ballpark has shown it helps in keeping Young's stats down. As long as he's pitching half of his games in Petco, he'll be a quality pitcher you can confidently trot out to the fantasy mound.

When he trots out to the mound next, however, is up in the air.