An interesting post from AZ Snake Pit last night commented on how the author was pleased about Buster Posey's injury keeping him out for the season and improving the D-Backs' chances for 2011.  The author stressed that it wasn't the pain that he was happy about, but rather simply the fact that Posey had been removed from the lineup for a while.  As a result, he took pleasure even in the violent ending of Posey's season.

This spawned some pretty good discussion in the comments of that post, with most of them disagreeing with the original author and feeling that no pleasure could be taken from the injury of any player.  The prevailing line of thought seemed to be it was more gratifying to beat a full strength Giants team than a weakened one.

The post got me to thinking about the AL East.  I have only a passing knowledge of Posey - as much as any layman knows about the rookie of the year and catcher sensation from 2010.  But if, say, Jose Bautista broke his arm in an ugly catch at the wall or something like that, cutting short his promising season, would I be happy about it?  Perhaps even that's not a good comparison, as the Jays aren't expected to be serious contenders for the AL East or the wild card.  How about Teixeira?  Longoria? 

I think I probably would take pleasure if a critical Yankee or Ray was out for the season.  David Price has to have Tommy John surgery?  Let the non-division rivals mourn about it being "bad for baseball" that the promising young pitcher is out for the season.  Let the national media lament the loss of Robinson Cano to an ugly takeout slide.  As a fan of a rival team, can we really say we wouldn't be happy about it?  Then again, would I have the same reaction if Markakis or Adam Jones was out for the year?  Probably not.  Just as the D-Backs hate the Giants, so too do I hate the Rays and the Yankees far more than the Jays or the O's.  

What are your opinions?  Is it ever appropriate to take some pleasure, not in the pain that an opponent's player feels, but in the knowledge that an injury has bettered your team's chances to the postseason?