Sunday, May 18, 2008

Shawn Hill may miss next start


The Washington Times reports that Nationals starter Shawn Hill received a cortisone shot and had fluid drained from his throwing arm yesterday. The Nationals say that Hill may miss his next start as a result. Hill missed the start of the season after surgery on his right arm, but he has been plagued with mysterious pain in his forearm ever since. Hill blames the fluid in his elbow on stress caused by over compensating for his forearm.

"Basically, it's compensation for the forearm," Hill said. "It's nothing major, but that combined with the forearm, I just haven't been able to throw in between [starts]. I've got to give it some time off."

However not being able to throw between starts hasn’t been the only problem for Hill. He has had serious difficulty locating his breaking ball, which is an obvious result of forearm pain. The ability to snap the wrist on a curve is what gives it its motion. When a pitcher has to adjust with more snap of the elbow due to forarm pain or stiffness it will not only mess up a pitchers mechanics, but it will also destroy their arm. It may be time for Hill to take more then just one start off…

"Right now, I'm able to pitch," he said. "I'm not able to pitch the way I want to. I'm able to throw. If I can just get just a notch above what I'm feeling right now ... it's not going to be fun. I'm not going to enjoy having to battle through the entire season, but I'll get through it."

Through 6 starts Hill is currently 0-1 with a 4.08 ERA.


Quotes courtesy of The Washington Times

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

He can toss a baseball, he can't pitch. There is a big difference. The question is not will he miss the next start, that's a given. The question is how many will he miss?

Two or three is my guess