This article has some updates from my experiences in the minor leagues from the past couple months. Enjoy the read...
Lately down here in Florida there has been rain, rain, and more rain. The 4th of July weekend was very wet on the gulf side of Florida, but as the American pastime, we played right on through it. A lot of you might have noticed that I was on the DL for about a month in parts of May and June. Unfortunately, I had a lot of pain in the back of my shoulder, which led to no throwing and lots of anti-inflammatories. The majority of the pain came when I reached out to release the ball. I’m not really sure how the pain came about. Since Spring Training I’ve been working on a sinker which may have caused some of the pain, but it’s hard to tell.
In early June I had an MRI on my shoulder which showed a SLAP tear in my labrum. A SLAP tear stands for Superior Labrum from Anterior to Posterior. The recommended treatment is to rest and rebuild, thus the reason I was on the DL for about a month. I constantly do rotator cuff exercises to rebuild the muscles around the shoulder, which helps the shoulder from being thrown out of place. I’m also a big believer in blood flow throughout the body so everyday before our pitchers stretch I run on the treadmill for five minutes, perform an arm bike exercise for five minutes, do a warm-up rotator cuff routine, and get a light stretch from our trainer. The days following an outing I will contrast my whole body, which I highly recommend to everyone for general health purposes. Contrast consists of sitting in a cold tub around 50˚F to 60˚F for two minutes, then immediately getting into a hot tub around 100˚F to 106˚F for two minutes. You repeat that cycle twice resulting in eight minutes total in the tubs. The purpose is to contract and expand your muscles creating a unique blood flow effect. If you are skeptical, just try it with your legs starting at the knees down, and see for yourself how good it feels when you’re finished.
When I came off the DL, I was used out of the bullpen for mop-up innings, which means I would get in the game when our team was up or down a lot of runs and the game was out of reach. Now that I’m back into the swing of things, I am being put into situations that are more intense and have more meaning. As always feel free to ask any questions or provide comments. You can follow any minor league player, including all your favorite Buckeyes at www.milb.com.
Thanks for reading!