Hobgood: Strained right cuff will delay spring training

[Don]

Matt Hobgood may have an acute strain on his teres minor tendon. This tendon is the common problem area when dealing with pitchers going through a strength conditioning program, along with off-season throwing program. This is something that you can easily develop for a multitude of reasons and I have been told that he spends every waking hour doing something to improve himself for 2011. A combination of growth, over extension, weight training program could be a shock to the system that his tendons could not handle

I think the shoulder girdle conditioning that will be provided by the Orioles staff or James Andrews will only improve his fastball and stamina. I cannot stress enough that kids who throw need to develop tendon and ligaments as much as type 1 or type 2 muscle fibers.

In the grand scheme of life, this could be alot worse for him. Seeing the reaction of doctors and opting for a rehabilitation program over surgery, his issue should be acute and not cronic. These typical type cases usually have you on a strict RICE and re-hab program for 6-8 weeks and a typical time for baseball related activities is 12-16 weeks, if this is an acute strain.

**Edit: Dan Conolly has the Orioles on record saying he will be re-evaluated in a few weeks to see if the strain can heal by itself or if surgery is required.

[Jordan Tuwiner]

This guy just can't catch a break. Hobgood has supposedly been doing everything possible to come back strong in 2011 and it's a shame he's hit this bump.

[Don]

He is still young, but Steve Melewski has said his problems might be dated. This leads me to believe that tendonitis could be the root of the problem, but the body change and muscle build-up could have his body in a situation muscle memory was needed. Constant and proper attention to conditioning, warmpup, cool down, RICE, etc... will lead to a healthier outcome for this young kid.

Someone need to tell pitchers to never throw one pitch pryor to 60 days out. If he was reporting for minor league spring training, he should not do light throwing until after the new year and especially never around when you are still in a lifting program. But this is a whole other issue that I do not subscribe to with most in the baseball community. It is the same type of debate when talking "to long toss, or not long toss"....

[Jordan Tuwiner]

I spoke to Randy Henry recently and he's already started his throwing program. Said he's feeling great. Though, he's getting his arm back into shape after his elbow injury last season.

Speaking of long tossing, Don, Project Prospect posted a Scout's take on long tossing. Would love to hear your thoughts on the article:

http://projectprospect.com/article/2010 ... ng-tossing

[mcpd]

I spoke to Randy Henry recently and he's already started his throwing program. Said he's feeling great. Though, he's getting his arm back into shape after his elbow injury last season.

Speaking of long tossing, Don, Project Prospect posted a Scout's take on long tossing. Would love to hear your thoughts on the article:

http://projectprospect.com/article/2010 ... ng-tossing

Did he say whether he would be ready for the beginning of the minor league season.Do you think he starts the year in delmarva?

[Jordan Tuwiner]

Did he say whether he would be ready for the beginning of the minor league season.Do you think he starts the year in delmarva?

He'll be good to go for spring training, I believe. With the way he played last year I'd stick him in Frederick...I have the feeling the Orioles are going to do the same. He has some of the best stuff in the system, just needs to stay healthy.

[Shorebirdfan]

Did he say whether he would be ready for the beginning of the minor league season.Do you think he starts the year in delmarva?

He'll be good to go for spring training, I believe. With the way he played last year I'd stick him in Frederick...I have the feeling the Orioles are going to do the same. He has some of the best stuff in the system, just needs to stay healthy.

Agree with you here. Randy had some of the best stuff I saw here on the Shore last season. If (and that's a big if) he is 100% he should be Frederick bound.

[Don]

The strain has not healed as quickly as some would have liked to see. As I understand, it looked better than the original scan, so progress is being made and that is still a good sign to avoid surgery.

Hobgood is expected to be out until mid-april to begin a throwing program and expect 10-12 weeks beyond that point before seeing him in live action. I would not be suprised to see him in extended spring training until Aberdeen season starts up.

I would not rush the gun and it looks like the Orioles are going to do the same.

[Don]

Update reported on Baltimore Sun by Jeff...he curbs my timeline a bit to 8-10 weeks, but I think we agree on the start date to see him a game no earlier than June.

Aberdeen does not open its season until June 17th and the open a longer homestand on the 23rd. I would not be surprised on bit if he were pitching somewhere between the 23rd and 28th of June.

[allstar1579]

I think there is something worse beneath the surface on this one. His arm slot being off, the struggles last year, the down velocity, lack of break on the curve, now the "strain" in the cuff...it's all pointing somewhere not good.

Keep an eye on it, but if I'm a betting man, I'm putting down money on shut down in July for the year with surgery.

[Don]

Nope, it is healing, but at a slower rate than people expected. It does not mean that it could tear again, but once scar tissue is re-established it is something that he will have to deal with over the course of his life.

[allstar1579]

They won't let him deal with scar tissue in there, as it effects throwing motion and muscle use. If it was torn enough to build scar tissue it will be scoped.

[Don]

You cross check the entire scope of major sports and you would be hard pressed to find a single athlete without scar tissue. Every single arm attached to a pitcher has some degree of buildup. You break down every single time you throw. It will greatly depend on the growth of the scar, if extensive, in the amount of buildup.

To my knowledge, the damage is minimum, but he is simply slow to heal. You may or may not be right to say that it will require surgery, but at this time it is simply healing on its own.

[allstar1579]

You cross check the entire scope of major sports and you would be hard pressed to find a single athlete without scar tissue. Every single arm attached to a pitcher has some degree of buildup. You break down every single time you throw. It will greatly depend on the growth of the scar, if extensive, in the amount of buildup.

To my knowledge, the damage is minimum, but he is simply slow to heal. You may or may not be right to say that it will require surgery, but at this time it is simply healing on its own.

As a former player, I can completely argue this. If you are talking about amounts so small they don't show on an MRI then it doesn't seem worth mentioning because you'll never know it's there. I don't think you understand how small the 4 muscles that make up the RC are. ANY scar tissue in there is going to have some big time results. The biggest function of the RC is to keep your ball joint from popping out of place, with the amount of repetition of throwing in pro baseball that is a lot of strain to put on 4 tiny muscles with scar tissue in it.

Also being someone who had their career ended by a RC cuff tear, I'm pretty sure I know what I'm talking about. When you have an injury in there the first thing you will notice is the lack of velocity, the second thing you notice is in order to throw without extreme discomfort, you have to drop your arm angle towards side arm with the amount of angle change dependent of the severity of the injury. In Hobgood's case, a couple degrees change in his arm slot coupled with lower velocity screams minor-moderate RC injury. Any team is going to take it slow with a player and start with the easiest solution first, so they will rest him, but I can tell you that a rest period that long says they saw something on the MRI, if it were really minor it would have been a 2-4 week period. They are hoping to avoid surgery but the odds are pretty good for it.

If you have some kind of connections where you can say "what you are hearing" is first hand and not just the same stuff we are all reading on the web, please share, but others of us that are fairly well connected are going to be really confused when hearing contradictory input.

[Don]

I do not like boasting about myself, but lets just say that I know my way around the diamond.

It was a acute tear and first diagonsed as tendonitis the first go around. Tendonitis is really a chroic case of small tears on a constant basis. Once you get, you have it for the rest of your life and the way to subdue it is through RICE and limiting the use of those muscles and tendons surrounding the clavical. Both are treated with RICE, injections, and therapy almost always.

Any full tears are instantly placed on the table right away. Either way MRI can only tell a small bit of the story. They would have to open him up to see what it really wrong. It may come to this, but in no way do I want this to happen to any kid, if at all possible.