Former Marianna High School and Chipola pitcher Alan Horne left home for Tampa Monday in preparation of yet another spring training.
This year’s camp, the New York Yankees farmhand hopes, will be the last he attends as a minor leaguer.
Horne, 26, suffered a slight tear in his rotator cuff, which resulted in a sharp decline in his production and eventually a demotion to Single-A Tampa.
“It was definitely frustrating,” Horne said of his injury problems in 2008. “When you’re as close as I was to pitching in the majors, close to being one of the first guys called up, it’s tough.
“It will be something to drive me to get back to where I was before the injury. The rest will take care of itself.”
At the end of the 2008 season, Horne saw renowned orthopedic surgeon James Andrews, famous for performing surgical procedures on the elbows and shoulders of various Major League pitchers, and underwent what Horne termed “a clean-up surgery.”
“The tear was causing my shoulder to bind up really bad, so he cleaned it up so it would work a little better,” he said. “It feels good so far.”
Horne couldn’t throw for three months following the surgery, but since resuming his workouts in early December, he has had no complaints.
“I feel great so far. I’ve been real pleased with how the rehab’s gone,” he said. “I feel no pain so far. I feel like I’ve got the problem fixed and I can continue to move forward toward my ultimate goal, which is pitching in the big leagues.”
“(The injury) was a big struggle for me,” he said. “It wasn’t a huge pain, it was just pretty uncomfortable. My arm wasn’t working like it was supposed to work and it just wasn’t allowing me to extend a long way.
“It took more effort to be able to throw. I was having to work a lot harder to do things I normally do without a problem. Towards the end of the season, my stuff started deteriorating.”
“I feel pretty confident knowing now that there was something wrong last year, something we didn’t know for a long time,” he said. “Now we’ve got a finger on it and fixed it.Horne also said he hopes he will be throwing off a mound by early February, and try to be ready for minor league spring training, which begins on Mar. 7.
(Speaking of which, Chad Jennings just posted the minor league spring training schedule yesterday, you can check it out here.)
In last year's Baseball America Prospect Handbook Horne was the ranked as the Yankees fifth best prospect. Saying "he throws his fastball that sits at 92-93 MPH buy also can park at 94-95." And that he "flashes a power slider and curveball, and he throws his changeup with good arm speed." They also said he had "frontline stuff."
On the negative side, this isn't the first time he's had arm issues. He already had Tommy John surgery to go along with his injury-filled 2008 campaign. But if he can stay healthy there is definitely a chance he can regain the form that got him to be one of the top pitchers in the Yankees system.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment