Stephen Strasburg blames forearm injury on his slider
Written By Joe Rodgers
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For the first time in his professional career, Nationals All-Star pitcher Stephen Strasburg incorporated a slider into his pitching repertoire in 2016. He fell in love with the pitch because it produced quick outs.
But the former No. 1 overall pick also noticed additional soreness after starts and believes the pitch is partially to blame for a pronator tendon tear in his pitching elbow. The injury caused him to miss most of September and the postseason.
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"I think it became easy for me to try to get lazy with it and maybe fatigue a little bit quicker because it's just a stress on your arm that you really have to build up over time, but you have to do it the right way," Strasburg told reporters Sunday (via The Washington Post).
"It's not like any guy can all of a sudden throw a split fingered fastball and have that be his secondary pitch and have it take place of the two other pitches that are working for you," he said.
Strasburg started the season a perfect 13-0, but fell apart after July 15, going 2-4 with a 7.36 ERA until he left the mound Sept. 7 fearing he needed a second Tommy John surgery.
"You're always trying to improve your game and it's tough because I had success with it," Strasburg said. "I didn't really think that anything was going on. I just know that based on my symptoms that pitch became the one pitch that didn't really feel good throwing it.
"With that said, just looking back on the numbers, a lot of it was overuse. My arm just wasn't accustomed to throwing that pitch that many times."
Strasburg, who decided against surgery, is expected to have a normal throwing schedule this offseason and plans to use his slider less in 2017.