Cashner: Dominant slider turns problematical as ace takes a break
If you're into sign-reading, here's one: Andrew Cashner was talking to a club official and chuckling as he came into the dugout Tuesday afternoon.
He was not frowning, saying the rosary or poring over the MRI results that revealed inflammation and, the Padres say, nothing more as of now.
Whether that changes between now and the time Cashner next takes the mound - and nobody yet knows when that will be - there is no telling.
But for now, here is what manager Bud Black says: "I think we all feel pretty good about it." And: "We don't mind hearing this news."
In the Year of Tommy John across baseball, it is easy to assume the worst. Natural, even, given the parade to the operating room of Padres pitchers alone. Corey Luebke. Josh Johnson. Before them, Casey Kelley and Joe Wieland. Before that ... aw, why depress everyone a list longer than the lunchtime line at Roberto's Taco Shop?
If you're into sign-reading, here is another one: Two starts ago against Kansas City, Cashner eighty-sixed his slider. Didn't throw one. And for good reason.
"That was by design," pitching coach Darren Balsley says. "We went into that outing knowing that the slider seemed to be the [pitch] causing the fatigue."
Cashner brought it back against Cincinnati last week, throwing 25 sliders among his 95 total pitches.
And not long after, he informed Black and Balsley of the pain.
Fatigue, pain, parse things how you want. They are related. And the bottom line here is that whenever he returns, the grip Cashner probably is going to have to get on his slider is a different view than he's had before.
As Black explained, the way Cashner "wraps" his slider can strain the flexor muscle, or the forearm.
"He wraps the slider a little quicker than what you'd like to see," Black said.
According to Balsley's charts, Cashner is throwing his fastball about 72 percent of the time this season, his slider about 18 percent of the time and his changeup about 10 percent of the time.
"Throwing a heater 72 percent of the time, that's a very high ratio," Balsley said. "But he's one of the few pitchers in the big leagues, in my opinion, who can succeed doing that. I think he could go 80 percent fastballs."
That is special ability, no question. And it's reflected in the fact that Cashner right now ranks eighth in the National League with a 2.35 ERA.
He developed the slider a couple of years ago because even with a killer heater, starting pitchers need different looks.
Last month, he attributed a large part of his success since last year's All-Star break to the slider. As he explained it, when he suffered the bad cut on his pitching hand two winters ago in the hunting accident, he could not throw the slider with the proper mechanics during the first half of last season. He couldn't get his thumb on top of the baseball during delivery, so the ball came out of his hand almost as if he were casting a fishing rod.
Once he could get his thumb into the proper position atop the baseball at midyear, he became one of the game's most dominant starting pitchers.
Now, whenever he returns, Cashner and the Padres' excellent pitching brains -- Balsley and Black -- probably are going to have to devise a new strategy for his slider. Maybe not throw it quite as often. Maybe not "wrap" it so hard so that coiling his wrist does not place such a strain on his arm.
Cashner is not yet ready to admit this.
"Once I get healed, I don't think it will be an issue," he said.
Maybe not. When I asked if he's had any past history of elbow trouble, he said the only other time came during his freshman year of college. That, he said, felt similar to this.
He's 27 now. That's a pretty good run for a pitcher without elbow soreness outside the norm.
Yet the fact that Cashner faced the Royals on May 7 and threw 92 pitches without once going to the slider is telling. Especially when coupled with the fact that he went back to the slider six days later against the Reds and now is sidelined with inflammation in the elbow.
You'd like to have faith in this diagnosis, see him back on the hill sometime soon. But with seven Tommy John surgeries over the past two years being one of those statistics that sticks out on the Padres ledger like, yes, a sore elbow, Friar fans rightfully will be holding their breath until Big Cash takes the mound in a not-too-distant first inning.
"It's as good as we could have expected," Balsley said. "When I spoke with Andrew, this is what he felt would be the diagnosis.
"He felt like the ligament would be fine because he can still reach back and hit 95, 98 m.p.h. And normal activities, like picking up a suitcase, didn't bother him.
"It's not perfect news. It would be great if he went in for the MRI and they said, 'Nothing is there. You're brand new.â But I think we knew that would not be the case. There's trauma with any pitcher."
And trauma with every fan base sweating through another pitcher injury in this, the Year of Tommy John.
Sure, Balsley admitted, this summer especially, anytime anything happens with an elbow, it seems like the guy winds up headed for Tommy John surgery.
"But he wasn't moping around like, 'Woe is me, I'm not going to be able to pitch this year,'" Balsley noted.
No. He arrived in the dugout for batting practice lighthearted and chuckling.
The hope here is that he's still chuckling a month from now. Chuckling, and pitching.
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Longtime national baseball columnist Scott Miller will be a weekly contributor to FOXSportsSanDiego.com, discussing the San Diego Padres and Major League Baseball. Follow Scott on Twitter at @ScottMillerBbl.
