Curves Are Coming Fast

By Thomas Boswell
Sunday, March 2, 2008

VIERA, Fla.

John Patterson and Shawn Hill both have long, bright red scars, still fresh, on their right forearms. Which wouldn't be a problem if they were southpaws. But they're not. The two Nationals pitchers with the most potential, the best brief flashes of success in the big leagues, both had similar operations since last season -- "nerve decompression surgery." Just one day ago, their twin scars were viewed as great blessings for the Nationals' pitching staff. Surely, now repaired and in glowing health, this pair would anchor the rotation as the Nos. 1 and 2 starters with one of them sure to pitch the Opener in The New Park on March 30.

Hold the champagne.

On the second pitch of the second inning here against Baltimore, an Orioles rookie named Scott Moore tagged a 410-foot home run off Patterson in his first appearance on the mound since last June. While his curveball was sharp in his two innings, Patterson's fastball looked much like it did early last season -- respectable, but nothing remotely like the heater of '05.

"Looks like Patterson's arm hurts him," said Orioles executive Mike Flanagan, meaning no harm, just ballpark chat. "He used to have this nice long arm extension. Now his motion is short and he's throwing a lot of curveballs."

"Patterson says he feels great," I said. "You never saw a guy so happy to be pitching again."

"I'm probably wrong," Flanagan said apologetically. Unfortunately, about pitching, he seldom is. Until Patterson gets a radar gun to 92 mph this season, feel free to hold your breath.

Minutes after Moore's homer in a 4-1 Nationals loss, word arrived that Hill had undergone a precautionary MRI exam for right forearm tightness. While results were "unremarkable" and his problem might only be "overuse syndrome," Hill will have to halt his spring program and "medicate his symptoms." Tomorrow, he goes to Duke University for another opinion.

To translate this news into the common sense wisdom of the dugout, just look at the grim face of Nationals Manager Manny Acta. "I feel sorry for the kid. He hasn't been able to pitch a full season without injury for five years. Tough breaks in life," Acta said.

"That's why we got [Odalis] Pérez," Acta said of the recent low-priced signing of a lefty (career 66-70) who was pummeled for a 5.57 ERA in Kansas City last year, but started 26 games. "When people have the injury history that [Patterson and Hill] do, we just couldn't come over here to camp with those guys penciled in number one and two."

Pressed about how the Nationals could cope with more injuries or disappointments this season from Hill, Patterson or both, Acta flared a bit for one of the few times since he's been manager. "It's not like they have won 20 games three times apiece," he said. "We want them to come back. But we have enough [without them]. . . . Nobody in this room knows how good they are. We are just trying to guess how good they might be because they have good stuff." That is, if they could ever stay healthy.

Someday, the Nationals will produce enough young pitching through the minors to plug such holes. "That's at least a year away," Acta said. For now, the Nationals will have to play the cards they're dealt. If Patterson must throw more curves and forget the days when his hopping fastball set up everything else -- and made him one of the NL's best pitchers in '05 -- then so be it. As for Hill, Acta said: "We'll rest him a little. But he may have to deal with this the rest of his life. Maybe we'll have to modify some things -- skip side sessions, limit his throwing" except in games.

How did Walter Johnson and Cy Young ever get along without "nerve decompression surgery" so they wouldn't have stiffness or pain, so that their arms wouldn't have periods of deadness or seasons when their velocity diminished? Who knows? But these days, even if your career record is only 6-10, like Hill, or 18-25, like Patterson, you're not supposed to have too much discomfort. That's why scalpels and anesthetics were invented, don't you know. Start cutting, move some "cords and ropes" around -- as pitchers call their ligaments, tendons and nerves -- then show up the next year expecting a miracle. Few in modern baseball ever say: Beware the surgeon. To a man with a hammer, it's said, everything looks like a nail.

"It's not terrible. It's just there," Hill said of his discomfort. "If this were the end of September, I'd pitch through it."

Still, Hill knows that what bothers him now is similar to the feeling that caused him to have surgery in the first place. "Was it done properly? That's what we did the surgery to take care of. That's not something you think about," Hill said, obviously thinking about exactly that.

If Hill's glass is suddenly half empty, Patterson's is still half full. "I'm pain free. I haven't had a smile on my face when I went to the mound in a long time," he said. "I'm not trying to do too much too soon. I'm going to try to get there slowly so that when we leave here, I'll be ready.

"For us to win consistently this season, I think Shawn and I both have to not necessarily carry the team but that the guys need to know that we'll be healthy and out on the field."

Nevertheless, when you have one of those bright red scars on your pitching arm -- three or four inches long across the forearm in the case of both Nationals -- it's a constant reminder of how precariously a pitcher's career hangs on those endangered cords and ropes or, perhaps, in the case of Hill and Patterson, just a temperamental compacted nerve.

In recent years, Patterson's haircuts have mirrored his feelings about the health of his arm and, thus, his sense of the state of his career. When he's healthy and confident he goes with a clean-cut look, like his father's old favorite Jim Palmer. When he's struggling or scared, the Texan's hair gets shaggy, like a mangy cowboy ready to fight his way out of a tight corner.

"I think I do have happy haircuts and sad haircuts," Patterson said, laughing at himself and his current neat and confident coif. "People show their state of mind in the way they look. Britney [Spears] shaved her head."

Few know the constant strain of wondering whether your career will have another life or whether it's already on life support. Once the surgeries start, when do they end? "When I came off the mound, I looked up at my wife in the stands. It's been tough waiting to come back," Patterson said. "I got to put the uniform on for another day and pitch."

If, by March 30, Patterson has regained even half of his '05 form and if Hill is fit to pitch, rather than back on the disabled list, then the Nationals can start the season with the happiest haircuts they can get.

But if Tim Redding, Jason Bergmann, Matt Chico, Pérez and John Lannan -- Acta's "we have enough" guys -- are the rotation, then a gritty, grind-it-out cult of grunge may be the vogue by Opening Day.