Thursday, October 15, 2015

No one likes to see a young phenom struck down in his prime, which makes the elbow injury to Gloucester’s Manuel Corona all the more gut-wrenching and hard to take. For added insult to the injury, Corona was pitching as well as ever (20+ consecutive scoreless innings) in his first appearance in the PEBA playoffs, which of course began with the first post-season no-hitter.

However, he threw 124 pitches en route to that no-hit, three-walk performance against Arlington. Manager Bob Howard took the safe route and did not start Corona on short rest for the critical Game Five of that series. Instead, the Fisherman made it through the first round with Corona ready to start the Imperial League Alliance Tournament against Charleston on five days rest.

But was it too late – had the damage been done in that extended outing? Corona made no mention of any discomfort during his regular throwing session between starts or in his warmups prior to Game One. The fan in every person cannot fault Howard for letting Corona finish that masterful performance against the Bureaucrats, but that pitch count was 10 pitches more than his previous high for the season and 15-20 more pitches than his typical starts. The saying goes that you have all winter to rest after the playoffs. With the news that “Mayor” has certain elbow surgery in his future, he’ll have all of 2016 to wonder what might have been.

Pitch counts have been a part of baseball for a generation for a reason. There are numerous examples, dating back to the days of Major League Baseball, of a young pitcher’s career being derailed from overuse of joints at an early age. Again, the fan in all of us wants to see those special pitching performances, particularly under the bright lights of the stage of the PEBA playoffs, but at what price does this come? We are left to wonder if Howard’s decision to let Corona achieve the big finale may have let the fireworks fizzle for the rest of his career.

Alas, we act as if “Mayor” has left us already. Surgery has progressed since the days of Tommy John and his miraculous surgery in 1974. Many players have returned from rehabilitation with all the arm strength that they left with and more. Of course, none of them were a few weeks away from potential back-to-back PEBA Golden Arm awards. If anyone has a little arm to give, it is Manuel Corona. He could easily lose a little and still be a perennial All-Star selection when he returns.

The Corona situation is a difficult one. He was arguably the best pitcher in the PEBA working on a no-hitter in his first post-season game. He had no history of injury, never missing a start in four PEBA seasons. But 124 pitches is 124 pitches. Howard had the responsibility to protect Corona from damage, and now it looks like the entire franchise will pay the price.