By Matt Browning
Rose Hill pitcher Braxton Frazier dealt with multiple tears in the UCL of his throwing arm, along with nerve damage and tendinitis in his elbow.
Frazier shut down pitching from July through November but still didn’t feel 100 percent until January.
“It mostly came from overuse from pitching and not doing enough consistent arm care and preparation,” Frazier said. “During a game, in the third inning my hand suddenly went numb when I threw a pitch. That’s when I knew something wasn’t right, so I shut it down.”
The therapy process was crucial to Frazier’s recovery and became his primary focus when he couldn’t touch a baseball.
“I did heat therapy, scraping, massage work, band exercises, plyo balls, and a lot of stretching to get my arm stronger again,” Frazier said.
The differences for Frazier before and after the injury were dramatic. He now has to be more thorough in his warmup before taking the mound.
“I definitely saw a lot of differences in my ability to throw,” Frazier said. “My mechanics were sloppy and my velocity was about 10 miles per hour lower than normal. Even now I have to spend a little more time warming up and making sure my arm is ready to throw without discomfort.”
While the injury was discouraging for Frazier, there were some positives that came from adjusting the way he throws.
“During rehab I had to rely more on my legs and core instead of putting all the stress on my arm,” Frazier said. “At first it felt weird, but now I feel like I’m throwing harder and more efficiently than before.”
