Ryu Hyun-jin: `What’s a dead arm? I just feel stiff, that’s all`

Injury of shoulders and elbows is fatal to pitchers since it’s both related with muscles. Elbow injury can be recovered through "Tommy John surgery," a procedure that replaces an injured elbow ligament with a tendon taken from the opposite wrist. The surgery can be done twice. The problem is rehabilitation that takes more than a year. Yet it’s a simple surgery that both players and the club don’t worry about. Many star players have underwent Tommy John surgery. Clubs are also subscribed to insurance by which annual compensation is given.

Shoulders are tricky, however. Recovering ball power is difficult once a player gets the surgery, which is complicated. Few pitchers have recovered ball power to previous levels. Former Dodgers ace pitcher Orel Hershiser who was famous for perfect 59 consecutive innings, and Pedro Martinez, who had a nickname of an alien, had this surgery and failed to show previous powerful ball powers.

The Los Angeles Dodgers cannot take lightly Ryu Hyun-jin’s injury for this reason. Many Korean media speculate Ryu as having a dead arm syndrome. However, there is no media in the U.S. mentioning this word on Ryu’s injury. Ryu asked Korean reporters on Tuesday, “What is a dead arm?” The word is unfamiliar even to the pitcher who has been playing baseball for long.

Dead arm syndrome is often experienced not only by baseball players but also by quarterbacks in football. In this season’s spring training, the Chicago Cubs’ new scout Jon Lester skipped starting rotation due to this syndrome. In view of past cases, a player can recover from dead arm if he rests for around a week. It would be better if Ryu is suffering from dead arm.

In explaining why he stopped bull pen pitching, Ryu said, “After bull pen pitching last time, ball speed slowed and I felt something different and so decided to take a rest. I have no pain and just feel stiff. That seems to have affected by ball speed.” On the possibility of getting a surgery, he said, “It wasn’t as bad as to get a surgery when MRI results came out in March. Yet I’m very cautious because it’s the elbow part,” adding, “There will be no surgery, however.” Ryu will likely resume pitching in bull pen this week.

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