According to Metsmerized Online, 2009 top draft pick Steven Matz has hit yet another speed bump on the seemingly endless road to his pro debut. After throwing a bit this spring, the 20-year-old lefty from Hicksville East Setauket felt some discomfort in his elbow, the same elbow which necessitated Tommy John surgery last year. Needless to say this precipitated another visit to Dr. Andrews, and the results weren't ideal.
From Matz himself:
"I threw a bunch of innings in Spring Training and my velocity was back to normal, anywhere from 90-95 mph. The elbow still wasn’t really feeling right, but I was trying to get through it. I went and saw Dr. Andrews again and he was concerned a little bit. But it’s very tough to read an MRI after you have a surgery. So I am going to give it one more try and see what happens."
So yeah, that sucks. Nice to hear that his stuff looked good when he threw (95 velo sounds great), but pretty much anything the team gets out of Matz would be a bonus at this point. Before this news the club was pretty anxious to assign Matz to an affiliate -- likely Rookie-level Kingsport -- so hopefully we'll see him out there at some point this summer.