Rest does Stammen and knee a lot of good

When Craig Stammen returned home to Versailles, Ohio following the 2007 minor league season, he wanted to give his aching left knee some rest.
No one could figure out what was causing the pain last year, which made a difficult situation even harder for the pitcher to deal with. The pain had bothered him the whole campaign and led to a sub-par season for a one-time top 30 prospect.
If it could be identified, Stammen believed he’d get it taken care of and move on. But the issue eluded the medical staff at Potomac as well as Washington.
Taking a break would be a good step toward preparing for a pain-free 2008, he thought. Of course, a little golf once in a while couldn’t hurt, right?
And when the same pain was still there during rounds on the links, Stammen knew it was time for surgery.
Doctors diagnosed the problem as a lateral riding patella, a naturally-occurring condition where the kneecap is situated too far outside the knee and not in the groove of the femur, the upper leg bone.
A lateral release procedure and four months of rehab later, Stammen was back to the form he showed when the Nationals made him a 12th-round pick in the 2005 First-Year Player Draft and preparing for his first Carolina League All-Star selection of his career.
“It was kind of something I was born with,” the 24-year-old right-hander said of the condition. “It didn’t really get aggravated until I started using it a lot more as far as running and pitching.”
The No. 21 prospect in the Nationals’ organization according to industry magazine Baseball America before last season, Stammen dropped out of the rankings after posting a 4.18 ERA and an 8-6 record as a starter and reliever with Potomac in ’07.
With the sore knee, he couldn’t land confidently on his left leg. That, in turn, often took his concentration away from pitching and caused him to struggle.
“I think the mental side of it was what was more important,” he said. “I probably didn’t pitch as well as I could have because of it, but you can’t make excuses like that.”
By putting the 6-foot-3 pitcher in the bullpen, Potomac manager Randy Knorr and pitching coach Randy Tomlin decided that a reduced workload for Stammen could help him recover while still developing his abilities. Because the cause couldn’t be determined, the thought was that the pain could just be something Stammen would have to deal with through his career.
“He responded real well,” Tomlin said. “He’s got the stuff to start and he can relieve. He’s very resilient.”
Stammen appreciated the plan, pitching only on days when his knee didn’t bother him. His running program between appearances was also modified, shortened and, eventually, eliminated.
The change in his exercise routines hindered his game performances perhaps as much as the pain he says.
“It hurts your preparation in between starts or appearances because you can’t do any of the running, you can’t get yourself in shape,” Stammen said. “You just have to ride the bike and see what you can do and have a tolerance (for pain). It was just a pain in the butt all the way around.”
This year, throwing without pain for the first time since last May, Stammen is looking like the pitcher scouts though he was coming out of the University of Dayton in 2005.
Back in the rotation after a brief stint in the bullpen to start 2008, Stammen (4-2) is the best pitcher remaining with the High-A club after Adrian Alaniz’s promotion to Double-A June 12. His 2.21 ERA is the lowest he’s ever posted in his three-plus seasons of professional baseball.
Stammen even threw a career-high eight innings and struck out 10 against Lynchburg May 26 this year, the best outing since he signed in 2005.
“I think worrying about landing on (his sore leg) took his focus off the strike zone,” said Jack Spradlin, a fellow Potomac pitcher and 2005 draft pick. The two even roomed together for the first part of 2008.
“He’s always been a really good pitcher,” Spradlin added. “I feel like his knee surgery really helped a lot. Obviously this year he’s healthy and able to land on his knee without any problems, any pain. I think because of that he’s able to show what type of pitcher he really is.”
Now pitching at full-health, Stammen worked on his pitching mechanics, Tomlin said. As a result, Stammen became more consistent with repeating his delivery, which aided his control.
Stammen has also changed his approach on the mound in games. This year Tomlin and Washington’s minor league pitching coordinator, Spin Williams, agree that Stammen is attacking the strike zone more, making hitters put the ball in play rather than chase.
“I think he nibbled a lot last year, he was trying to be too fine,” Williams said. “This year I think he’s trying to force contact a little better. He’s pitching to get outs quickly and that’s our philosophy in the organization — pitch to contact, get quick outs and he’s bought into it.”
That mentality has yielded another difference in his numbers aside from wins and losses. Stammen has struck out 62 opposing hitters and issued just 17 walks through 69.1 innings pitched, good for a 3.64-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio and 8.1 strikeouts per nine innings.
“He’s throwing the ball over the plate more and changing speeds more and not pitching to a corner or off the corner,” Tomlin said. “He’s feeling more confident, going after hitters and trusting his stuff.”
Stammen’s resiliency has also proved useful throughout the Nationals’ organization as he has been promoted to Triple-A Columbus twice in the last two years.
“When you get to pitch at Triple-A,” Stammen said, “I consider it the big leagues of the minor leagues. They pack your bags, you get good food to eat and you’re playing with guys that have been up to the big leagues. It’s a different kind of baseball.”
Each time he went up (once in 2007 for a start and once this year out of the bullpen) it was just to add an arm for a game or two, but he enjoyed being able to pitch near home.
“That made it even better,” he said. “Last year when I made the start up there I had about 30 of my good friends there because they were there for a wedding Labor Day weekend. They were pretty loud and obnoxious but it was pretty cool that they got to see me pitch. Then this year, a bunch of my cousins go to Ohio State, so I got to hang out with them a couple times.
“It’s been a blessing actually to be able to play there a couple times.”
“I think it’s helped him because he knows that he can pitch at that level,” Tomlin said. “He can go anywhere from here and he knows that.”