Thurman working hard as ever

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Thurman working hard as ever
05/05/2006 1:44 PM ET
By Lisa Winston / MLB.com

A week or two ago, my Around the Minors co-host Jonathan Mayo and I decided, on the spur of the moment, to add a segment to that day's show that we called, "Wow, look who's still playing!"
We each cyber-scooted off to scour the box scores and league-leader boards to find our favorite name that had dropped below the radar. It didn't take me long to find my candidate. There, atop the Southern League ERA leaders it read: Corey Thurman, Huntsville Stars.
I remember well when Corey Thurman was an up-and-coming prospect in the Kansas City Royals system: a big, strong, athletic kid who brimmed with enthusiasm and off-the-wall charm.
His interests off the field ranged from bowling to opera to reading poetry to "surfing the Internet" well before that was as commonplace as it is now.
At the 2001 Winter Meetings, the Toronto Blue Jays took a chance on him in the Major League Rule 5 Draft, and he was one of the fortunate few who not only "stuck" on the roster all year but actually made a positive contribution to the big-league team, posting a 4.37 ERA in 43 games.
After that, though, he seemed to fall off the radar in a hurry. So, seeing his name and his stellar stats gave me the opportunity to find out what had happened to "L'il Corey."
It included the dreaded words: rotator cuff surgery.
For most pitchers, attempting to make a comeback from rotator cuff surgery at age 27, more than a year removed from competing in the Minor Leagues, it would be considered a success just to make a rotation, stay healthy and get batters out on a regular basis. But Thurman has done the "comeback" concept one better.
Through his first six starts for his Double-A Southern League team, he ranked among the league leaders with a 2.20 ERA, having walked 10 while striking out 26 in 32 2/3 innings and allowing just one homer.
Thurman is not just "coming back." He appears to be on the way to being better than ever.
"I'm normally a slow, slow starter, so this was the best April I've had coming out of the gate," said Thurman, whose ERA that month was 0.98. "But you know, people say it's not how you start, it's how you finish."
For Thurman, to finish a healthy 2006 campaign, starting every fifth day and pitching without pain, would be the ultimate achievement.
It's been 10 years since Thurman was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the fourth round in 1996 out of high school in Texas. After posting a 4.48 ERA over his first four pro seasons, he enjoyed a huge breakout year in 2000, as he won the Carolina League ERA crown with Wilmington, posting a 2.26, before moving up to Double-A Wichita. The next summer he went 13-5 with a 3.37 ERA at Wichita, enough to prompt the Blue Jays to call his name during the Rule 5 Draft.
He had a reputation as a big, strong, innings-eater, with a decent fastball in the low 90s and a devastating changeup, as well as a curveball and slider. In Toronto, in 2002, he worked exclusively in relief, something new for him. But as with everything in his life, he found the positives in that role. "It gave me flexibility," said Thurman. "And it helped me see how the game worked without all the pressure of being a starter."
The next year, when he no longer had to be kept on the Major League roster, he pitched 86 innings at Triple-A Syracuse, posting a 4.27 ERA as a starter again, as well as enjoying another brief stint in Toronto. But through the whole season he quietly suffered from a sore shoulder.
That fall he was released by the Blue Jays and signed with Cincinnati, but when an MRI on the shoulder showed a torn labrum, that contract was voided. He opted to try to heal through rehab rather than surgery, and a few months later the Reds signed him again. He posted a 1.65 ERA in five games at their Class A Advanced Potomac club in 2004 before exercising an out clause and signing with the Expos, who sent him to Double-A Harrisburg.
There, however, his arm trouble returned with a vengeance. His velocity dropped and his ERA skyrocketed. "It didn't feel right. There was no life on the ball, nothing," he recalled. "I knew I needed surgery."
Thurman went to the famed Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, who operated, discovering that the problem was not his labrum but rather his rotator cuff. After the operation in November 2004, Thurman's former Blue Jays trainer hooked him up with rehab specialist David Wright, who runs Mind 2 Muscle, a weight-training facility in suburban Mississauga, Ontario.
Living near Toronto since his playing days there, Thurman has been working out with a single-minded passion, as well as attending junior college in the city.
Last summer, he pitched in a handful of games for the Florence (Ky.) Freedom of the independent Frontier League, to get some innings in a competitive situation. While there, he caught the eye of a Brewers scout and signed with the organization this past offseason.
Brewers Minor League Pitching Coordinator Jim Rooney was already familiar with Thurman from his own days with the Toronto system. "I knew from what I'd seen of him that he was a very good athlete who competed his butt off," said Rooney. "He has an outstanding changeup -- an out-pitch changeup -- and he's a competitor who takes great care of himself in his preparation and conditioning."
Rooney knows, as does Thurman, that his rehab is not yet finished. Thurman's fastball isn't completely back to where it was before the surgery, and he'll need that to raise it a few more ticks.
"I think that will come with the rehab," Rooney said. "We'll wait for a little more fastball to come back, and in the meantime, he needs to work on getting a little more consistent out front with his slider so he can go at hitters with three or four pitches."
The loss of the fastball velocity is something that Thurman is trying to use to his advantage, mentally as well as physically. "When I was younger and my arm was stronger, I would try to 'outstuff' people," he said. "Now it's about trying to outsmart them. Having seen how Major League pitchers go about their business, I've learned it's not necessarily about what kind of stuff you have, but how to use your mind to get people out."
That year in the big leagues taught Thurman a lot about not taking anything for granted, he said. And that goes for the friendships he made there, as well as the game itself. "The camaraderie of a team is what I missed most," he said. "They're your second family."
Thurman knows that until he is proven to be totally healthy, that family reunion will have to wait. "If I can go out there every fifth day for a whole season, everything else will take care of itself," he said. "I have no goals as far as ERA or wins, none of that. Those are nice, but when you're coming off an injury, every month is a new start."
And while he may not have the fastball of his youth, Thurman believes that what he's learned in the meantime has offset the missing miles per hour.
"Until I get a chance to get back up to the Majors and see myself against those guys, I won't really know," he admitted, "but inside my head I feel like I am a better pitcher than I was before."
I wondered, when I spoke to him, about all those interests he'd had back in the day. The interest in poetry has evolved into a love of rap. And obviously, coming off shoulder surgery, bowling is on the no-no list.
His favorite new hobby? "Getting as much sleep as I can," he laughed.
And I don't have to ask him what he dreams about.

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.