Tom Glavine's Next Step

((HT: AJC/Rogers))

Tom Glavine felt fine after three innings of a simulated game Monday and if his shoulder rebounds well, he will report for a minor league rehabilitation start Saturday in Class AAA Gwinnett.

If all continues to progress as it has, Glavine believes he would need only one more minor league outing five days later before he would be ready to make his comeback from elbow and shoulder surgery.

Monday marked the first time Glavine had faced live hitters since his setback on April 12, when he re-aggravated his shoulder swinging the bat in a rehabilitation start for Class AA Mississippi.

“When I threw bad pitches, being up or over the plate, they put good swings on them,” Glavine said. “When I got the ball down or on the corners, they didn’t take as good swings. That’s a good sign for me. It’s just a matter of being more consistent with that.”
The most pain Glavine experienced was from the line drive he took off his hip from hitter Greg Norton.

“If I was fast enough, I’d have run and caught that ball before it hit him,” Norton said. “As soon as I hit it, I was yelling ‘Heads up.’ I’m glad it hit him in the behind and not something that would fall off. At our age, we’ve got to watch out for impacts like that.”

Glavine said his shoulder feels better than it did in spring training.

“My spring training issues were in the back (of the shoulder) where they shaved my spur, on top where they did my bursa sac and in the front where I’ve always had problems and they didn’t do anything (surgically),” Glavine said. “Now it’s basically just in the front, where I (nicked) it off swinging the bat. The rest of the stuff is gone.”

Glavine has been taking batting practice but wasn’t sure if he’d take swings Saturday in Gwinnett. If he does, it will be with plenty of caution.