Is Valenzuela Paying Price for the Screwball? : Medical: No, says Jobe, who cites a high number of innings pitched. Other doctors aren’t so sure.

Has the screwball done in Fernando Valenzuela?

On Thursday, the day of Valenzuela’s release by the Dodgers, the team’s orthopedist said no. Valenzuela’s famous reverse curveball was not to blame for his lack of success, Dr. Frank Jobe said. If anything has slowed down the left-hander, it was not how he pitched but how often.

Other sports physicians were less sanguine about the effects of the screwball. Some say it is among the most punishing pitches, reputed to have stolen inches off Carl Hubbell’s arm.

But no one would say for certain that it has hurt Valenzuela.

“If you’re looking for a reason why he was released, the answer is I don’t know,” Jobe said. “ . . . Fernando pitched a horrendous number of innings. I think that the amount of pitching, cumulative over a lifetime, probably is more important than a screwball.”

The screwball is thrown with spin opposite that of a curveball. The pitcher turns his wrist and forearm at the last second to the inside, forcing the ball to break in the opposite direction from a curveball.

Dr. Mitchel Storey, team doctor for the Seattle Mariners and a specialist in throwing injuries, said the pitch puts unusual stress on the front of the shoulder and the inside elbow. He called the pitch “extremely difficult . . . from the standpoint of mechanics.”

It “tends to create” a condition called impingement in the shoulder, Storey said. The shoulder’s rotator cuff and lubricating sac get pinched between two bones in the upper arm and shoulder. Over time, bursitis and tendinitis develop.

Chronic inflammation can lead to thickening and degeneration. The tissue begins to wear out and becomes susceptible to tearing. Screwball pitchers aren’t the only ones affected, and not all of them develop the problem. But, Storey contended, it is not uncommon.

Jobe countered that the screwball is no worse than other pitches. Only the slider, he said, is dangerous because it snaps the elbow. As for impingement, Jobe said, the risk is greater with a fastball and a curveball than with a screwball.

Nor is there evidence in Valenzuela of the kind of long-term damage wrought by excessive pitching at a young age, when the body is still growing, Jobe said.

“If you take any kind of joint and use it more than it was designed for, you’re going to get some sand-papering of the cartilage. It’s like sand in the machinery,” Jobe said. “ . . . I think (that’s) more likely to be the cause of slowed pitches and the inability to pitch.”