Throughout his college days and a short Major League Career plagued by inconsistency, Colorado Rockies third-year pitcher Scott Oberg has found a way to soldier on, even with a litany of injuries often bogging him down.
“In college, I got diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, and that affected my feet so I couldn’t walk for a while, and then I had Tommy John surgery and I’ve had a shoulder scope.”
Those setbacks, of course, pale in comparison to the alarming development he endured last season, during which he had to be rushed to the hospital with four blood clots in his right arm.
“It was definitely scary. It was like, ‘Wow, this is really happening.’ I’m glad we caught it,” Oberg said. “They said it was just mechanical trauma of the shoulder hitting up against the arteries. Four were all kind of spread out in my forearm, but they originated in my shoulder.”
One day, when Oberg was going through the motions while pitching a game against the Cubs, his arm didn’t feel quite right.
“My forearm starting getting a little tight,” Oberg recalled. “I was like, ‘All right, this is kind of weird, this really shouldn’t happen. It’s getting a little late in the year so maybe it’s just muscle fatigue or something.’ I told the trainers and the next two days we kind of worked on it. It wasn’t getting any better. I couldn’t really feel the ball in my hand when I was playing catch.”
From there, it went all downhill.
“A couple of days later, the tip of my middle finger went completely numb, so they had a hand specialist here and I ran through some tests,” Oberg said. “She’s like, ‘Yeah, you know, you’re not getting any blood flow back to your hand, can’t feel the radio pulse in your wrist. I’m pretty sure you have a blood clot and you have to go to the hospital.’”
In a matter of a week, he underwent two surgeries to remove the clots and get him back on track for his return to the mound. He missed the remainder of the season recuperating, but thanks to the help of a grade-A training staff led by head trainer Keith Dugger, Oberg was able to come back to Spring Training as his old self.
While consistency from game to game has been a bit of a bane so far in his young career, Oberg returned to the lineup better than ever in March as he wrapped up his time in Arizona with a 1.93 ERA across 9.1 innings in 10 games. He only gave up two runs off six hits and two walks, but managed to strike out nine unfortunate souls in the process.
“So far so good, all my strength’s back,” Oberg said. “I feel like I’ve made some mechanical adjustments to put my ball where I want to, when I want to, and then just having the confidence to do my thing and continue to palpitate the strike zone.”
So far, just a couple weeks into the season, Oberg has remained consistent throughout five innings across just as many games, notching a 1.80 ERA off of four strikeouts, one earned run and three hits.
“It’s just kind of being consistent with my thoughts, with my delivery and then making quality pitches,” Oberg noted.
As far as his maintaining resiliency to bounce back from major injury after major injury, Oberg chalks is up to a good support system and a bit of luck.
“I have no idea, to be honest with you,” Oberg said. “I’m just fortunate to be around good training staffs, good people to put me on the right path to get to where I need to get to.”
