Stoneburner Learned Valuable Lesson

During a baseball prospect’s time in the minor leagues, learning how to throw, catch and hit aren’t all of what needs to be experienced and learned before reaching the majors. In fact, part of what makes a great baseball player is their ability to bounce back after obtaining a game-stopping injury. For Graham Stoneburner, his lesson was learned this year with the Trenton Thunder.

“One day I woke up and had a stiff neck,” Graham Stoneburner said. “It just kind of got worse and worse and then eventually I had to quit pitching. It was one of those [injuries] that I didn’t do anything as a direct result, [at least] that I know of.

"It was one of those things that as soon as you find out you get hurt, for me anyway, it’s all about how you can get better and the quickest way to do that.”

Like most baseball players who have experienced being away from the game with an injury, Stoneburner didn’t see it like a setback to his career. He feels it is just an element of being a part of the sport.

“I don’t really view it as missing out on anything,” Stoneburner said. “It’s just part of the process. I got hurt and there’s nothing I can do about it. Getting hurt and [having] injuries happen. I can do my best to prevent injuries, but I just have to go on from where I am now and focus on my task at hand.”

“Nobody wants to get hurt,” said Thunder manager Tony Franklin. “Whenever your season is interrupted because of injury, you hate it. You just hate that because you come into the season with so much expectation of what you want to do and improve, and all the sudden everything goes out the window. You have to start all over again. I absolutely think it was a bit of a setback because he was out for such a long time.”

But regardless of what the injury did to him, Stoneburner is just happy to be where he started the season out and with the team he enjoys competing with. While in the GCL and Tampa, Stoneburner still knew he had work to do.

“It was just kind of getting back into pitching form,” Stoneburner said about how he felt he did. “I didn’t pitch as well as far as I statistically wanted to. Physically, it felt good in my alley to kind of get my pitch count up and all.”

Although Franklin didn’t have the chance to see him in the GCL and in Tampa, the numbers showed that he did well. And ever since his return to Trenton, Franklin has been rather excited to see what else is in store for him the rest of his time here.

“When [Stoneburner] came back here the other night, he pitched well and did a nice job,” Franklin said. “It was unfortunate we didn’t get a chance to see him earlier in the year because of his injury, but he’s come back and the first outing was pretty successful.

"He pitched well enough and he’s got something going on there. I’m pretty interested in seeing what he has for the rest of the season and hopefully the injury is behind him and he remains injury free for his remaining time here.”

Now that it’s August and the playoffs are right around the corner, Stoneburner is still only worried about his game play now and during this moment. He’s not one to focus too much on a possible future move up to Triple-A.

“I try not to look that far ahead,” Stoneburner said. “Right now, I’m just focusing on my next start and that’s it. Tomorrow I have to come in and get my work done and I try not to look past that.”

“I hope he goes out and wins every game he pitches,” said Franklin about what his hopes are for Stoneburner. “He needs to get some consistency back and make sure his delivery is solid and make sure he can go out and compete every fifth day. Right now, I think that is enough to ask for a guy who has missed a couple months of the season.”

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