KISSIMMEE, Fla. - Sean Burnett returned to his hotel room and stacked a pile of pillows against the bed's headboard after another day of rehabbing an elbow injury under the Arizona sun.
His doctor - the renowned orthopedic surgeon James Andrews - told Burnett that it was just a matter of time until the ligament that holds together the pitcher's left elbow would pop. Burnett knew Andrews was right. Elbow problems hindered him the previous season, and discomfort filled those workouts in the spring of 2014.
So Burnett clutched a set of baseballs and fired them against the stack of pillows, hoping with each throw that his ligament would snap.