Staff Photo by D. Patrick Harding Red Bank pitcher Alan Walden, has signed Division I baseball scholarships.
Editor’s note: The major league baseball draft will be held June 9-11. Watch for stories on area draft candidates in coming editions of the Times Free Press.
His final high school season dashed by an elbow injury, Red Bank pitcher Alan Walden made the best of a bad situation and moved on.
Walden, whose throwing-arm injury was a factor in the Lions’ failure to repeat as District 6-AAA champions, had surgery at St. Mary’s North Hospital in Knoxville before the district tournament was completed. The surgery repaired an olecranon (funny bone) fracture, which was first diagnosed as triceps tendinitis.
“I guess my season never really got started, and it was tough missing most all of it after having a good junior year,” the University of Tennessee signee said. “I threw for the (pro) scouts early, and it was pretty much downhill from there.”
Even before the season, Walden took eight stitches in his right thumb after it split when hit by a batted ball. Despite that injury and not pitching for a couple of weeks, he threw for a flock of pro scouts and was clocking 93-94 mph with his fastball.
But soon the tissue around his elbow began to swell. His coaches sidelined him again, and although he came back to pitch in a couple of games, his control faltered and his velocity dropped drastically.
He pitched less than a dozen innings in the 2009 season.
“He went to the doctor and had an MRI,” Lions coach Bumper Reese said. “We shut him down for three weeks, and his first outing back he was pitching great. His velocity was up there. After that outing, though, he had some swelling. He pitched again and pitched well, but his elbow swelled up again and left him with a lot of pain.”
After taking results of his MRI to an orthopedist in Knoxville and having an X-ray, Walden finally learned there was a fracture in the right elbow.
He and fellow NCAA Division I recruit Hunter Adkins were the centerpieces of a solid pitching staff for a Red Bank program that had reached the Region 3-AAA tournament the last eight years. Adkins did what he could, but the Lions never really recovered from the loss of Walden’s right arm.
“If I hadn’t gotten hurt, I think we probably would have made it out of the district,” Walden said. “Now I really want to put it behind me. I can’t dwell on it. I just have to get stronger and look for positives rather than thinking about the negatives.”
The main negative may show up in the June 9-11 major league draft. Walden was projected to go in the first five rounds, possibly as high as the third.
“It may cost him a lot of money, but he’s going to be a great pitcher at the University of Tennessee,” Reese said. “This year, it just wasn’t in the cards.”
The major positives are that Walden has that UT scholarship, that he should be able to resume throwing in July with a 100 percent recovery from the injury and that he might still wind up getting drafted with an offer of third- or fourth-round money.
“I figured the draft was over. I have planned ahead and I have thought about it pretty much every day,” Walden said. “I might be drafted really low and still get the money, but that is not the route I want to take. This probably will make me work harder. It’s a motivator.”
His family was pleased with the guidance they received from UT regarding the injury, and Walden said he is looking forward even more to getting in school and getting started.
“There is sure nothing wrong with going to UT. I love UT and I have always been a UT fan,” he said.
His father agreed.
“I think Alan doesn’t believe the money will be there (if he’s drafted), and I think he wants to go to UT and get bigger and stronger,” Alan Walden Sr. said.
Walden Sr., who works as an assistant to Reese, has been dealing with his own frustration and guilt.
“It makes you sick to think this was something that could have been avoided and everybody missed it,” he said. “You feel as a coach and as a father that we should have caught it.
“Still, it has been his dream to play pro ball and now he’s going to the University of Tennessee? Think of all the kids who’d love to be on scholarship and playing SEC baseball. How bad can it be?”
