Giolito suffers elbow injury, ends high school career

Maybe one of the only good things about suffering through a 99-loss season with the Twins in 2011 was the fact that the organization would have a very good pick in the 2012 amateur draft. The Twins "earned" the number two selection for the draft this June and this means there should be some very good talent to select from with only the Astros picking before them.

Fans looking forward to the June draft were dealt a blow on Wednesday as it was announced that one of the projected top five picks would miss the rest of his high school career with an elbow injury. Lucas Giolito is a 6-foot-6 right-handed pitcher who some scouts projected to be the number one pick. This injury obviously changes many of those projections and his stock in the draft will most likely fall.

[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]

Nathan Rode of Baseball America was the first to break the news. His sources told him that it was a sprained UCL in his right elbow. This injury won't require surgery but there is 6-10 weeks of rehab involved. If a player tears his UCL, Tommy John surgery is usually required and there is a chance that his sprain could turn into a tear.

The first start of the year was very exciting for Giolito as he came out of the gate smoking. Some radar guns had him hitting 100 mph and he only gave up one hit during the contest. His start on Tuesday was not as good as he made it through 6.1 innings allowing two runs on five hits, three walks and three hit batters. Something was clearly wrong with the young man and the bad news came out on Wednesday.

With 6-10 weeks of rest and rehabilitation up next for Giolito and the draft being around 12 weeks away, there is little chance he will be able to prove he is completely healthy before teams have to make their picks. For fans of the UCLA Bruins, this could be good news. If Giolito were to go to college, he had committed to the Bruins. He might be forced to go to UCLA for a couple of seasons to prove his health is back in order. This will also help him to rebuild his draft status for the future.

A tough injury for the young man as it could cost him millions of dollars. It is lucky for him that it happened at a young enough age that he can recover and make it back to still have a successful career.

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