Twins Baker has a tender elbow; tender elbow explained

The Twins have announced today that they will be cautious with Scott Baker, because he has elbow issues. He was scratched from today's game and his fastball has not been as high as usual, standing at the mid 80s this spring. Later the Twins' medical staff officially announced that Scott Baker's ailment is a tender elbow.

What is a tender elbow? Just like tenderfoot, there a definition of a "tender elbow". The only problem is that "tender elbow" is a symptom and not a cause. Of course this comes from the same medical staff that has accustomed us to causes such as "flu-like symptoms" and the like. Nothing new. As a matter of fact, Joel Zumaya had a tender elbow as well. I just hope what Scott Baker's is not as tender as Zumaya's (or Nathan's or Neshek's or Gibson's.)

What makes an elbow tender? Unless there was a physical external injury, like bumbing onto something, which is a muscular injury (and in bad cases bone injury), think of a bruise or a fracture, then it is from overworking it. And what you overwork is the ligaments. If the tenderness is on the outside, the posterior and radial collateral ligaments are affected, and this is called "Tennis Elbow". If the tenderness is on the inside, the ulnar collateral ligament is affected. We know what that means. And in pitchers, that is usually the case. So it does not look too good from here, especially without location of the "tenderness".

I just hope that Scott Baker is fine, but the Twins' medical staff, really need to get a tad more explicit (and professional) with their diagnoses.