A bubbly Brandon Webb seemed only too happy to announce his right shoulder rehab progress to a throng of reporters in the Diamondbacks' clubhouse before Saturday's Diamondbacks-Dodgers game.
Webb, the three-time All-Star and one-time NL Cy Young Award winner, has been throwing every other day, sometimes off a mound, sometimes just catch. Some days are heavier workloads than others (I say that relatively speaking to actual workloads in everyday life) -- the last two or three throwing sessions have been from full distance at 60 feet, 6 inches.
Webb has been throwing all fastballs, roughly 60 to 65 pitches on a heavy day and 25 to 30 on light days. He was happy to proclaim that he throw to a catcher in the crouch.
"I'm still encouraged that everything's moving forward," Webb said.
Webb would be happy if he can make six to eight big-league starts this season, meaning he's at least another few weeks away from coming off the disabled list. Webb made his Opening Day start last season and was out for the season thereafter, and has been unable to pitch for the D-backs all season this year.
Webb said he experienced a breakthrough with his rehab while throwing in Boston off a mound, after which his arm felt fine, and he's just going with that.
"I can start to see it," Webb said about the end of his rehab and return to action. "I'm still a ways off, but the light is there. It's still dim, but it's reachable."
He regrets not every throwing a pitch for A.J. Hinch when Hinch was the D-backs' manager.
"It seems the finger is always pointed at the manager," Webb said about the dismissal of Hinch. "It's a good thing it was Gibby (Kirk Gibson that replaced Hinch and I think he's going to do a great job. We've had a couple of good (team meetings already. The respect is there."