Long Season Ahead for Mets if Collins Embraces Pitchcount
Willie did it. Jerry did it. Now Terry's doing it.
Let's make one thing perfectly clear once again: the pitchcount is propaganda. It's completely made up and has absolutely no relevance whatsoever to whether a pitcher gets hurt or not. Period.
Nolan Ryan with the Texas Rangers doesn't use it. Bruce Bochy of the San Francisco Giants doesn't believe in it either. What do they both have in common? Both teams met in the World Series last year.
Here's the truth of the matter: if a pitcher has a predisposition to get injured, it's going to happen whether they throw 100 pitches or 50 pitches. The "book" is wrong - and when managers manage toward the worst part of their team (by definition, the bullpen), losses are sure to mount, such as today's very winnable 7-3 loss to the Nationals in extra innings.
The game saw a dominant Chris Young throw seven innings of 1-hit ball, only to be automatically lifted before even starting the eighth inning due to his pitchcount total. Said Terry Collins:
"Sending Young out for the 8th inning was out of the question considering both his pitch count and his injury history"
Yeah, instead, just turn a lead over to the likes of Carrasco, Buchholz, and Byrdak and take the loss by playing it by the book. Sending Young out for the 8th innings was NOT out of the question regardless of that lame reasoning. The truth of the matter, Terry, is that Young could have thrown 150 pitches and it would have played absolutely no part whatsoever to his chances of re-injury. As we've seen from countless major league pitchers both young and old, baby-ing pitchers does not insure health. In fact, there's more pitchers on the disabled list and hurt over the past 10 years than there's ever been in the history of baseball. (the "PitchCount Era")
Now I'm not saying you should never use your bullpen - but not when your starter's blowing away hitters to the tune of 1 hit and tells you he still has gas in the tank to go further. I understand Collins was playing it "safe" and "by the book", but that's what Willie and Jerry did - and until managers realize your worst starter is better than your best middle reliever, wins will morph into losses. Just like today.
It's not just Collins, we see this all the time in baseball. What's really interesting is those announcing the games even pick up on this nuance. "There isn't a National batter that isn't happy to see Chris Young out of this game", said Washington's play by play guy F.P. Santangelo. Well if the players know that they have a better chance of winning the game when the starter's out, and the National fans know they have a better chance of winning the game when the starter gets pulled, and everyone announcing and watching the game knows that, how come the managers don't know that? You know what?... WIN THE GAME FIRST!, I'll deal with the extremely slight chance of injury later.
The Mets were very careful with Johan Santana and pulled him MANY times to the tune of losses by the Mets bullpen which we all remember all too well. Santana still got hurt. Steven Strasberg was closely monitored on every single one of his pitches. He got hurt. There are so many examples of this, I couldn't even start to list them all.
The truth of the matter is the pitch-count is completely made up, created by the Players Association as a means of limiting work and embraced by organizations as a "CYA" stat in case something goes wrong. It's propaganda - and it's sad so many fans and those in the media actually believe it means something.
I like the attitude Terry Collins has brought to the team so far this season and I'm optimistic for what he can do with this team long-term. But today something went wrong: the Mets lost a game they should have won. And Terry's sitting in his office, "protected" by "The Book". That can't happen, or we're in for a long season of frustrating baseball. "The Book" is often wrong.
Let's make one thing perfectly clear once again: the pitchcount is propaganda. It's completely made up and has absolutely no relevance whatsoever to whether a pitcher gets hurt or not. Period.
Nolan Ryan with the Texas Rangers doesn't use it. Bruce Bochy of the San Francisco Giants doesn't believe in it either. What do they both have in common? Both teams met in the World Series last year.
Here's the truth of the matter: if a pitcher has a predisposition to get injured, it's going to happen whether they throw 100 pitches or 50 pitches. The "book" is wrong - and when managers manage toward the worst part of their team (by definition, the bullpen), losses are sure to mount, such as today's very winnable 7-3 loss to the Nationals in extra innings.
The game saw a dominant Chris Young throw seven innings of 1-hit ball, only to be automatically lifted before even starting the eighth inning due to his pitchcount total. Said Terry Collins:
"Sending Young out for the 8th inning was out of the question considering both his pitch count and his injury history"
Yeah, instead, just turn a lead over to the likes of Carrasco, Buchholz, and Byrdak and take the loss by playing it by the book. Sending Young out for the 8th innings was NOT out of the question regardless of that lame reasoning. The truth of the matter, Terry, is that Young could have thrown 150 pitches and it would have played absolutely no part whatsoever to his chances of re-injury. As we've seen from countless major league pitchers both young and old, baby-ing pitchers does not insure health. In fact, there's more pitchers on the disabled list and hurt over the past 10 years than there's ever been in the history of baseball. (the "PitchCount Era")
Now I'm not saying you should never use your bullpen - but not when your starter's blowing away hitters to the tune of 1 hit and tells you he still has gas in the tank to go further. I understand Collins was playing it "safe" and "by the book", but that's what Willie and Jerry did - and until managers realize your worst starter is better than your best middle reliever, wins will morph into losses. Just like today.
It's not just Collins, we see this all the time in baseball. What's really interesting is those announcing the games even pick up on this nuance. "There isn't a National batter that isn't happy to see Chris Young out of this game", said Washington's play by play guy F.P. Santangelo. Well if the players know that they have a better chance of winning the game when the starter's out, and the National fans know they have a better chance of winning the game when the starter gets pulled, and everyone announcing and watching the game knows that, how come the managers don't know that? You know what?... WIN THE GAME FIRST!, I'll deal with the extremely slight chance of injury later.
The Mets were very careful with Johan Santana and pulled him MANY times to the tune of losses by the Mets bullpen which we all remember all too well. Santana still got hurt. Steven Strasberg was closely monitored on every single one of his pitches. He got hurt. There are so many examples of this, I couldn't even start to list them all.
The truth of the matter is the pitch-count is completely made up, created by the Players Association as a means of limiting work and embraced by organizations as a "CYA" stat in case something goes wrong. It's propaganda - and it's sad so many fans and those in the media actually believe it means something.
I like the attitude Terry Collins has brought to the team so far this season and I'm optimistic for what he can do with this team long-term. But today something went wrong: the Mets lost a game they should have won. And Terry's sitting in his office, "protected" by "The Book". That can't happen, or we're in for a long season of frustrating baseball. "The Book" is often wrong.
posted by Mets Fan Club @ 4:49 PM
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