June 06, 2005

Proof that pitch counts don't matter.: Or maybe just proof that there is at least one cyborg playing baseball.

posted by panoptican to baseball at 01:14 AM - 3 comments

Pitch counts matter, but we still haven't figured out how to properly measure them. Is 100 the "magic number"? Is every pitch equal (greater or less than the "magic number")? What about warm-up tosses? What about pitch types (fastball, curveball, change-up)? What about pitching patterns? There are quite a few examples of pitchers running up huge pitch counts in game A and then getting shellacked in game B. There are also many cases of pitchers running up huge pitch counts in season A and then either getting injured or losing their effectiveness in season B (and later). Livan Hernandez? He is the living "exception to the rule". Randy Johnson might be another one. All I know is that I get worried for some young pitchers when I see the manager leave them in the game after 110 pitches and their team is up by 6 runs...

posted by grum@work at 06:54 AM on June 06, 2005

I think pitch counts matter, but there is no "majic" number. I think that it depends greatly on the pitcher. The key is for the pitching coach and manager to get to know each one of their pitchers and what each one's limit are!

posted by daddisamm at 12:46 PM on June 06, 2005

Now what Livan Hernandez needs to do is throw both ends of a doubleheader...that will fix him...you think he could hit 300 pitches if he threw a doubleheader?

posted by chris2sy at 04:07 PM on June 06, 2005

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