Sunday, June 06, 2004

End the Drought has a nice post on how the Cubs/Dusty Baker are being more careful with pitch counts.

Currently, the Cubs have thrown 13 pitches, 11 of those came with Wood against the Reds, when he was ejected/suspended, the other two were by Zambrano. They are currently on pace for 39 pitches (as 54 games is exactly 33% complete), this is a dramatic drop-off compared to the 157 pitches they accumulated last year (not including the post-season).

I am a firm believer in pitch counts. If your pitcher gets into the 120+ range often during the season you substantially increase his chances of injury later in his career. No question last year Wood and Prior were often seen in the 120, 130, and even the 140 range, so it was no big surprise to me they both suffered injuries. The purists will scoff, and point to the hall of famers who pitched 300 to 400 innings a year without getting injured. It is just a different generation today.

Read his whole post, he even gets a writer from the Daily Herald to chip in.