Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Excerpt: "Matt Harvey, Turning Point"

"Let's play it out. If pitcher injuries are, for practical purposes, random, what does this mean for baseball management? Well, for one, I think it can put an end to the hyper-limiting of workloads in the minor leagues. If a pitcher is healthy and effective, you let him pitch, subject to reasonable restrictions on in-game pitch counts tied to a pitcher's age -- ideas that have been around since Craig Wright was promoting them. You advance pitchers more quickly; the practice of taking college starting pitchers in the draft and sending them to A ball has never made sense. If you didn't think Mark Appel could handle the Midwest League you probably wouldn't have taken him first overall. Start these guys at Double-A and stop making them waste pitches at a level that's beneath them. And when they're ready, they're ready; there's no career path with pitchers the way there is with hitters, where you want to hold them back to make sure you get as much of the peak under team control as possible. A pitcher can start the All-Star Game in July and be out for the next season come August -- so if he can help you now, let him help you now. No shutdowns, no Verducci effect, no nothing. Let the best pitchers pitch in the major leagues, because none of us are good enough to know when they'll stop being able to do so."