Pitch Labor Day
Today is labor day and no baseball blog is true of itself without making a post full of puns given the special occasion. With such, here are some pitchers who could use a day or nine off at this point in the season.
Justin Verlander
As I wrote elsewhere, Verlander leads baseball in starts in which he threw 120 or more pitches. This has occurred seven times this season. The two next highest pitchers in the American League have three of these games apiece. Averaging 111 pitches per game with a little over 3,200 on the season, there is a chance he will hit the 4,000 pitch mark with another seven-to-eight starts this year.
Tim Lincecum
Unlike Detroit, San Francisco won’t appear to have a chance for Lincecum to skip a start between now and season’s end. The Giants will need the live wire to maintain pace in the wild card standings. Like Verlander, Lincecum leads his respective league in games with 120 or more pitches thrown. Unlike Verlander, 4,000 pitches seems like a reach.
Roy Halladay
Did you know Halladay threw 133 pitches in one game this season? He’ll top the 200 innings mark once more, but Toronto could probably stand to pull the reins in as the season ends, if for no other reason to prevent potential injury. Yes, this is Doc, but Toronto fielded one of the best teams in baseball last year and finished fourth in their division – Lady Luck must be American.
Ubaldo Jimenez
The National League leader in pitches per game started. Same kayak as Lincecum.
Braden Looper
Oh, I’m not concerned about his workload and neither should you. He’s just not very good right now.
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No offense, but people that write comments without capital letters and a false/undeserved sense of importance tend to have IQs at or below mildly retarded.
He said “no offense”…sheesh.
Anyway, Halladay already got his typical two weeks off earlier in the season. He’s the only reason to tune in as Jays fan at this point. I’d just like to see him pulled from the game a little quicker for the rest of the season when he is struggling. His August 24th start was a good example – wasn’t missing bats all day, but was left in to allow 12 hits and 8 runs over 113 pitches.
Just as an aside,would it be better for someone like Verlander to skip a start or two, or just limit pitch counts? Neither seem likely with a possible Cy Young award in the offing, but in theory, is one option supposedly better than another?
Yes, he said “no offense” — but what that really means is “I want to be an asshole, but I’m a cowardly asshole, so I’ll preface it with these two words and hope nobody notices.” Camouflaged bullshit is still bullshit, and shouldn’t enable you to avoid being called on it.
Love the Braden Looper addition at the end.
As a Brewers fan, I totally agree. However, his 16.1% HR/FB may be part of the cause for his struggles. His FIP sits at 5.70, but his xFIP is at 4.96. Still obviously not great, but that’s three-fourths of a run right there.
That high HR/FB is also affecting his 6.20 tRA. The guy has a 16.6% LD rate (8th best in the majors), and he gets more groundballs than flyballs (1.30 GB/FB). While he certainly isn’t a great pitcher, he probably should be pitching much better than he is.
I’m really starting to be concerned for Ubaldo’s long term health, especially if the Rockies make the playoffs. I understand he’s been pitching for a few years now, but he’s just being left out there too long in a lot of starts. Jim Tracy rode his young pitchers very hard in Pittsburgh, mainly Snell and Gorzo, and there were some bad long term effects. I’m hoping for the best but don’t be too surprised next year to see Ubaldo get some sort of injury.
With all due respect >>> No offense.
I do take offense. What have you contributed to the world, beyond carbon dioxide?
Lincecum just hurt himself too.