Fire Away!

Tim Lincecum threw 138 pitches against San Diego last night.

Let me make this as clear as I possibly can.

That is utterly, completely, and colossally reckless, stupid, arrogant, and just plain lazy. Send in all the nasty emails calling me a geek who’s never played you like. Feel free to point out that Lincecum’s "just different","rubber armed", or a "freak of nature". It’s still mind-blowingly stupid, risky behavior.

9 months ago Kyle Boddy Comment 6 comments 0 recs |

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Nolan Ryan

threw many more pitches in games he didn’t complete and his arm didn’t fall off. Pitching counts are what are irresponsible. When a pitchers mechanics break down or they are getting shelled is one a pitcher should be pulled not a arbitrary pitch count.

Baseball is God's sport! All Truth Goes Through Three Stages 1.It is ridiculed 2.It is violently opposed 3.Finally, it is accepted as self-evident. kinesiologist

by E5 on Sep 14, 2008 12:42 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Do I need to point out that most pitchers are not Nolan Ryan

I agree that there is little concrete evidence that high pitch counts increase the probability of injury. But I still believe there’s a connection and the risk to the Giants, given they are under .500 right now and have Lincecum under team control for a few more years, just isn’t worth it. What was to be gained?

Beyond the Boxscore // Calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy.

by Sky Kalkman on Sep 14, 2008 2:39 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Can I get a graph demonstrating that most pitchers are not Nolan Ryan?

Let’s quit slacking on the analysis!

BCB's "very own marginally deserving all-star!"

by battlekow on Sep 15, 2008 2:37 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Perhaps pitch counts are somewhat arbitrary and need more context (distribution of pitches per inning, counts from other recent starts), but what exactly is to be gained from sending Lincecum back to the mound last night? From a simple plus/minus standpoint, is it worth possibly incurring undue stress on your one organizational pillar so he can finish out a meaningless blowout in September?

Lincecum is already close to reaching the “rule of 30” mark, and he has thrown 115 or more in 4 of his past 5 starts. He leads all pitchers in Pitcher Abuse Points. And even worse, this workload is not contributing to a playoff run; the gain from these additional innings is zero.

People can call him a “freak” and say that he has been immune to workloads, but most starters are unable to handle such a high-stress load, and no one can say with any degree of certainty that Lincecum is indeed above the fray.

by David Golebiewski on Sep 14, 2008 1:41 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs

I completely agree with this

What good could possible come out of it? While maybe, maybe, no harm has been done why risk it?

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by dixieflatline on Sep 15, 2008 4:46 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

While it’s a fact that a number of pitches is almost insignificant compared to a sudden velocity or movement change or a change in release point when assessing the possibility that an injury already exists, it’s also true that workload is far more important than mechanics or any other factor in determining risk of one of those injuries before it exists. Nolan Ryan was far more a freak than Lincecum ever will be because of his huge velocity, even at advanced age, and because of the workloads he regularly endured (up to 250 pitches in a start). For every Nolan Ryan (one), hundreds of pitchers broke down under huge workloads, and I’d say Lincecum looks more like Koufax than Ryan to me.

Space.

It's a problem we face.

So we never go anywhere.

We just stay in one place.

by hazel on Sep 14, 2008 7:16 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs