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From Bruce Jenkins, via BBTF:
To me, Sheets’ most telling comment Friday concerned his willingness to pitch through the 2008 stretch drive despite knowing that his arm, as they say, was falling off.
Asked if he thought the Brewers would have handled him differently in retrospect, he said, “They couldn’t have handled me differently. I was on the bump (mound) – I wasn’t taking myself out of there. If I could go back, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’d go out there and be willing to blow my arm out again.”
This is something too few people understand. Every time a pitcher gets hurt – at least in modern times, in the paranoia over pitch counts – it’s the manager’s fault. The pitching coach’s fault. Has to be somebody’s fault. Dusty Baker, as sensitive to a player’s plight as any manager in the game, still hears from horribly unenlightened critics who believe he carelessly blew out arms on the Giants, Cubs and now the Reds.
It’s competition, folks. It’s a strong-willed athlete who would do anything to take the mound. It’s a manager with faith, and the good sense to ride the hot hand. It’s Robb Nen, Kerry Wood, Ben Sheets. The injuries come, or maybe they don’t, but the operative phrase is “Let’s go,” not “Jeez, I’m pretty worried.”
No, No, No, No, a thousand times no. Jenkins suggests that Baker was correct in having Mark Prior and Kerry Wood throw all those pitches in 2003 simply because they were competitors who wanted to so. All pitchers want to pitch and believe that they can get the next guy out. If managers simply said “Let’s go” in every situation, you would have hurlers getting injured with regularity. The organization hires the manager to manage the club’s assets, and part of that job is to know when it would be best for the long term success of the club to pull your best option at the moment from the game. Yet managers frequently ignore that responsibility in order to save their own skins, understanding that they may not be around much longer if they lose games with their best arms on the bench.
A balance needs to be found, where the manager is maximizing the value that he can extract from the pitcher without putting the pitcher at risk for negative long term repercussions. Managers such as Baker have shown an inability to consider the long-term health of the organization by throwing caution to the wind and only considering the immediate consequences of a decision. That is a failure by the manager, as well as a poor job by the organization in allowing the field general to continually put his players at risk. Joe Torre had a problem of that sort in regard to relievers, where he would recklessly “ride the hot hand” until the player got injured or became tired and ineffective. Thankfully, it seems that Joe Girardi has no such problem, and is on the same page with Brian Cashman and the rest of the organization in terms of effectively managing pitchers.
What do you think? Is Jenkins right? Should pitchers just be allowed to pitch?
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5 Responses to Role of Manager In Protecting Pitchers
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TIQ IQ
Of course Jenkins is incorrect—it’s the manager’s job to protect assets while also providing the best return on investment in the short term. There is certainly a difficult balance, particularly when an athlete is strong-willed and influential in the clubhouse, but ultimately, that cannot affect the decision to haphazardly give in when circumstance and probability dictate that caution should be exercised. Short-term and long-term planning need to be bridged –that requires patience and input from ownership and strategic thinking from the manager– one cannot greatly impede the progress of the other.
Baker is excused for being an I-sees-it-with-my-own eyes, “old-school” player’s manager. He should be as concerned with how his decision to let a young guy throw 160 pitches affects his team that game as it would a year later. Statistics may not tell the whole story, but to discount them and solely operate on “gut” is foolish. It’s more chess than checkers.
Couldn’t agree more, Mo. Of course competitors want to compete, the manager is supposed to be the grown up in the room. The guy who sees the big picture, and sometimes has to protect an athlete from himself. If he doesn’t do it, then who will?
I’d ask Jim Kaat: what’s a strain feel like? How ’bout a complete game? I’d want to differentiate. No good taking the game from one who is able, for fear of a reputation.
But that is the problem. A pitcher is always going to want to keep going given the choice. His adrenaline is up so he is going to feel fine at the time – in the moment he is not worrying about whether it will compromise future starts. Also because of the culture there is a tremendous amount of pressure to be a “gamer” and to fight past your fatigue to show your teammates and fans that you are tough and can pitch deep into games. This pressure is probably especially strong for young pitchers. Therefore, the manager must control this – especially in young pitchers where there is data to suggest that injuries can be more common especially when they pass certain limits. The funny thing is that this story about Ben Sheets should be Exhibit A for why the manager needs to be proactive in protecting pitchers – instead Jenkins shows why he was a frequent target of the late FJM Blog.
Those guys were funny, but Mr. Jenkins probably did not enjoy that. Here, though, I see him saluting a warrior, and there is nothing wrong with that. Wouldn’t be a great game without heroes.
And I agree with the need for prudence on the part of the manager. Heck, the way Joe Torre was abused from above, I understand his abuse of Scott Proctor. I just do not wish to see a procedure written that, if a pitcher is going well, his head’s in the game well, a game they need to win, will force a manger to pull him merely on pitch count.
Moishe exaggerated a bit when he said “All pitchers … believe they can get the next guy out.” I retain a vivid image of Joe Nathan last fall, shaking his head and cheeks like a horse, relieving stress just before giving up a big hit. Probably the homer by Arod that was in the clip as MLBN explained Nathan’s shoulder tear. If I ever get to manage, I will take a trip to the mound if I see that.