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Baseball remains beautiful as it evolves. You have to keep telling yourself that so the modern complications don’t get in the way of having a good time. For instance, imagine telling someone that the Miami Marlins would be playing in West Sacramento against a team known only as the Athletics on Sunday afternoon. A few years ago the bartender who overheard this would have swiftly moved to cut you off. Now we have a box score to prove it.
Imagine telling MLB pitchers of yore who worked as plumbers during the offseason to make ends meet that they would not be trusted to throw more than 92 pitches every fifth or sixth day to prevent their arm from getting hurt. A tremendous misuse of time-traveling technology to be sure, but also they would be very surprised.
Anyway, Marlins manager Clayton McCullough is under fire today after he lifted starting pitcher Eury Pérez after seven perfect innings while enjoying a comfortable 8-0. Miami’s bullpen would implode but survive in an eventual 9-8 victory. Everyone in the ballpark and monitoring from afar was robbed of the opportunity of seeing Perez go for history. There remains only 24 perfect games in well over 243,500 MLB games.
McCullough, of course, is not the villain here. Anyone who believes a big league manager has the latitude to toss a guy out there for 30 unplanned extra pitches doesn’t understand how front offices work. His hands were tied. Perez was making just his third start since returning from the injured list due to a leg strain.
“Us looking to play beyond the regular season, Eury’s going to be an important part of that,” McCullough said of the decision postgame. “He had it really going today, and I totally get it; and there was a part of my heartstrings pulling at his opportunity to keep on going, but I think I have to think about Eury, one, and our organization, our team, and what’s best moving forward to give us a chance to continue to win games. So made more of a calculated decision with where he was with the pitch count to take him out.”
Let’s concede the argument and say that it was the correct decision to avoid further strain on the young pitcher’s valuable arm. Let’s admit that perfect games and no-hitters lose some of their luster when they are of the combined variety. Most importantly, let’s look for a solution so we can compromise going forward.
Deep in the recesses of my unimpressive brain, an idea is rattling around. It’s one that might be acceptable to all parties. One that would allow a pitcher to go for baseball immortality without risking injury. It might be incredibly stupid. Or it’s dumb enough to serve as the skeleton key.
Why not allow Perez to go out to the mound for the eighth inning and lob some 46 mph pitches toward the plate in the off chance he could luck into six more outs? We see position players come in all the time and work effectively by offering up puss. Hitters can flat-out strike out, loft easy pop-ups or scald at-em balls. It’s entirely possible that someone could get two innings’ worth of outs on 20 non-taxing deliveries.
If a batter reaches first by hit or walk, boom, the experiment ends and a call to the bullpen is made. It’s that simple.
Now, some are going to say that this plan somehow increases the chances of a pitcher getting injured because they are not used to throwing like this. I reject that. Perhaps the claim could be made that it makes a mockery of the game. To that, I’d say it’s already a bit of a mockery when you take someone out who could go for a perfect game simply because you’re afraid of them getting hurt. Is the modern MLB pitcher so fragile—or are front offices so afraid—that they cannot stomach the equivalent workload of throwing a batting practice round to one Little Leaguer?
Imagine how electric it would be to see someone in the eighth or ninth inning going for history by floating balls up there like Henry Rowengartner after he sustained his second arm-altering injury. Rob Manfred wants eyeballs on the product and rest assured, that would be appointment television.
Honestly, the pendulum isn’t going to swing the other way. Pitchers are going to be pulled earlier and earlier as they seek perfection. Can’t we compromise by considering this idiotic, yet compelling idea?
Continue reading...
Imagine telling MLB pitchers of yore who worked as plumbers during the offseason to make ends meet that they would not be trusted to throw more than 92 pitches every fifth or sixth day to prevent their arm from getting hurt. A tremendous misuse of time-traveling technology to be sure, but also they would be very surprised.
Marlins Eury Perez situation
Anyway, Marlins manager Clayton McCullough is under fire today after he lifted starting pitcher Eury Pérez after seven perfect innings while enjoying a comfortable 8-0. Miami’s bullpen would implode but survive in an eventual 9-8 victory. Everyone in the ballpark and monitoring from afar was robbed of the opportunity of seeing Perez go for history. There remains only 24 perfect games in well over 243,500 MLB games.
McCullough, of course, is not the villain here. Anyone who believes a big league manager has the latitude to toss a guy out there for 30 unplanned extra pitches doesn’t understand how front offices work. His hands were tied. Perez was making just his third start since returning from the injured list due to a leg strain.
“Us looking to play beyond the regular season, Eury’s going to be an important part of that,” McCullough said of the decision postgame. “He had it really going today, and I totally get it; and there was a part of my heartstrings pulling at his opportunity to keep on going, but I think I have to think about Eury, one, and our organization, our team, and what’s best moving forward to give us a chance to continue to win games. So made more of a calculated decision with where he was with the pitch count to take him out.”
Let’s concede the argument and say that it was the correct decision to avoid further strain on the young pitcher’s valuable arm. Let’s admit that perfect games and no-hitters lose some of their luster when they are of the combined variety. Most importantly, let’s look for a solution so we can compromise going forward.
Deep in the recesses of my unimpressive brain, an idea is rattling around. It’s one that might be acceptable to all parties. One that would allow a pitcher to go for baseball immortality without risking injury. It might be incredibly stupid. Or it’s dumb enough to serve as the skeleton key.
How to get more perfect games
Why not allow Perez to go out to the mound for the eighth inning and lob some 46 mph pitches toward the plate in the off chance he could luck into six more outs? We see position players come in all the time and work effectively by offering up puss. Hitters can flat-out strike out, loft easy pop-ups or scald at-em balls. It’s entirely possible that someone could get two innings’ worth of outs on 20 non-taxing deliveries.
If a batter reaches first by hit or walk, boom, the experiment ends and a call to the bullpen is made. It’s that simple.
Now, some are going to say that this plan somehow increases the chances of a pitcher getting injured because they are not used to throwing like this. I reject that. Perhaps the claim could be made that it makes a mockery of the game. To that, I’d say it’s already a bit of a mockery when you take someone out who could go for a perfect game simply because you’re afraid of them getting hurt. Is the modern MLB pitcher so fragile—or are front offices so afraid—that they cannot stomach the equivalent workload of throwing a batting practice round to one Little Leaguer?
Imagine how electric it would be to see someone in the eighth or ninth inning going for history by floating balls up there like Henry Rowengartner after he sustained his second arm-altering injury. Rob Manfred wants eyeballs on the product and rest assured, that would be appointment television.
Honestly, the pendulum isn’t going to swing the other way. Pitchers are going to be pulled earlier and earlier as they seek perfection. Can’t we compromise by considering this idiotic, yet compelling idea?
Continue reading...
