Session 3, 100 pitches

Boston's Matsuzaka threw 103 pitches in his third session of the spring. I understand he has always done this (250 pitches in one day in high school), but I can't help but want to start a pool on when he's going to throw his arm out. In Japan he was in a six-man rotation and an automatic day off. That's seven days off. What's he going to do in a longer season on four days rest. I just don't see him holding up. Maybe he will this year, but his arm is going to fall off at some point before the end of his Red Sox contract.

http://redsox.bostonherald.com/redSox/view.bg?articleid=184561&format=&page=1

 

He threw a 17-inning complete game on a Friday, pitched in relief on Saturday and had a complete-game win on Sunday. Nuts.

 

Perhaps this should go on the useless information thread, but one of my favorite baseball stats is Nolan Ryan threw 235 pitches in one game (!) and got the win. Of course, the game went 15 innings, and it was in 1974 I think, but still...235 pitches. That is just amazing.

 

And when exactly did Nolan Ryan's arm fall off?

What too many people don't understand is you build arm strength by pithcing...not be being limitted to 70 pitches the first time out, 75 the second etc. This is the Tommy John (post-surgery) theory... the more you throw the arm-strength you build, the more capable you are of pitching deep into games.

The idea of pitch counts and the 100-pitch limit on some pitchers is why there are so many 6 inning starters and so few complete games any more. If you teach your starting pitchers at a young age that the idea is to pitch as long as you can as well as you can, you build stronger pitchers.

Guys don't blow their arms out because they throw too many pitches. They blow their arms out because they're throwing splits and sliders and hard curves with bad mechanics. And because they're babied at the Class A level and when they have to extend themselves at the major league level, they do not have the arm strength to do it.

 

Agreed that pitchers are babied nowadays. Clemens is an example of a dude that used to toss 120 to 130 pitches on average per start, and his arm's still around at 43 or whatever.

 

Yeah, I think his.........advances in conditioning..........has something to do with that.

 

Yeah, too many pitchers are coddled, but the bigger problem is a lack of fundamentals and If your mechanics are sound, then you can throw forever.

Pitch counts should be just for developing arms, and breaking balls should be thrown by those 14 and older.

 

Before he, ahem, bulked up, Clemens regularly threw 110- or 120-pitch games. I remember one game he tossed against the Tigers, was '91 or '92, he threw 165 pitches, complete game win on a 90-degree day in mid-summer. Toss around the 'roids insinuations all you want, and the guy may be a dick as some say, but dude's arm always has been strong.

 

I don't believe in the pitch-count bullshit. Some guys have rubber arms. Others don't. Let him pitch. Obviously he's in much better shape that the American pitchers.

 

I want to know what Clemens thinks. I hope he posts. He's usually very thoughtful.

 

He threw to Kolby today.

 

I bet Deb remembered to pack the laptop.