(02-01-2018, 11:46 AM)Boston Card link Wrote:[quote author=Mick link=topic=18541.msg222833#msg222833 date=1517507457]
He had 14 starts and threw 106 1/3 innings his last year at Stanford, about twice as much as the next pitcher, and averaging 7 2/3 innings per start. I wonder if that had anything to do with his persistent shoulder inflammation?
Compared to major league pitchers who frequently pitch 150 innings, an can often break 200 innings, I would think that 106 innings with a week between starts wouldn't be that much of a big deal. But then again, there are age, strength, and maturity issues.
BC
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I think those last three are concerns, along with all the throwing that gets done on the side. My roommate was a strong pitcher at SCU when I was there, piled up a good pre-season record (three outings, seven innings, nine strikeouts, five runners on base -- it was my roommate). Then he was told by a coach to play "dead arm" in between starts, in which he and another pitcher had to throw until one of them couldn't go on. Presto, ended that pitcher's career.
The arms of young pitchers are particularly fragile. Even workhorse Nolan Ryan pitched more than 152 innings just once in the first seven years of his professional career -- 1966, in which he pitched 202 innings -- and promptly pitched just 11 innings the next year. Even Lincecum, the so-called freak, had just four really good years and was basically washed up by age 28 when he led the league in losses. He pitched pretty close to what Appel pitched in his three years at Washington.
Audaces fortuna iuvat
