Farhan speaks about how far to go with young pitchers

[rog]

From NBC Sports Bay Area, Farhan recently stated a portion of his opinion of how to handle the innings of young starters:



"There are some studies that kind of show the best way to maintain health for pitchers is actually to stretch them out over the course of a six-month season," Zaidi said. "Maybe throwing three to four innings a start and then go five, six, seven. You do it that way rather than having an innings count.



"Again, when guys start in the minor leagues, it's certainly easier to have them start off with three-inning starts, four-inning starts, that kind of thing. In L.A., it was something we did with our young guys, kind of start them at the minor league level, almost as an extended buildup from spring training."


That is a viewpoint I hadn't heard before.

[klaiggeb]

And likely it's not his idea or concept.

That idea is something someone IN the game for a long time would come up with, not a front office, stats-based guy.

[rog]

And likely it's not his idea or concept.

That idea is something someone IN the game for a long time would come up with, not a front office, stats-based guy.


Rog -- Which is likely why Farhan began his statement with ""There are some studies that kind of show the best way to maintain health for pitchers is actually to stretch them out over the course of a six-month season." That strongly implies that it wasn't his idea, doesn't it?

Incidentally, we've heard you say that teams should teach their starters to stretch out more, which I think if sometimes a good idea, but I don't recall your saying "to stretch them out over the course of a six-month season." I hadn't seen that either, although teams do tend to stretch out their starters from their first start of spring training through perhaps the first two weeks or a month of the season. Part of that I think is because it tends to be cold in a lot of major league cities in April.

Anyway, I'm sure the idea isn't Farhan's, but it sounds like a good one. The context of his statement, by the way, is that he's hoping to beef up the rotation to the point where some of the young starters can start the season in the minors or in the bullpen.

My primary take away was that he liked the idea of gradually increasing pitchers' innings as the season went along, rather than subjecting them to a strict innings count. That isn't his idea, but I hadn't read or heard it before.




Read more: sfgiantsmessageboard.proboards.com/thread/4990/farhan-speaks-far-young-pitchers#ixzz5b01VyMXp

Read more: sfgiantsmessageboard.proboards.com/thread/4990/farhan-speaks-far-young-pitchers#ixzz5b011cQ6Z

Read more: sfgiantsmessageboard.proboards.com/thread/4990/farhan-speaks-far-young-pitchers#ixzz5b00r2UTo

[rog]

Incidentally, I would hope that the idea came from a combination of managers, pitching coaches, training staffs and medical personnel and researchers.

[rog]

For the umpteenth time, "The Arm" is available at our local libraries. Anyone here could learn from it.