Andy Pettitte: George King III had this latest news about
Pettitte, but me being wrapped up in all the Ichiro news, I forgot about
it. Sorry. According to King: “Andy
Pettitte threw off flat ground from the stretch in the outfield, the second
time in three days the veteran lefty performed the exercise. ‘It’s encouraging,
but I know I have a lof of work to do,’ said Pettitte…Pettitte said he will
have an X-ray when the Yankees retrun from Seattle next week to determine how
well the bone is healing. Sept. 1 has been talked about being Pettitte’s return
date.” Read HERE. Let's be honest ladies and gentlemen, don’t look at Sept. 1st
as the drop dead time. Expect it to be
more like Sept. 10, that’s if everything goes well. I love Andy but he’s 40, everything takes
longer. That being said, get well soon pal.
Manny Banuelos: Manny is pitching again. He just about back from injury according to
John Norris of the Trentonian, read HERE. Banuelos did a fastball/changeup
session, approximately 25 pitches and he is “getting close” according to Nardi
Contreras.
Jose Campos: Campos will most likely be shut down from
competition and be put on more of an instructional league program. This poor guy just fell into the injury bug
of Dellin Betances and Manny Banuelos. I guess you can throw Austin Romine in
that mix as well. Bottom line is Campos
is “throwing nice and easy.” Read HERE.
Bill Masse: I bring up Masse every once in a while because I
feel like he was on to something. Masse
was the guy that was a minor league coach back when Phil Hughes was pitching
down in the minors. Masse spoke out
being critical of the way the Yankees babied their starting pitching. I wrote about him extensively in WAS BILL MASSE RIGHT ABOUT HUGHES? What
he said was significant and it’s stuck with me. He said:
“We
get so ridiculous with this dumb pitch count stuff… Somebody came up
with a pitch count thing (like) this is going to decide if a kid’s arm
is going to be healthy or not. It’s like predicting the weather
sometimes. ‘If he throws 66 pitches, he will be fine, but if he throws
81, he is going to get hurt.’ No one can predict that.”
“The
only negative you run into is that he never learns how to pitch when he
is tired. He never learns how to pitch when he is a little bit
fatigued. I think you run into those problems because he is always
fresh. Also, he is never in trouble. He needs to learn how to pitch out
of his second or third jam in the seventh inning with two outs and he’s
throwing 90 mph instead of 94.”
Read it all HERE. Look, I’m no expert but the Yankees clearly took offense to
that and they dumped Masse. But think
about it this way, he’s not the only guy out there that believes that babying
these young pitchers with pitch count can backfire. Hall
of Famer Nolan Ryan, no stranger to the innings load in his career, believes in
stretching these kids out early too, read HERE. Ryan's theory is conditioning over pitch counts. I
just find it all interesting. Like Masse
said, if they keep getting shut down when they hit an innings load, how will
they be able to handle more innings and competitive situations in real
games? It’s kind of true in my
opinion. If you are consistently stopped
every time you pitch say 80 pitches, your body adapts. Look, I’m not rock scientist, but I always
think back to Masse’s quote when I hear about injuries to our minor league
pitchers… It really seems like it’s happening a lot, that’s all.
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