YANKEE CHRONICLES: PETTITTE, BANUELOS, CAMPOS & BILL MASSE

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. 1^st 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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