NOW TOMMY JOHN SOUNDS OFF ON "BABYING" PITCHERS

Not sure why this was buried by the New York Post, or maybe I've just been swamped and missed it.  Bottom line, we here at Bleeding Yankee Blue have expressed concern about the way the Yankee organization may be handling the youngsters down on the farm.  No, we have no experience, it's mere speculation based on guys that understand pitching and us just using common sense... bottom line, this is not accusatory, it's exploratory.

(In Photo: Phil Hughes)

I often quote Bill Masse and what he said in a terrific Anthony Coleman piece from last year quoting Masse from a few years back, read HERE . He said this right around the time a young Phil Hughes was breaking in with the Yankees:

“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.”

He was later let go by the organization.  Now it appears with the recent announcement by the Washington Nationals wanting to "shut down" Stephen Strasburg, even Tommy John is sounding off on "babying" him and he's going further...he's insinuating that that same type of behavior may have screwed up Joba Chamberlain too. Very interesting.  

 First, here's what John said about Strasburg and the Nationals (The full Post piece is HERE):

“You’ve got a chance to win now... Now, I don’t say you trash the kid, but you pitch him. And maybe somewhere down the road you skip his turn, you give his arm a little rest. But if I were a fan of the Nationals, I would be so upset. That I’ve got a chance to be in the playoffs, maybe be in the World Series, and you’re taking that away from me?

“I wouldn’t buy my tickets next year. I would say hey, go do it yourself. I understand where [GM Mike Rizzo’s] coming from, I understand that. But he’s not gonna get hurt. If he hasn’t been hurt this year, he’s not gonna get hurt.”

Here's what Tommy John said about Joba Chamberlain: “...here’s my take on the thing: There’s no guarantee [if] you shut him down. The Yankees screwed Joba Chamberlain over. I mean, this poor kid has had all kind of problems, and they had Joba Rules....It didn’t help him a bit. He still had to have Tommy John surgery.”

Couple that stuff with a childhood hero of mine, Nolan Ryan recently tell USA Today back in 2009 about building pitchers strength by talking about his own experience as a pitcher and said he ""had to develop stamina because my intent was to pitch a lot of innings." He in turn did that with his staff in Texas.  

Is this groundbreaking? No, but it's fascinating to me that the old timers', guys like Ryan and John and even Bill Masse, someone who's been around the game for a long time, all think this new system is ridiculous.  Look, I don't believe in burning these kids out, but take all that information I quoted above and think about it.  Then, think about the piece I recently wrote titled IS THE CONDITIONING OF YANKEE PITCHING PROSPECTS BACKFIRING? and just soak it in...that's it.  There maybe something to it, that's all I'm saying.

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