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Originally Posted by Gorilla Shakespeare
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Exactly what I was thinking on the first point, and you raise an excellent second point. One more thing: it's flat-out not realistic that some pitchers' endurance is 40 pitches as a starter. *Every* pitcher should be able to throw at least 85-90 pitches per game. As a parallel to real life, that's about the point Rick Honeycutt crapped out, and he was about as extreme a situational reliever as you could ever get.
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Not quite true. Pitchers have to be built up to 85-90 pitches. If they do not throw much in the spring, they may have their first start limited to 60 pitches, their next start caped at 75 and so on up til around 105 they are built up. Minor league pitchers are more prevelant examples. A guy gets invited to big league camp and mostly pitches mop up, maybe throws 12-15 innings in spring training. This would be a pitcher who does not have a roster spot locked in the big leagues. When he starts the season in the rotation at AA or AAA, he may have his first start with a 60 pitch limit. The same is true for pitchers returning from injury. Unless healing time for an injured player includes time for rehab, that pitchers first start would typically be about 50 pitches. Here are a few examples of pitch counts and their uses.
1. I think it was Kevin Appier years ago with the Royals had a no-hitter after 80 pitches. He had reached his limit and was pulled with the no-hitter intact.
2. John Wasdin pitching in AAA in 2003. He had a perfect game after his pitch limit of 75 pitches (It was his first start of the year and he had not pitched a whole lot in the spring). If he has not had a perfect game, even if he had had a no hitter he would have been pulled. As it was, he had not even had a batter with a three ball count so they let him continue. He threw a perfect game. Struck out 15 and threw exactly 100 pitches.
3. Justin Lehr goes from the bullpen to the rotation in AAA. The Brewers don't think he is a major league starter, but they do consider him an option as a long reliever and he needs to develop more than one pitch to be effective. Thus he moves into the rotation and builds up arm strength.