Why are the Pirates wasting Paul Skenes’ pitch count against minor leaguers?
Jared Jones was lifted from a game this week after 59 pitches despite blowing away pretty much everyone he faced. He looked like Nolan Ryan in his prime and was basically a Bryan Reynolds misplayed ball away from pitching five perfect innings, but because of some “prearranged plan,” he was pulled out of the game after five innings.
It was ridiculous, but apparently all a part of the Pirates’ plan to preserve the arms of their young phenoms in Jones and Paul Skenes. They are being protective, and they are following sort of the new age way of trying to preserve young pitching arms. I get it. We all get it.
This is what Ben Cherington said about the cautious approach they are using …
“I think globally for baseball, not just as an industry, but just baseball as a sport generally, down to the grassroots amateur level, we need to be looking at this issue holistically, in a way that’s comprehensive and is examining every potential piece of the issue,” Cherington said on 93.7 the Fan. “It just seems like something that is far too complicated to rely on one thing as the cause. Many times, when there is a problem, there can be more than one cause. We really need to be considering all of it.”
That’s all well and good except for one thing: this surge in arm injuries that has caused Major League Baseball and the players association to sound alarms is mostly fiction.
Here is the actual data from best-selling author Travis Sawchik, who is an analytics guru – and thus subscribes to many of the most up-to-date theories and methods in baseball – but has made it clear there is no epidemic of arm injuries this year versus any other year. In fact, there have been fewer injuries this year (not more) than in recent years, and it seems a lot more random as to when these things occur than anything else.
Through the first 100 days of this season, there have been 16 pitchers in major league organizations, nine of whom were on major league rosters, who have needed Tommy John surgery. In 2021, those numbers were 47 and 11; in 2014, there were 39 and 11; and you can go all the way back to 2000, when there were 17 and 10.
Each year there have been more and more of these pitch count/inning count/stressful inning count/recovery count/ count dracula/whatever programs – and preventive measures – and yet the injuries continue.
This even though they increasingly treat these guys like they are china dolls. Yet it doesn’t seem to make a difference.
It’s almost as if injuries happen to some players, and they are likely more random than anything else. Many pitchers are workhorses, throw 180-190 innings yearly, eat innings and don’t seem to have arm injuries.
The MLBPA has blamed all of this on the pitch clock, which is ridiculously silly because pitchers have been operating with a pitch clock in the minors for several years. But I actually blame all of the infatuation with data and analytics.
Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, who may or may not know something about pitching, agrees with me on this.
He doesn’t think pitch counts, inning counts or pitching restrictions will prevent arm injuries. He said the emphasis on velocity and spin rates – starting at a young age, as opposed to pitching to get hitters out – puts strain on pitchers’ arms.
“My brother (Texas Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux) teaches this well; it’s about the execution of the pitch more than spin rate or velocity,” Greg Maddux said. “I am not saying you have to take something off the ball to locate it better, but the focus now on kids at the high school and college level is to see how hard you can throw.
“When I pitched, we were content that our fastball was our fastball. We never tried to throw it harder but execute it better than the guy you faced.”
Maddux, of course, is 58 and played in the 1990s, making him a dinosaur in the eyes of all these new-age hotshot young analytics gurus. But I would be willing to bet he is much closer to being correct on this than they are.
That’s the heart of the answer – teach pitchers to pitch again and stop worrying about maximum velocity – and not these silly pitch/inning/game counts.
Which brings me back to Skenes and Jones – but actually Skenes in particular – because he is wasting away in the minor leagues. He throws hard, really hard, and he has Pirates fans salivating every night he pitches because he hits 102-104 miles per hour on the radar gun.
He has pitched 12 2/3 innings and struck out 27 batters in Indianapolis. He hasn’t allowed a run and has only allowed five hits. Thursday, he was dominant again as he struck out eight hitters in 3 1/3 innings. He hit 100+ on the gun (which, like Maddux said, is all that seems to matter these days) a bunch of times and had everyone buzzing about it.
Skenes, who no doubt is like Jones and on a very specific plan to build slowly and not go over a strict innings count, is still in Class AAA, though, which means he is blowing away minor leaguers.
I know all about the economic and years of control reasons why he was in Indianapolis and not with the Pirates, and I am no longer interested in them. The party line we are told is that he still needs to “check a few boxes” as a pitcher before he comes up.
But my question is: why is Skenes wasting his limited number of pitches allowed this season in Indianapolis? Isn’t every time he throws 103 as a member of the Indians, one less time he will be allowed to throw it when (if) he is ever called up? Why are you allowing him to throw 60+ pitches on a Thursday of the same week you wouldn’t let Jones get to 60 pitches in a game?
At least Jones is in the majors, and the pitches he is allowed to throw are helping the Pirates win. What good is wasting Skenes’ pitches in the minors if we are told these arms have to be preserved come hell or high water?
Skenes should be in a major league uniform today. He should be with the Pirates the rest of the season, and he shouldn’t waste valuable pitches blowing away minor leaguers.