Royals to the NL, Brewers back to the AL?

[Pronk48]

You guys won't be doing much championship banner raising when Dusty Baker has your entire starting pitching staff on the 30-Day DL by the end of March.

[HollywoodLeo]

Mark Prior endured a bunch of freak injuries

Baker developed an unwarranted bad rap for overworking pitchers because a combination of that and that he does use his starters a bit more than your average manager does and Kerry Wood, who's just injury prone.

He really didn't do that in San Fran

[Mr. D™]

You guys won't be doing much championship banner raising when Dusty Baker has your entire starting pitching staff on the 30-Day DL by the end of March.

you don't get it do you

they are the Reds and they have a Pitching staff that have the strength and will to keep going

[DMBZeppelin]

Mark Prior endured a bunch of freak injuries

Baker developed an unwarranted bad rap for overworking pitchers because a combination of that and that he does use his starters a bit more than your average manager does and Kerry Wood, who's just injury prone.

He really didn't do that in San Fran

Prior did have freak injuries, but he was abused.

Prior threw 167 2/3 innings during his first season of pro ball, followed by 211 1/3 innings in 2003. He was a strikeout pitcher, which meant he often worked long and deep into pitch counts.


"This guy, everybody has had an opinion about," House said. "He's done everything possible ... to get healthy and pitch for the Chicago Cubs. You put personalities aside, all those things that don't matter, the only thing that a finger can be pointed at is pitch totals."
But if you're questioning Prior's workload, you're also questioning then-manager Dusty Baker (now an analyst for ESPN), and pitching coach Larry Rothschild and, to a lesser extent, general manager Jim Hendry. Prior threw 1,126 pitches in his last nine starts of 2003 (an average of 125 per game), including four outings with more than 130 pitches. But the Cubs were trying to win their first World Series title since 1908, and Prior won seven of those starts.

Baseball Prospectus, which publishes what amounts to an annual statistical research bible, details the effects of PAP -- Pitcher Abuse Point. Yeah, it's a seamhead thing, but in layman's terms, PAP is a way of predicting whether your arm is going to fall off if you keep putting up high pitch totals. It mostly shows short-term risk, but there's also a relationship between inflated pitch numbers and long-term risk.

So I called one of the co-authors of PAP research, Keith Woolner, a contributing writer for Baseball Prospectus. He looked up the 2003 PAP numbers. Kerry Wood had the second-highest PAP totals in the majors, Prior the fourth-highest.

"That's a pretty high load for a guy," Woolner said. "At a very young age, [Prior] was worked harder than almost every other pitcher in the baseball. He and Wood were two of the four most heavily worked pitchers in 2003. And almost immediately after that, [Prior] started experiencing problems."

The July 11, 2003, collision with Atlanta Braves infielder Marcus Giles might have contributed to the shoulder problems. And Prior was a workhorse at USC even before he got to the Cubs (he threw 357 college innings).

Nobody knows for sure.
But put it this way: The workload couldn't have helped. And another Baseball Prospectus contributor wrote recently that Prior's superb mechanics probably protected his shoulder from additional damage.

Look at Prior and Woods pitch count in Sept-Oct. Here they are in order:

Prior: 131, 129, 110, 124, 131, 133, 133, 116, 119. Sound good for someone who was on the DL at mid season?

Wood: 120, 122, 114, 125, 122, 124, 117, 109, 112

After returning from a three-week stint on the DL with a shoulder contusion in July and August, Prior tossed 71 innings in a month-and-a-half, never throwing fewer than 110 pitches in a game while reaching 124 or more on six occasions. He made at least 130 pitches in three consecutive games (his last two starts of the regular season and his first start in the post-season) and was in a great position for a shortened effort in Game 2 of the NLCS vs. the Florida Marlins when the Cubs staked him to an 11-0 lead after five innings.

Whether Prior was tiring or just lacking concentration, he allowed back-to-back home runs to Derrek Lee and Miguel Cabrera to open the sixth. Baker never flinched and let Prior go all the way into the eighth before pulling him with two on, no outs, and 116 pitches under his belt.

Homer Bailey... meet your future, unless Neifi Perez can pitch. Then you'll be safe in AAA.

[Pronk48]

you don't get it do you

they are the Reds and they have a Pitching staff that have the strength and will to keep going

You might, but the Reds still suck!

[Mr. D™]

You might, but the Reds still suck!

they will win the division and head back into the playoffs

mark my words

[Rockiesfan_H]

Why not move the Brewers and give each league 15 teams. Then, have at least one interleague series going on everyday?

Just a thought.

[HollywoodLeo]

Why not move the Brewers and give each league 15 teams. Then, have at least one interleague series going on everyday?

Just a thought.

I don't really care much for that idea.

[Rockiesfan_H]

I don't really care much for that idea.

Figures.



I don't know, I was just throwing it out there. I don't like the NL having 2 more teams than the AL has either, but I don't want another expansion.

[HollywoodLeo]

Figures.



I don't know, I was just throwing it out there. I don't like the NL having 2 more teams than the AL has either, but I don't want another expansion.

I'm not too fond of one league having more teams than the other as well, but I much prefer that to an odd number of teams in the league and the ramifications that come with that.

I'd rather see 2 more expansion teams than 15 team leagues.

[Mr. D™]

how about we just take out the Royals (THEY SUCK ROYALLY) Pun intended

and send the Brewers to the AL

then both sides will have 14

[Rockiesfan_H]

How is the Royals attendance?

We should take out a franchise that has poor attendance. The Marlins come to mind. Then shift the Brewers and someone else over.

[HollywoodLeo]

how about we just take out the Royals (THEY SUCK ROYALLY) Pun intended

and send the Brewers to the AL

then both sides will have 14

That would leave the NL with 15 teams

[HollywoodLeo]

How is the Royals attendance?

We should take out a franchise that has poor attendance. The Marlins come to mind. Then shift the Brewers and someone else over.

Except the Marlins just got a new stadium.

[Mr. D™]

That would leave the NL with 15 teams

oh crap yeah oops lol

make DK happy and get rid of the Nationals as well