There are times when teams might need to stretch their young pitchers, such as when the San Francisco Giants allowed 21-year-old Madison Bumgarner to zip past his previous high in innings so he could help their playoff run. There are times when teams need to handle their young pitches like Fabergé eggs, saving their arms for a title run that’s still a season or ten away. The Seattle Mariners are definitely in the latter category, and they have announced that they’re taking the sensible approach and limiting the innings of wunderkind Michael Pineda. From MLB.com’s Doug Miller:
Michael Pineda’s Workload Will Be Watched Closely By Mariners
The last time the Mariners had a rookie right-handed starting-pitching phenom, they made sure to take care of his arm.Seattle's strategy in 2006 -- to cap then-20-year-old Felix Hernandez at 200 innings for the entire year, including Spring Training -- worked to the benefit of the franchise. They'll likely soon come up with a similar strategy for 22-year-old Michael Pineda, who has been electrifying in his first four big league starts this season.
While it’s easy to fall into a correlation/causation trap, it sure seems like the Mariners handled everything fantastically with Hernandez’s development. Pineda has been one the best rookies in the majors this season, and his electric fastball has been the fastest in the game. With the Mariners already seven games back in the AL West, it makes all sorts of sense to formulate a plan like this early in the season and stick to it, even if it potentially hurts his Rookie-of-the-Year chances.
Pineda’s season ended early last year too, with the Mariners shutting him down after 139 innings between AA and AAA even though he wasn’t experiencing any physical discomfort. It’s a bold organizational plan that a lot of teams have trouble following, so it will be interesting to see if the Mariners have the same success with Pineda that they did with King Felix.
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