On Saturday the Indians faced off against the Brewers.

 

Indian's starter Jake Westbrook was brilliant in the outing, going 8 innings giving up only 5 hits and 1 unearned run. He struck out 8 and walked none on just 103 pitches.

 

Indians manager Eric Wedge removed Westbrook after the 8th with the Tribe up 2-1 to go to closer Bob Wickman in the 9th.

 

Wickman then walked two, gave up a single, and then the winning hit to Geoff Jenkins in succession.

 

I know that Wickman is one of the better closers around and the premise that with the game on the line in the 9th you want your best reliever, more times then not the closer, to take the mound for the final 3.

 

But did Westbrook need to be taken out after he had dominated the Brewers lineup 3-4 times through? He had just barely eclipsed 100 pitches and was still taken out. I think most managers, not just Wedge put too much into the magical 100 pitch count. When did this number become the red flag when to get your pitcher out?

 

Westbrook wasn't slowing down either, he struck out two in a perfect 8th on only 14 pitches. I think managers have fallen too in love with the save. I just can't imagine why you take Westbrook out for a 250 lbs man who had been sitting down for 3 hours.

 

Agree? Disagree? Opinions?

If you have your pitchers go for more than 100 pitches in a game, they'll end up like Kerry Wood and Mark Prior.

 

No, really - these guys are pros. I'm sure somewhere along the line they pitched complete games that required many more pitches than they're throwing in the majors. Let them go for the complete game if they are doing well - because if by late in the game the opposing lineup hasn't figured this guys stuff out, they won't by the end of the game. Yes, fatigue could catch up to a guy and he could hang a curve or something like that due to being tired, but if a guy is dominating like Westbrook was in that situation, let him go for it.

 

Really, it's damned if you do damned if you don't for most managers. They'll get ripped either way if the team loses. If the team wins, it's because the manager did the right thing.

It's not like Westbrook is going to go out there and have to throw 97 to be effective he throws in the high 80s toping out at like 91-92 on ocasion and his bread and butter is the sinker. With a pitch like that, and one that was working so well in that game, the 9th is almost a formality.

 

I definitely get the damned if you do, damned if you don't part of this for the manager. Wedge probably goes to his closer in any situation like this one, so he may just be going on his own consistency and habit.

 

Pitchers 50 years ago were throwing complete game after complete game, conditioning and strength is probably at an all time high right now compared to then, so why have we developed this babying of starters?

The reason for babying starters probably is simply a financial decision. Teams are spending millions of dollars in guarenteed money on these pitchers. Gotta be safe with them I guess. I mean we see what happened to Wood and Prior when they were overworked time after time. Another thing it remember is that they are throwing 7-8 warm up pitches at the start of every inning. Even if at a lighter pace it probably takes a little bit out of the pitcher. Not much of an excuse but throwing a tremendous amount of pitches does put a lot of stress on the arm and with the investment it's just not worth the risk.

 

As for this case, I think I may have left in Westbrook until trouble broke out. It's tough to call because for all we know Westbrook could have said he was done.

 

I mean you could say the same thing for Wang who had a similar pitch count then gives up a bomb to Zimmerman. Why not bring in Rivera (I know he pitched on Saturday, but I don't see why he couldn't go two days in a row) Like Detroit said damned if you do damned if you dont.