Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 07, 2008
21

Cliff Lee allowed one run in 7 1/3 innings as the Indians defeat the Royals 3-1. Lee wins his 21st game, the first to reach that level since Bartolo Colon and Dontrelle Willis in 2005. With 21 Cleveland games remaining, Lee could reach 25 wins. The last to reach that level was Bob Welch in 1990. There have been two AL pitchers to reach 23 since then (Pedro, 1999, Zito, 2003) and two reached 24 in the NL (Smoltz, 1996, Randy Johnson, 2002).

Lee walked one today, keeping his average walks per start exactly at one.


Posted by David Pinto at 05:22 PM | Pitchers | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Is there any good reason to continue to pitch him this season? Why not shut him down, and gear towards next year?

Posted by: Ashley at September 7, 2008 06:22 PM

Good thinking - hopefully they'll decide not to pitch him against Boston week after next. I'm sure any other contenders would appreciate the same.

Posted by: bandit at September 7, 2008 08:23 PM

And its not like Lee's never hit 200 innings before, he's done it twice. I'm sure they won't be leaving them out here for 120 pitches too often but shutting him down completely this early would be ludicrous; he's 30 years old, not some fresh out of college prospect.

Posted by: the other josh at September 7, 2008 08:53 PM

Points taken...but this comes up every year when rosters are expanded in September. In fact, I think it was just recently posted about why the leagues don't expand the rosters in April when they need the extra bodies, pare down to 25 in May and play their best players in the final month.
But from Cleveland's standpoint, would you want to have to answer the question of 'why' if the unfortunate happens? If the are planning on a run at Sabathia, (No chance) Sheets, Burnett, Lowe or anybody else who maybe available, along with hoping that Hafner has straightened himself out and returning to the playoffs next season why would Cleveland even chance it, since he will be the run away winner of the Cy Young? Cleveland has already written off the season. Injuries can happen at anytime and maybe it is too soon, but I think it is silly to run him out there for a shot at 25 victories.

Posted by: Ashley at September 7, 2008 09:15 PM

If Lee or the team took him out of a month's worth of starts I don't think he'd necessarily win the Cy. Fair or not, a non-deserving pitcher on a contender who went the full season would probably edge him out for throwing the extra innings. It'd be close this year because Lee has just been unbelievable, but I think the writers would penalize him.

I see what you're saying but this seems to me like one of those "integrity of the game" deals. If every bad team--or even just the ones who, like you say, have some glimmer of hope for next year--pulled its starters the last month of the season would be a joke, and there'd be little to no reason for their fans to come to the park. Nevermind the lack of competition in series against teams still fighting for a playoff spot. I don't exactly know what Selig could threaten with to keep a club from behaving this way, but I'm sure he'd find something.

Don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with pulling a young starter nearing his safe innings increase, I just don't think it should be common practice among all players.

Posted by: the other josh at September 7, 2008 10:09 PM

Ashley,

That has to be the craziest idea I've heard in quite some time. This guy is doing too well so shut him down to avoid an injury. Makes you wonder why the Patriots were playing that Brady guy yesterday. Oh yeah, to win the game. As the Indians found out this year (Westbrook, Carmona, Hafner, Martinez, Barfield, etc) injuries can happen at any time during a season.

Posted by: largebill at September 8, 2008 10:59 AM

Largebill,

I guess I should have qualified it as -When are they going to shut him down?
We all know that in this day and age, pitching-quality pitching just grows from the trees. And it is sooooo
inexpensive! (ha-ha!)
Yes, you are correct about injuries...I said the same in my second post. However, the Patriots are just starting their season, and Cleveland has nothing to play for.
You know as well as I that teams (not in the race) that expanded their rosters will be looking at the kids. On any given day a team may be without this player or that player, but I suspect Cleveland will still field a major league team and respect the integrity of the game.
I guess what bothers me about this thread is that it is OK for teams around the mid-season point to pack it in and make trades of established players for minor league talent that might help in the future...or as I remember around 1989 or so, when Dr. McMullen ordered his GM to gut the team and reduce payroll to make the team more attractive for sale. He did and Houston came away with Bagwell and others and McClane bought them.
But, if (heaven forbid) he did go down, there will be people in the media and various blogs who will ask the same question I did.
The bottom line is sports are business. And 25 is not a magic number as in some kind of record achievement. Why risk it? OK, give him one more start and make it look all proper before saying he has a 'dead arm'.

Posted by: Ashley at September 8, 2008 12:32 PM
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