Reds August 2023 thread

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(08-29-2023, 12:43 PM)ochocincos Wrote: I'd be a little concerned if Abbott really needs to get shelved due to his innings pitched.
He pitched 54.0 in the minors this year, and 88.2 with the Reds. That's only 142.2 IP in the season.
I'm not saying we need him to pitch 200 innings this year, but I'd like to see him go around 160, which would be a few more starts.
At least reach 150, which is just another start or two.

It's not really "burning him up" by pitching more if he gets the entire offseason to rest, right?
Maybe I've always thought about it wrong, but if he pitched through the rest of the year and got to 150-175 innings pitched, it will help condition him for future seasons.

It's about 25 innings more than he has ever pitched before. He was a relief pitcher in college his first 3 years until 2021, so this is only his 3rd year of being a starting pitcher.

Also remember his very first start he went 105 pitches and they were saying "this is his first career start where he's thrown 100 or more pitches" and then he went 100+ pitches 7 times in his first 12 starts in the majors. So even if it is an equal number of innings each are a much higher load on the arm.

So you have a recently converted relief pitcher pitching the most innings he's ever thrown, throwing the most pitches he's ever thrown, in his rookie season in MLB where it's much more stressful innings and pitches on a 1-to-1 basis. It's not really surprising he hit a wall, and more surprising that the Reds did nothing to plan and prepare to try to delay it.

I've heard in the past that ~40 innings is generally the high limit on how much you want to increase a guy's career high innings by in a single year, but ultimately if a guy's body is trying to tell him to stop, then you can absolutely burn him up by ignoring what your own body is telling you. If you're losing velocity, control, and movement, your shoulder and elbow are trying to send you a message and you should always listen because not listening is the road to TJ or even worse, shoulder surgery.