More non-Sox baseball stuff: Alan Schwarz has an article on ESPN on pitch counts, something Sox fans have become obsessed with partly because of Pedro. I’m of the personal opinion that CGs are cool - and perhaps even cooler now that they’re so rare - but not necessarily worth the extra pitches both in terms of increased chances of letting in runs and in leading up to injury. But I’m with the Baseball Prospectus people (okay, Rany Jazayerli) in saying it’s pitch count, not days of rest, so I could see a 4-man rotation on strict pitch counts. Yeah, CGs are great, but with modern offense and the DH (surprisingly not mentioned in the article’s reasons for increased number of pitches per game) it’s hard to throw a 110-pitch CG these days. Am following the Rockies’ 4-man rotation experiment with interest. Heck, can’t be worse than their previous starting pitching.
Ah, the depths to which the nursing of Pedro’s shoulder has furthered my desire for general baseball knowledge.