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- Is Livan Hernandez' arm about to fall off?
Is Livan Hernandez' arm about to fall off?
Posted by John Dewan on Dec 16th 2015
June 23, 2006
Maybe not, but if it were based on the number of pitches he's thrown in the last three and a half years, it certainly would be. Here is the leader board of pitchers with the most pitches thrown since the beginning of 2003.
11,218
Pitcher
Team
Pitches
Livan Hernandez
Was
13,127
Barry Zito
Oak
12,843
Carlos Zambrano
ChC
12,117
Mark Buehrle
CWS
12,103
Jamie Moyer
Sea
11,638
Javier Vazquez
CWS
11,628
Freddy Garcia
CWS
11,507
John Lackey
LAA
11,438
Jason Schmidt
SF
11,330
Jon Garland
CWS
(thru games of June 19, 2006)
Interestingly, the World Champion White Sox have four pitchers on the list. This is another example of the durability of the Sox staff.
Now, for the question that hangs in the air. Does throwing this many pitches really hurt a player's arm, or does it in fact build up his arm? From a previous study that I did (see Stat of the Week item from 11/23/05), there is some evidence that it's actually helpful later in the season to go beyond the 100-pitch mark in early season outings. That's far from conclusive on the topic, but does support my personal belief that pitchers are currently being babied by their managers and that it would be more helpful in the long run if pitchers were allowed to work longer, and throw more pitches, in games that they pitch.