Defensive Indifference

CC Sabathia did it again, throwing a complete game for the Brewers to run his record to 8-0 since coming over to the National League. He also threw 130 pitches, compiling that total despite Milwaukee’s comfortable lead in the game (it won 9-3).

This is ground I’ve covered here before, but I’d like to cover it again, and echo David Pinto’s sentiments over at Baseball Musings.

Major league pitchers have thrown more than 120 pitches in a game 49 times this season. Seven of those games have been pitched by Milwaukee Brewers. By my count, no other team has stretched its starting pitchers that far more than three times.

When I first complained about the way Ned Yost handled his pitching staff, a couple Brewers bloggers chided me for perhaps being a bit overprotective.

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Jon Stewart sums up the Willie Randolph situation just about perfectly.

Fist pound: 3 AM Calls [Baseball Musings]

That is to say recklessly.

So let me get this straight. You’ve got Ben Sheets. A fine pitcher no doubt, but one who’s thrown 156 2/3, 106 and 141 1/3 innings each of the last three seasons. In other words, he’s not the picture of perfect health. So naturally, you let him throw 123 pitches in a complete game win over the Pirates. Wait, whaaaa?

Do you know how many pitchers have thrown more pitches in a start this season than Sheets did Wednesday night? Exactly three, and one of them was Jon Lester in his no-hitter on Monday night. So you’ve got one of the most fragile aces in baseball and you’re treating him like the second coming of Cy Young?

Suddenly, your precarious position on the managerial hot seat makes a ton of sense.

And OK, let’s give Yost an enormous helping of benefit-of-the-doubt pie (something he doesn’t deserve considering he sent Yovani Gallardo back out to pitch with a torn ACL) and assume that he’s managing this aggressively because he knows his job is on the line. He’s pushing his players because he knows he could be fired at any moment. Is that really who the Brewers want managing their team? A guy with no regard for the short-term or long-term future of the club, but rather a concern for the result of that day’s game. If I had an impressive young core like the Brewers do, the answer would be a resounding no.

That’s what I’m assuming since he tore Jason Grilli, the Tigers and himself a new one.

Note to Jason Grilli: Cut back on the weak shit.