Jim Riggleman is 65 years young and in great shape physically and mentally and is not afraid to buck the current wisdom of the length of pitchers outings.
"I hate to say it but in today's world we have to cover ourselves," Riggleman said.
There were two pitching decisions last night that turned on the artificial wall of pitcher's endurance.
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"I trust him to be honest with me when he comes in and I ask how you're doing. It's not just the word that come out its the tone. If he's says 'I'm alright'. He ain't alright. If he's barking down your throat, "Why are you even asking?' Then you know he's alright."
The trend in baseball is to limit pitchers innings and pitch counts to preserve their health. Riggleman believes it is too low.
"I really feel that what we saw a few years ago in the post season with Dave Roberts, Terry Francona with Cleveland and Joe Maddon with the Cubs, they took it here (hands above shoulders) with those relievers," Jim Riggleman. "With Miller, Jantzen and Kershaw came and pitched in a relieving role. Joe Maddon had Chapman in there. They took it to a level they hadn't been. I think in recent years we've gotten here (hands below waist). There is an area in between here that we can ask a little more from our pitchers. Certainly we don't want to get anybody hurt. What Jared did last night, that used to be fairly routine. I know it's not routine any more. I knew it takes me out of his comfort level but he's a veteran even know he's not comfortable, he still can pitch. If someone is a little uncomfortable they say I can't pitch. I know Gossage and some of those guys were a little uncomfortable some days but went out and gave them three innings. I know that its the regular season and we don't ask guys to do what they did in the postseason but I do think we can ask a little more. We asked more of Jared last night. I think we can raise the bar a little bit for what we can get out of guys. This thing about 65 innings for a reliever and that's enough. You wish that's all you needed because your starters are going that far. I think we can get a lot more out of them. We don't want to get anybody hurt but to me it looks like they get hurt anyway."
The other dilemma for Riggleman was Tyler Mahle, who carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning with 86 pitches. Freddie Freeman homered on Mahle's 90th pitch. He left after giving up two more hits and throwing 97 pitches.
"I was hoping he was going to make me make a really tough decision," Riggleman said. "His sixth inning I think he had 86 pitches in six innings. For me a good number of pitches to throw in an inning is 15 piitches. Pitching coaches would like to do it in 12 or 13 but that just doesn't happen. You look at how many pitches a guy throws. If he's throwing 15 an inning, he's doing a really good job. Now he's at 105 in seven innings. So, to me you're not extending anybody at 105 pitches. Now if you try to get two innings more because a guy has a no-hitter going, it's 135 pitches. Then there's an out in the ninth and this guy fouls off 10 pitches and it's 143 pitches. "It might have been one of those games he had a no-hitter after eight and I had to pull him,"
Riggleman was the Cubs manager during Kerry Wood's rookie season, 1998. On May 6 of that year, Wood had 20 strikeouts against the Houston Astros that built his pitch count.
"I was asked today about the Kerry Wood game," Riggleman said. "That game he threw that day was 122 pitches. If I'd have taken him out of that game, I'd have had to have security that night the fans would have killed me. If and when he came up sore a year later it would have been Riggleman pitched him too much. They were mad at me for taking him out. They were never mad at me for leaving him in. You do have to cover yourself a little bit."
"Once they're out there and they're flowing, they're pitching 15 more pitches. Is that going to be the reason he got hurt? Like I said, everybody in baseball, throughout baseball, are taking care of pitchers, pitch counts and days in between and the rest they get and so forth, and we get more and more surgeries than ever."
"What are you going to write if its 138 pitches and he got through it? Am I good with that? Five days from now if he gets knocked out in 2/3 an inning and says my elbow hurts, to me it is the accumulation of throws people make throughout their life and then they just break down. When you throw a guy 118, 120 pitches, the next time you back off. Even then, Seaver and Ryan and those guys who knows how many pitches they threw, Fergie Jenkins. Fergie Jenkins had so many complete games. If you look at his complete games and the number of wins he had, he had to have a lot of complete game losses. Which means in the seventh and eighth inning, he's hitting for himself. If you're losing in today's world and you let the starting pitcher hit for himself in the eighth, you may as well pack your bags. You're an idiot. They routinely did it."
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