Loading ...Rob Neyer and Curt Schilling echo our concerns (from the latest podcast) with pitchers’ participation in the World Baseball Classic. Yeah, the sample size is too small to determine whether it’s definitively bad for pitchers, but I just don’t like taking the chance with our young pitchers (especially with the recent Johnny Cueto phantom injury scare; I’m skittish).
The WBC concept is a good one; I just wish they could find a different time of year to play. At least Cueto and Edinson Volquez are on their way back to camp.
I’m curious as to what others think about this. Is it just the Major League pitchers or all pitchers. I personally like watching some of these minor leaguers go at some of the big league hitters. I think it is a good test for some of these guys. I know that no one wants anyone to get hurt or see our big league guys go down or risk bad years, but I love watching the young guys go at it.
Justin had a good post about this: http://jinaz-reds.blogspot.com/2009/03/on-usa-today-wbc-story.html.
There’s no proof the Classic is bad for pitchers; the USA Today story was poorly written and the author cherry picked the stats he wanted to use.