That time Daniel Norris threw 54 pitches in the first
4Tuesday night, Tigers rookie Daniel Norris threw 54 pitches in the first inning against the Rangers.
You can say he was allowed to throw 54 pitches. Or that he was forced to throw 56 pitches. Whatever you like. He threw 54 pitches, which is one HELL of a lot of pitches, whatever inning you're talking about.
And then Norris came out to pitch in the second inning. Which was also shocking.
A representative sampling of the reaction from my fellow Knights of the Keyboard i the moment:
A piece from 2013 by @jay_jaffe on 50+ pitch innings http://t.co/xLOOtLCAhH -- note the quote by Stan Conte
— Jason Collette (@jasoncollette) September 30, 2015
My reactions were much the same! What on earth could the rationale be for allowing/making Norris throw so many pitches? Was he pitching well? No, not really, even allowing for the three or four lousy fielding plays behind him. Did the Tigers need innings from him? Don't make me laugh; the Tigers are carrying a dozen or so relief pitchers on their million-man roster.
Which leaves one rationale, I think: Daniel Norris will become a better pitcher by pitching in this game than by not pitching.
Which seems pretty unlikely, right?
I just want to point out, however briefly and cursorily, that I'm still waiting for someone to present some hard evidence that throwing 54 pitches in the first inning -- unfatigued, I will mention, by previous innings, since there weren't any previous innings -- is somehow deleterious to the health of a 22-year-old pitcher.
I mean, before we call for Brad Ausmus's head.
Not that I would have let/made Norris throw all those pitches. I think it might be deleterious, and I know it looks really bad. So I guess I'm really just reminded ow little we really know about these things, and that humility is a good thing.
