Restrictions on 1st year prospects?

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

On another board I talk baseball on, we have a minor league thread where we all brag about our teams top prospects. Well, in talking to a Blue Jays fan, he listed the stats for their top 5 2010 draft picks this year (This, after I gloated about Sale and Petricka every chance I get. ).

 

Anyway, he listed like 3 starting pitchers, and they all had like 3-4 starts, but no more than like 9-12 innings. I asked why his starters were relieving, and he said they are starting, but the Jays have a strict limit on 1st yr. draft picks that they can not exceed 50 pitches in a start due to having pitched in HS or college earlier in the year. I thought that was pretty smart (although hard to evaluate a starters outing if he only goes 3 innings or so).

 

Got me thinking about if we had a cap on our starters at all. I mean, I am sure they are not to go over 95-100 pitches, but I was wondering if say, they had a perfect game going, if they would be removed after a number of pitches or if it was just up to the manager on a game-by-game basis. I noticed that Petricka has yet to exceed 5 innings this year, so I was thinking maybe a limit is 5 innings, or maybe it's something like 75 pitches or something.

[Balta1701]

In the minor leagues, if Strasburg was pitching on an innings limit and had a perfect game going, they'd pull him at the limit. I think that actually happened to him earlier this year in fact, on a no-hitter.

 

The only exception might be with say a 28 year old journeyman pitcher or something like that

[Chisoxfn]

The White Sox don't have a specific rule. There are occasions in which the Sox will take a guy who has worked a lot and will opt to piggy-back him with another starter (i.e., two guys combine in a start to both throw a few innings).

[danman31]

We don't know of an exact number, and it should vary from pitcher to pitcher anyway, but they tend to be cautious with recent draft picks. Holmberg made half of his appearances in 09 out of the pen. Heidenreich was something similar. With all the guys are adjusting to in pro ball, there's no reason to throw them into the fire with a lot of innings. Once the guys get used to throwing every 5 days as starters, which is probably by the offseason or the following fall, guys will get full innings.