View Single Post
Old 03-02-2013, 01:35 PM   #89
edabbs44
Box of Frogs
 
edabbs44's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: NJ
Posts: 15,814
Re: Reds sign Mark Prior

Quote:
Originally Posted by AtomicDumpling View Post
It is true that we know now that Prior was overworked in that 2003 season and that is likely the reason he suffered a huge dropoff in performance in 2004 and never reached anywhere near to that 2003 level of performance again.

However, it wasn't until after 2003 that sabermetrics proved that overworking a pitcher in that manner is highly likely to cause injury and permanent reduction in pitching ability. You are correct that no team will ever use a pitcher that way again. But to call it abuse implies that Dusty and the pitching coach knew it was the wrong thing to do. I think they just didn't know any better. Most people didn't know any better at that time.
He was pretty solid in 2005.
edabbs44 is offline   Reply With Quote