System Counted On To Protect Pitchers

Cannons Among Clubs With 75-Pitch Limit

Potomac Cannons right-hander Thomas Pauly was pitching the best game of his professional career on April 28: Over six innings, he had not given up a hit, striking out seven Myrtle Beach batters.

But Pauly never got the chance to find out if he could finish the no-hitter. Manager Edgar Caceres pulled him before he threw a pitch in the seventh. Relieving a pitcher that hot might have surprised fans, but it surprised no one in the Cannons' dugout. When Pauly got yanked, it was just part of the system.

"I knew it was my time to come out, and it was time for Jim [Paduch] to come in," Pauly said. "It was a little tough to come out . . . but I was out of pitches."

From the rookie leagues through Class A Potomac, the Cincinnati Reds organization uses a tandem or eight-man pitching rotation to develop young starting pitchers. Implemented by new Reds general manager Dan O'Brien before the start of this season, the tandem rotation pairs up eight starting pitchers. One of the two starts each game, is limited to a strict 75-pitch count, and is relieved by his partner. Three games later their roles are reversed.

Proponents of the system say it helps to keep young arms healthy while giving organizations more of an opportunity to see their pitching prospects in action. It is a relatively new idea, implemented by the Athletics in the mid-1990s as a response to the abundance of quality pitchers Oakland had in the low minors at the time. Rangers assistant GM Grady Fuson brought the system to Texas from Oakland. And O'Brien, who was an assistant general manager in Texas the past seven seasons, brought it to the Reds. They are the only three major league organizations to use the system in any form.

Fuson said that before he instituted the system with the Rangers, it was not unusual for a dozen minor league pitchers to have arm surgery. Today, the Rangers average about half that number.

"Personally, I believe the 18- to 22-year-old arm is not prepared to pitch the way people traditionally think. Their arms are not fully grown and mature," Fuson said. "They're not prepared to take the torque that major league guys can. This system eases them into it."

Keeping pitchers healthy in Cincinnati's system stems from limiting each pitcher to 75 pitches while simultaneously strengthening his arm with work every four days.

And the strict count has other benefits. The only way to earn a win is to finish five innings. So each of the starters must use his pitches wisely to last through the fifth.

The mantra repeated in the front offices of Cincinnati, Texas and Oakland is "pitching to contact." Instead of nibbling at corners, pitchers are encouraged to make batters put the ball in play and let the fielders do the work. Above Class A and especially in the majors, pitchers must learn to use their defense, O'Brien said.

"It forces pitchers to learn how to pitch earlier in their careers than they might have otherwise had to," O'Brien said. "The object [in our system] is to get the batter out in four pitches or less. That's easy to talk about it, but hard to master and execute."

Oakland director of player development Keith Lieppman helped implement the tandem rotation with the A's in the mid-'90s.

"We had such a glut of really good arms in our system, and we wanted to get them all more innings," Lieppman said. "A lot of people looked at it, and they make fun of it, and they didn't quite understand it. But it's a great system if you have the right personnel."

Today, Oakland uses the system only for its rookie league teams, and Lieppman admitted there are some problems with it. Without eight quality starters at each level, it's hard to pull off; pitchers don't learn to work out of trouble in late innings when they're tired; and pitchers have a tendency to compete less, knowing they're getting their allotted pitches no matter what.