Wait, who are we talking about needing rest here. Yes, it was Myers 3rd appearance in 5 days, but he had thrown a combined 4 pitches in the previous 2 outings and he threw 5 that night. I don't think overuse was a factor with Myers.
I don't look at it in terms of how many officially counted pitches are thrown. Every day he even warms in the pen is another day's worth of work on an arm that isn't 23 anymore. Anyway, the overuse is an overall blanket statement, at least in the way I was originally using it. The point being, the entire pen needs a few days rest. Of course, it's unrealistic to think that the entire pen can get some time off, but you have to space out appearances over the whole staff. Of 170 innings pitched, the pen has pitched 76 of them. As a bullpen, they have a total of 79 appearances in 19 games! Henn and Vizcaino have 12 innings each, Bruney and Proctor 11 each, Myers and Farnsworth 8 a piece, Mo has 6, Bean 3, and Britton and Pettitte both have 2. We're talking about a pen that is active at least 4 times a game, on average. That's not even counting when guys get warm, and don't make an actual appearance. How much work can a human arm be expected to endure before breaking down? Does this make sense? I'm not even trying to be argumentative here. Am I being overreactive? I just think that is far too much work for these guys to be doing so early in the year. Is it really being ridiculous to believe that one or two relievers a game should be enough? If they fail, they fail. You're going to lose games, it happens. But this using everyone, every day, is causing far too much wear and tear on guys far too early. To me this makes sense. If someone with an opposing viewpoint can show me why I'm wrong, I'd truly love to hear it.
I think we're just looking at the situation from 2 different perspectives. You're looking at it as an example of more bullpen overuse from Torre, I'm looking at it as the correct move for that game. I agree with you about the general overuse of the pen, and especially nonsense like using Pettite in relief at this point of the season, but they had lost 4 in a row, had the lead and Torre wanted to win. Myers screwed up, I'm not going to kill a manager for making the correct move.
Right, we're just seeing it from 2 different angles, which is fair enough. Sure, it could be considered the right move, and had it worked, Joe would have been justified. My problem, is just what you said. General overuse. (I mix and match the terms misuse and overuse, so that is probably where I am misleading with my argument.) At some point, these guys need some rest. It's freaking April. I said the same exact thing last year in reference to Villone, and sure enough, Joe ruined his arm. Coming into this year, I was sure the target was Proctor. Now I'm starting to think it's anyone whose last name isn't Rivera. (The one thing I actually don't hold against Torre in this mess is Pettitte. Andy has offered to give up his throw day as a relief appearance both times. Sure, Joe could turn him down, but he's throwing anyway, and real gametime is better than simulated innings I guess. So him pitching to allieviate some of the stress on the pen is good for the team. See junc, I don't blame Joe for EVERYTHING. :wink: )
