By Jon Weisman
Some quick Dodger pitching updates for before the game:
- Clayton Kershaw is expected to meet the Dodgers in Cincinnati, where he will throw off flat ground Friday with a tentative bullpen session scheduled for Saturday.
- Bud Norris remains scheduled to be activated from the disabled list Friday, with Brett Anderson starting Saturday.
- Lefty reliever Adam Liberatore is expected to be activated from the disabled list Friday as well, meaning the Dodgers would have to make two roster moves in the next 24 hours.
- Kenta Maeda, whose next turn in the rotation would be Sunday, might get extra rest, with the Dodgers turning to an in-house spot starter in that case.
- Rich Hill is pitching a simulated game at Camelback Ranch tonight.
- Hyun-Jin Ryu is rehabbing but has not picked up a baseball. He is not expected to return for the Dodgers in 2016.
Don Bright
I would guess Ravin and Stripling go down tonight if Maeda gets that day off, Urias would start instead, or he could be the one sent down.
If they hold to the 100 IP limit on Urias, he has 4 more left, so I could see them starting him Sunday, using him for the 4, and then shutting him down for the year, with a slim chance to be used in September and October.
Jon Weisman
I think those are certainly possibilities – I might also add someone like Fields.
To my knowledge, no one has ever said 100 innings was a magic number for Urias. Generally, the rough estimate for a limit has been 20% more innings than his previous career high.
Don Bright
Well his career high is 87.2, so 20% increase on that is around 105 IP, however he only pitched 80 IP last year, so he’s already at the 20% increase this year.
Whatever his limit is by the ones who enforce it, it’s coming up no matter how you slice it.
I know Fields has options, and I guess they need to be careful how they use the roster spot, as Stripling may be needed for another start within 10 days unless Hill can finally go, so I can see Fields going instead of Stripling.
Tim Bower
Jon,
I wonder if you have ever heard a baseball exec talk about pitch limits rather than innings limits for developing arms. With the development of Urias this year I noticed he has a lot of high pitch innings and many of his early starts were limited to 4 or 5 innings because he was already at 85-90 pitches. A more efficient pitcher will get to his seasonal innings limit much faster than a non-efficient one like Urias has been this year. Pitch counts are such a big thing in-game (I can’t remember the last baseball broadcast I watched that didn’t have a pitch count graphic on it) but when we move to a season cap for developing arms, we hear about innings limits, which is a weird shift in my mind.
Jon Weisman
Correct – innings limits is just shorthand — people are very interested in how many pitches and what kind of bunches they are thrown in.