Wood in the bullpen.

I really don't understand why anyone would have a problem with this. Wood was going to be capped where Teheran was last season, and I'm convinced he would have been unavailable if they had advanced past the Dodgers.

You hope to squeeze 3 or 4 more solid starts out of Harang while keeping Hale stretched out in Gwinnett. That gets you into June - within reach of a Venters return. You send Wood down at that point to stretch back out. If Harang's still pitching well at that point, he stays in the rotation and you bring Thomas (or even Buchter) back up until Venters is ready. If he's not pitching well, you release him and replace him with Hale until Wood's ready to go back into the rotation.

At that point there won't be a need to limit Wood at all the rest of the way, regardless of how deep they get into the postseason. This is exactly where they had hoped to be when Medlen and Beachy went down - the Nats haven't been able to build up a cushion while our rotation has gotten back healthy (even without them), and if it remains that way you shouldn't have to juggle anything after the All-Star break. Then everybody's competing against each other down the stretch for a spot in the postseason rotation.
 
Yeah, except we're talking about a pitcher that has already had TJ. We've seen what yanking a pitcher around can do with Medlen. Not good

I agree that we need to limit Wood, but it's just not good practice moving him from rotation to bullpen to rotation to bullpen, trying to stretch him out multiple times.

He either needs to be:

1) in the bullpen and watched closely and limit the amount of times he warms up during the season or
2) in the rotation and limit pitch count with a mid season 2 week rest where he misses 2-3 starts or preferably in a 5th spot type role where your starts are limited
 
Millwood1Hitter said:
Yeah, except we're talking about a pitcher that has already had TJ. We've seen what yanking a pitcher around can do with Medlen. Not good

I agree that we need to limit Wood, but it's just not good practice moving him from rotation to bullpen to rotation to bullpen, trying to stretch him out multiple times.

He either needs to be:

1) in the bullpen and watched closely and limit the amount of times he warms up during the season or
2) in the rotation and limit pitch count with a mid season 2 week rest where he misses 2-3 starts or preferably in a 5th spot type role where your starts are limited
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If you're going to micromanage Pitchers to that point, you're never going to let anyone go beyond 6 innings or 85 pitches.

The "plan" for Wood hasn't changed since day one - Wren, Fredi, and everyone you've seen quoted has consistently said that he was going to be limited to 180 +/- IP. Shutting someone down for 2-3 weeks is just as dangerous as letting him work out of the pen - I'd argue it'd be even tougher for him to completely "reboot" in the middle of the season.

There's absolutely no chance Fredi overworks him in the pen - he may have even already been told that he's not allowed to use him on consecutive days as far as we know.
 
clvclv said:
If you're going to micromanage Pitchers to that point, you're never going to let anyone go beyond 6 innings or 85 pitches.

The "plan" for Wood hasn't changed since day one - Wren, Fredi, and everyone you've seen quoted has consistently said that he was going to be limited to 180 +/- IP. Shutting someone down for 2-3 weeks is just as dangerous as letting him work out of the pen - I'd argue it'd be even tougher for him to completely "reboot" in the middle of the season.

There's absolutely no chance Fredi overworks him in the pen - he may have even already been told that he's not allowed to use him on consecutive days as far as we know.
Click to expand...

Yeah, whatever, I'm sure Fredi has him already warming up in the pen in case Santana can't go.
 
Will be interesting to see what happens now with Walden on the DL and Thomas in the pen as a third lefty.

The 8th and 9th inning guys obviously are Carpenter and Kimbrel.

My guess is that the 7th inning will become more of a mix and match (to coin a phrase) affair. Any of Avilan, Thomas or Wood could get the 7th if there are mainly lefty hitters coming up. Varvaro and Hale will get the call if it is mainly righties.

I think they will still be careful with how often they use Wood and he is scheduled to start a game in a week anyhow, so maybe 1 more relief appearance before his start.
 
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