Kaplan: “I interviewed Matt Garza the night. He said, Jan. 1, ‘I throw seven days a week. And I’m not talking about just playing catch. I throw.’ He said, ‘For some guys, it doesn’t work. For me, it’s kept me healthy.’”
Kaplan again: “This nonsense about pitch counts…”
Assistant GM Randy Bush: “Are you making an editorial comment, Kap?”
Kaplan: “A lot of people here will see a guy with 110 pitches, a 2-hitter in the eighth, and you yank him, and the closer gives it up. I’m not saying Marmol. It’s just in general in the game.” (Crowd laughs). Kap to Mike Quade: “What’s your philosophy?”
Quade: “Oh, my God. Every day is a new day. I will say this. And yes, I do pay attention to pitch counts. I don’t care what anybody says, you only have so many bullets in this arm, and you need them in September every bit as much as you need them in April. High pitch counts early in the season concern me. On a given day, guy’s throwing the ball well, let’s go, and especially an older guy and a guy who’s shown he can do it before. There’s all sorts of stuff that goes into letting a guy go 120, 122, 125. You’ve got old-timers out there who say Bob Gibson used to throw 150-160. You don’t take a bunch of kids who come through a system and watch and protect them very well arm wise, with 100-110 pitches and let them out there and say, ‘Let them go 155.’ You’re tempting fate, to me. The thing is to keep everybody healthy and productive the entire year.”
Kaplan should have a show with Joe Morgan.