Is Jerry Manuel too careful with his starting pitchers?

Question

Yesterday he took out John Maine even though he wasn't really injured nor pitching badly. He is keeping Santana on a very tight pitch count despite the fact that he is not injury prone nor old. Is it because of all the injuries the team has had or is it just Jerry's philosophy? I like Jerry, but I feel like he should trust his starters a little more. thoughts?

Answer 1

Trusting his starter would not have done anything last night.  It was obvious there was something wrong with Maine and rather than let him try to pitch through it and possibly make it worse, Manuel took him out.  Smart move, IMO.  Maine complained of shoulder soreness and is having an MRI today so you can't say he wasn't injured.    

MetsBlog had a good post on the Maine situation.

As for Santana, he is not keeping him on a tight pitch count.  Santana has thrown the 8th most pitches in the majors this year and that is a bump up from last year when he was 21st on the same list.

Answer 2

That's how he managed the White Sox. He would never let Jon Garland go over 6 innings. He baby's the starters and relies too much on the relievers, which can backfire as it did in Chicago.

Answer 3

most managers are obsessed with a pitcher not throwing more than 100+ pitches these days. Have you noticed that at the end of the season the CG record is very low.

John Maine is having a MRI on his shoulder today...so something isn't right. if i were a mets fan I would be happy that manuel took him out for precautionary reasons and lose this game rather than lose him to the DL and lose 3-5 more games that he would have started.

Answer 4

He had shoulder tightness, which is really serious nowadays. Shoulder tightness, if not looked at closely, could lead to season ending surgery. So Jerry Manuel took him out so Maine could rest his shoulder a bit. Would you rather have Maine win and lose him for the season, or lose one game and have Maine available for the season?

Answer 5

Yea he doesn't want em to throw alot of pitches and ware them out and Maine has had some kind of injury lately,so he's careful with him so he doesn't end of doing season ending damage...The only thing that sucks for him is the Mets have one of the worst bullpens.

Answer 6

He gave up a home run the pitch after he thought he was injured

Answer 7

Gicen the way his starting pitchers have been performing lately I think he's doing an excellent job. Pelfrey has done a terrific job since June and Perez has been fairly consistant.

Answer 8

Manuel saw that he changed his arm angle on his delivery and then he gave up a home run, he didn't want to let Maine have a bad injury. Maine is injury prone.

Answer 9

I think that he is handling the staff with care because he saw what happened to Cleveland last year where they abused the starting staff and it killed them in the playoffs, it may back fire and they do not get to the playoffs but it has been working so far.