Mariano ?-what should pitchers be allowed to do?

it may differ once you are getting paid to play but i think pithcers should be encouraged at the high school level to play other positions. i think this makes them a more rounded athlete. sort of the same thought as playing other sports. even as a pro, if i were a pitcher i know i wouldn't want to sit around on off days. an injury can happen anywhere. i believe God is in control and as long as you aren't doing anything "stupid" doing other things should not be a problem. look at all the pitchers that play golf on their off days. they could blow out a knee walking on the couse and stepping in a hole, etc. i think living life in fear will get you hurt faster than doing things in a safe, smart manner.

I say let them be athletes and let them develop their athleticism fully.

More importantly, let them have fun.

I suspect that by the time I finish writing this the response from fellow HSBBWebbers will be swift enough that this will be just an echo, but here goes....

There is NO WAY that it is appropriate to limit a player who wants to play other posiitions, at least if he has the capability as well as the desire to play them, at the High School level. Probably same response for college, though at that point if the player is receiving a scholarship, obviously the coach should (and does) have more say. At the pro level, the guy writing the checks makes the rules, IMO.

That said, I hate the tendency to put people in a cocoon lest they get injured. Anybody can get injured, doing just about anything in this game, at anytime. Maybe running down warning track shots on a dead run towards the OF fence during While shagging BP is a bad idea - particularly for a 42-year old future HOF closer - but as others have said in the other thread, Rivera was apparently only doing what he had done many times before, a part of his pre-game routine. I guess he just hadn't yet gotten the "slow down, you're in your 40s" memo that most of us get (from our OWN BODIES). IMO, though, that's probably what made him great.

I wouldn't change a thing, other than to tell my pitchers to be smarter about taking unnecessary risks.

Sure used to enjoy watching Mark Buehrle run the bases during a rain delay with the headfirst slide on the tarp into home, gm Kenny Williams didn't like it as much.

I wouldn't change a thing how Rivera gets ready for the game.

Yeah it's not the best way to get hurt. I understand wanting to run around and shag balls since you never get to do it but you have to know not to try and rob fence scrapers.

As to your question - my answer would be a question back at you....has the coach taught them how to play those other positions and run bases? If the answer is yes then turn them loose and let them play. If he hasn't then they need to be pitcher only because the chance of injury skyrockets.

I'm probably going to get ripped over this but it's cool. I don't care if my pitcher has DI potential - if he's the best choice to hit or play another position then he's going to be there. I owe it to my team to put the best product on the field. That last kid on the team who is there to keep charts, keep charts during games and never says a word has earned the right to be part of a winning team even if he has never stepped one foot on the playing field. I can't try to coach around one player just because he's so much better than the others. I don't owe that college coach anything to risk losing games just to make him happy. If that college coach has any character about him he wouldn't want me to.

That being said I'm not going to abuse the DI pitcher. I'm not going to overwork him and run his pitch counts up. I'm going to try and put him at DH the day after he pitches. If we have practice the day before a game he pitches he will take groundballs at his other position but not throw the ball, hit and shag for coaches on fungos. The day after pitching during practice will be very similar to the day before. We do what we need to do to maximize what we can do without putting unneccesary stress on the arm / body.

Practice is about getting the most out of players and sometimes you have to cut back the stud because it's what's best for him and the team. But you have to keep working that freshman hard to get the most out of him since his workload in a game isn't as much. But when the game starts turn them loose and only hold back if it might lead to injury.