Is Gallardo at risk?

[645]

Is Gallardo at risk? - Brewers Blog

SI.com's Tom Verducci has posted an interesting article about young major-league pitchers who might be at risk in 2008 because of increased workloads in '07.

Verducci notes that the unofficial industry standard is that young pitchers should not be allowed to pitch more than 30 innings beyond the previous season, or risk arm injuries. He then lists seven young pitchers who exceeded that increase last year, with Gallardo, 22, coming in at No. 7.

Verducci has Gallardo at "plus 33" because he pitched 155 innings in the minors in 2006 and 188 innings last year between stints at Class AAA Nashville and the Brewers. Of course, exceeding the unofficial limit of plus-30 by a mere three innings is hardly pushing a young pitcher deep into the danger zone.

[645]

I totaly agree. If the Brewers are smart they should put him in the Bullpen to start the Season like they did with Villanueva last season and have Parra start in his places and then around mid-season when Parra innings get up there they switch places and let Gallardo start the secound half and by doing that the Brewers would be predicting both Young arms by not over using them.

[KCGHOST]

All young pitchers are at risk. See Francisco Liriano.

[Rotoprofessor]

While all pitchers are at risk, I'm pretty confident in Gallardo's ability to stay healthy. The increase was by only 3 innings over the 30 limit many teams use, so they didn't add too much extra strain to his arm.

Obviously, a pitcher can always get hurt, no matter how old or how many innings he throws. Some pitchers just seem to have a knack for the injury bug. Gallardo, though, appeared to be durable last season. While it looked like he was tiring in August with a 7.55 ERA (partly because of that horrific start in Colorado), he responded with a great close to the season (1.36 ERA over his final 5 starts).

The fact that he responded and pitched lights out down the stretch gives me reason to believe that he has the stamina to handle a full season. I wouldn't expect to see him go down this season, but again, who knows.