Why Jacob Turner was taken out after 81 pitches

     WASHINGTON -- If you happened to be watching or listening to last night's game, there's a good chance you questioned Ozzie Guillen's decision to lift Jacob Turner after the sixth. Turner not only looked strong to that point, turning in his best performance so far with the Marlins, but had thrown just 81 pitches.

      We were wondering ourselves, especially after Guillen summoned Carlos Zambrano and the Marlins' relatively comfortable 6-2 lead began to crumble almost instantly. Zambrano couldn't get anyone out and the Nationals rallied to send the game into extra innings, where the Marlins pulled out a 9-7 victory. Steve Cishek struck out Roger Bernadina and Jayson Werth with the bases loaded to end the game.

       So why was Turner taken out? Guillen said that since it had been eight days since Turner last started, he was under orders from the front office to limit Turner's pitch count to 80 to 85 pitches.

       "Whatever they want, I do," Guillen said. "Whatever they say, I go by."

       Guillen wasn't disagreeing with the decision to limit the 21-year-old right-hander's pitch count. As he pointed out, "We have to take care of him. This kid, it's the first time pitching in September. That's one of the reasons we went to a six-man rotation. He was (throwing) 94, 95 (mph). Now he's 92, 91."

       According to FanGraphs, Turner's velocity has diminished slightly from his time with the Tigers until now. In fact, Turner said he threw harder in high school.

       "I've had games this year where it's been there and games where it's not," Turner said. "But you can't really control velocity. It's either coming out like that or it's not. If I could control it I'd be doing it. If every pitcher could throw 100, they would. It's just one of those things where some days it's there and some days it's not. Right now I'm not as consistent with it as I'd like to be."

       Turner, who totaled exactly 80 pitches in each of his first two starts with the Marlins, will be permitted to throw more in his next start for them.

 

Comments

[BaseballCrusher]

Marlins arent playing to win games...not a professional organization...

[Bob]

Someone must have put Ozzie in his place. He didn't give two s**ts what the front office said when Heath Bell was still his closer.

[Peter Gammons Dog]

Ozzie's place is in the unemployment line.

[mike]

Bob, who do you think brought Bell in, it wasn't Ozzie. So, if the front office brought him what do you think they were tell Ozzie. I'm sure they weren't telling him to remove him from the closer role. Don't say stupid things.

[Flav C.]

"...limit Turner's pitch count to 80 to 85 pitches."

Oh please....This is the FO or Ozzie calling the fans stupid. If that is true, why did they let Eovaldi go back to back games with 100+ pitches a few starts ago?

[richiej]

remember the movie, "One Flew Over The Cuckoos' Nest"? The cast for the remake of that movie is right here in Miami, currently masquerading as front office and coaching staff of a baseball team.

[JUAN YANES]

I NOT SUPPORT HOW GUILLEN DIRECT. MY BASIS IS IN COMPARISON WITH OTHERS MANAGERS I HAVE WATCH HOW DUSTY BAKER, SHOWWALTER, MIKE SCOTIA, DAVE JOHNSON AND SO FORTH DIRECT, AND I CAN REALIZE THE BIG DIFFERENCE I THINK FOR EXAMPLE AT LEAST THIRTY OF THE GAMES LOSSES ARE BLAME OF DIRECT MISTAKES. I CAN NUMBER THE MISTAKES BUT I HAVEN'T ENOUGH TIME NOW, ONE OF THESE IS THE LINE-UP MISTAKES, EXAMPLE PENCIL MORRISON AS # 4 IN MORE THAN 40 GAMES HAVING AVE 0.196 WITH RUNNER IN SCORING POSITION.

[JUAN YANES]

I THINK SOLANO AND RUGGIANO DESERVE BE ALWAYS AT THE TOP OF THE LINE-UP EVERY DAY. I THINK IT IS MOST PRODUCTIVE REYES AS # 1 BECAUSE HIS SKILLS IN STOLEN BASES AND SPEED RUNNER THE BASES; SOLANO 2ND BECAUSE HE KNOWS HOW TO HIT THROUGH RIGHT FIELD AND RUGGIANO 3RD BECAUSE HE HAS THE BEST HITTING AVE AND DOUBLES. LEE STILL SHOULD BE # 4TH BECAUSE HE IS THE BEST AVE WITH RUNNER IN SCORING POSITION AND STANTON # 5TH WHICH ALLOW HIM HIT WITH LESS PRESSURE FOR NOW UNTILL HE WIN IN CONFIDENCE