=== Exec Sum Dept. ===

So for 20 minutes, chillax into the daydream that you're a $300,000 per year suit, and pretend Dr. D is your temp. Er, your exec consultant. we meant.  This daydream will be the ultimate one, we realize.  We live to serve.

You bark at Dr. D for whichever was his biggest foulup Wednesday, and direct him to spend his Thursday --- > (1) researching the state-of-the-art on subject X and --- > (2) laying a single piece of paper on your desk by 2:00 p.m., this piece of paper being a 5-minute read that will Exec Sum for you enough about subject X for you to make money$$$$ decisions on same.

Since you're a Mariners suit, and not a Weyerhaeuser suit, virtual-Doc is an "intern" and pay him in the occasional game ticket.  See, the daydream gets better and better...

...........

Subject X is "Pitcher Burnout Effects" and the core source of your Exec Sum will be BaseballHQ's 2011 Forecaster.  All the rest of your file folder is as-in-real-life, except that you don't have to sign the temp card at the end of the week.  What luck.

Well, if there were actually a timecard in play, the shtick might be a bit more professional in tone.  But except for that .... you got it, boss.

............

Bear in mind that scientists don't use "studies" to resolve and close issues in one attempt.  Sometimes good studies conflict.  The idea isn't to end the conversation.  Just so you know.

But the study emphasized here, is a hammer-fall that follows other hammer-falls.  Dr. D recommends exec decisions based on the conclusion below.

BEGIN EXEC SUM

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=== Verducci Effect ===

Tom Verducci is the Sports Illustrated writer who first, AFAIK, proposed that if you're a young pitcher, your workload (IP) should increase verrrrrrrry gradually.

How gradually?  Hey, if you increased a Michael Pineda so much as 30 innings from 2009 to 2010, he'd be a scary-ripe burnout candidate, per this theory.  (Better hope none of your pitchers threw 50 innings last year.  Per this doctrine, it would be five (5) years before they could build to 175 innings and start in the majors.)

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The body of research that Dr. D has seen does NOT generally support this HYPOTHESIS.  In fairness, though, not only Verducci, but also BaseballHQ its ownself has supported it.

David Gassko and several others have also measured this "Year-After Effect" and found very little to support it.

We're not saying that no evidence exists towards the Verducci Effect; evidence exists for everything, up to and including The Faked Moon Landing.  But the preponderance of evidence is becoming clear in one direction.

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