Let's Lay Off That Throttle
- Thread starter soxhop411
- Start date
That too. [My college sophomore son is a good reminder of how for young people there were just 1-2 years completely lost.]
If I recall Jon Lester’s first few years were a struggle getting past 5 innings (back when it was considered a bad thing if you only pitched 5 as a starter)….
His third year (2008) he threw 210 innings in 33 starts, an average of six innings plus a start. He was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2006.
So I’m not sure if your recollections are correct.
It was definitely a thing in 2006 and 2007 after he came back. He really did turn it up a notch (or 3) in 2008.
In 2006 he was diagnosed with lymphoma. In 2007 he was coming back from battling lymphoma.
Apparently cancer has an affect on going deep in games. That’s the reason it was “definitely a thing” in those years.
Right, obviously we had no idea about the cancer until retroactively after it happened.
That being said, in 2006 he made 15 starts. He threw 1507 pitches, so nearly exactly 100 per start. He threw 81 1/3 innings in those games, so, a shade under 5 1/2 per game. He was throwing 100 pitches in 5 1/2 innings. He had some control issues and that led to fewer IP.
Coming back in 2007, he was at roughly 97 pitches per start in about 5 1/2 innings. So a slight improvement.
And then in 2008 he blossomed.