What's the Chances.........

[Lipsander]

...that our pitching staff will have better luck staying healthy due to Dusty being gone. That was always the knock on him is that he notoriously left his starters in way too long. Could that have been some or alot of Wood and Prior's arm problems, mainly originating in 2003? Could the pitch count have started their downfall? An ever bigger question, do you think that will affect Carlos Zambrano in the coming years?

[Bob Sacamento]

...that our pitching staff will have better luck staying healthy due to Dusty being gone. That was always the knock on him is that he notoriously left his starters in way too long. Could that have been some or alot of Wood and Prior's arm problems, mainly originating in 2003? Could the pitch count have started their downfall? An ever bigger question, do you think that will affect Carlos Zambrano in the coming years?
Personally, I don't see much of difference between Dusty and Lou's treatment of pitchers, neither call the full shots. Both listen heavily to their pitching coach (Larry Rothschild) and when he feels the starting pitchers are tanked. The difference I see is that Dusty doesn't place blame, not on his players, not on his coaches, he doesn't throw guys under the bus. While Lou has absolutely no problem in blaming others or delegating tough (no real answer) questions to his coaches.

Wood's arm problems start back in high school, and if you want to blame a Cub manager look at Jim Riggleman or blame management (Ed Lynch) or scouting/development (Fleita/Hendry) but Kerry's problems do not rest on Dusty's shoulder.

On the other hand, Prior is solely linked to Dusty in manager terms. But so is Carlos Zambrano. Coming up through USC and the little ball he played in the minors, Prior's mechanics were hailed as flawless, in fact he's the biomechanical model at most major Bio Institutes (2002-2003). Then Prior came down with an achilles injury, the push off and pressure on the achilles altered Mark's mechanics. He was out of his pitching state that he had been in for years, and Rothschild didn't see it til it was too late. The foot injury led to ill torque and poor arm positioning, which has led to the arm injury.

As for Carlos, I don't see him wearing down at all, he's got the frame and arm conditioning to throw like Livan Hernandez year in and year out.

[Cubsfan97]

I think the pitching will benefit with Dustys departure. The bigger question though, is what are the chances that the pitching shocks us and dominates?

[Scartissue]

I think also a large part of it is how good the bullpen is (or how good the manager perceives the bullpen to be). Dusty/Larry didn't have a lot of confidence in the 2003 bullpen, for example, pitching Prior during a blowout. If Lou/Larry have a lot of confidence in this year's bullpen, then the starters should be more rested.