Eyes forward
Daniel Hernandez will take the mound tomorrow night for the Royals, on the heels of five perfect innings against the Pulaski Mariners… he was taken out for the start of the sixth.
Hernandez was relieved because he was on a pitch count and his situation brings up a well-accepted paradox between rookie league baseball and higher professional levels. In a league where player development is most important, preservation and safety trump all. Consider the same situation in a major league environment, or even at the triple-A level. A pitcher is expected to gut it out if he has a chance at a no-hitter. However, because Hernandez had just missed a year-and-a-half with Tommy John surgery, and because this is the Appalachian League and not the majors, Hernandez sat down without a complaint.
A few weeks ago, Johan Santana threw the first no-hitter in New York Mets history. Now, let’s get one thing straight… In no way will I make the ridiculous leap that Santana’s no-hitter is the same exact situation as the one that Hernandez found himself in at Pulaski. That would be beyond absurd and I won’t subscribe to such sensationalism. The one thread that holds the two stories vaguely together is the fact that both pitchers were coming off major arm surgery at the time of their performance. But, Santana gritted his teeth to the finish and Hernandez took a seat.
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The similarities between Santana and Hernandez end at “arm-rehab.” If Santana would have been taken out of the game for precautionary reasons, no doubt his competitive nature would have rejected the decision. When Hernandez was taken out, he was justifiably frustrated, but completely understanding.
“It was frustrating, seeing everybody else pitch, it was getting me upset,” he said. “But I was just trying to do my thing, trying to come back hard.”
The same can be said for Royals’ manager Tommy Shields. As much as he might want to watch the performance, Shields had no doubt in his mind that Hernandez had to come out. Nobody questioned the move, nobody scrutinized him and nobody told Shields that Hernandez should have stayed in the game. Had Mets manager Terry Collins come to the same decision, let’s just say it would not have gone over well in New York.
Therein lies the paradox. Tommy Shields made the right decision. Terry Collins made the right decision. Their job titles may both be manager, and Santana’s and Hernandez’s job titles may both be pitcher, but their jobs are far from the same. Situations dictate the way they do their jobs. For Santana, his situation begged for him to press the limits of his arm in the name of making the fans happy. For Hernandez, he needed to be careful. His job is to make fans happy in the future, and he can’t get there if he pushes himself past the recommendations of his rehab and past his then 60 pitch limit. If you ask him, Hernandez will gladly sacrifice an Appy League perfect game for a shot at throwing off big league rubber. He’ll try to continue his dominance tomorrow night (no pressure) against Bluefield, but regardless of how he fares, keep in mind that the future is always more important than history in the Appy.
