Los Angeles Dodgers: The Implications of Pulling Rich Hill

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Rich Hill were rolling right along on Saturday night, as Hill had completed seven perfect innings, needing only 89 pitches to that point. Yet, manager Dave Roberts pulled Hill in favor of reliever Joe Blanton.

With two down in the eighth, Jeff Francoeur singled off the glove of Dodgers rookie shortstop and MVP candidate Corey Seager to break up the perfecto. The end result was a 5-0 Dodger victory, but the chance to become only the 24th pitcher in the history of baseball to throw a perfect game was not given to Hill.

And for good reason.

Injury concerns have been the most talked about reason on social media in the hours since “The Decision” but there is even more at play than Hill’s two DL stints this season. But let’s address those first. With the trade deadline six weeks in the past, Hill has made a total of three starts. If he had been healthy and on his regular rest, that start total could have been reached a month ago.

The cause? A blister, which has had many words written about it over the past two months, which Dave Roberts would like to avoid during a playoff run. According to Andy McCullough, Dave Roberts said after the game that “There was heat on Hill’s finger. A sign of the blister resurfacing.”

Keeping that blister off of Hill’s finger for the remainder of 2016 should be Robert’s main responsibility at this point, because that one finger could be the difference between a World Series ring, and an early exit. In three starts for Los Angeles, Hill has tossed 21 innings, has yet to allow a run, and only allowed one hit over his last two starts (13 innings).

Should Rich Hill disagree with the decision? Absolutely. Does the decision give the team a better chance of staying healthy, thus improving their chances in the postseason? Absolutely.

The other factors at work here are contracts and pitch counts. Hill will be a free agent after the season is through, and as we have seen this season, the Dodgers could certainly use as much depth in their rotation as they can get after suffering injury after injury. Hill is likely to be the best available pitcher available on the market. This one random game in Miami could potentially sour Hill on re-signing with the Dodgers.

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This only comes up because Hill is towards the end of his career (he’ll be 37 for the 2017 season), and perhaps personal accolades are something he’d like to strive for if they arise after a tumultuous journey just to get to this point. In Dodger Blue, he may not get that opportunity, as Roberts also pulled Ross Stripling at the beginning of the season after completing 7 1/3 innings of no-hit baseball against the rival Giants. There seems to be a pattern forming, which is a good one in the long term, but could turn some players away.

The more interesting point is this: At 89 pitches through seven, Hill was certainly in command of his pitch count. If Roberts had wavered, and let Hill come out for the eighth, say he tossed another 13 pitches, which is the average number he had thrown in every inning to that point. He’d be at 101 needing three more outs for history, and that hot finger may have had some extra fire. There is no way that a manager would pull their starter with just three outs to go to complete one of the rarest historical feats in the game. And that’s just if he throws a minuscule 13 pitches. What if he had two twenty pitch innings? That would put him closer to 130 pitches to complete the feat, and that is certainly a number that many would be open to debate, especially if the Dodgers were to falter in October.

The fact that Roberts pulled Hill after the seventh shows some solid forward thinking from the first-year manager.

To wrap this all up, here are some of the best tweets from around the media:

This is the catch that the above tweet is referencing:

Next: Bullpenning: Baseball's Next Trend?

So as always, the Dodgers problems are Yasiel Puig‘s fault.