Scott Lewis Update, Rotation Set
Posted September 7th, 2007 by Stephanie Storm
A few of you have mentioned Scott Lewis in recent posts, so I wanted to clear some things up.
According to the Indians, Lewis is not hurt per say. After his last start in the regular season he mentioned some tingling and numbness in his left pitching arm, so the Indians brass just decided to play it safe and shut him down.
It’s a good big-picture move for Lewis, who’s had Tommy John surgery and pitched on a limited pitch count (70) all last season. This year, the Aeros slowly built up his innings by cautiously expanding his pitch limit from 70 to 100 by season’s end. Still, that’s a lot of extra work for an arm that was so limited the previous year.
Rather than risk anything, Lewis was shut down for the playoffs. That’s one of the reason’s right-hander Jake Dittler ended up throwing Game Two Thursday in Erie. The other reason is that because the Aeros went on such a hot run at the end of the regular season and almost caught Erie, the team wasn’t able to rest some key starters and set up the rotation for the playoffs.
Thus, the team comes home today with the best-of-five series tied 1-1. Left-hander Jeremy Sowers goes tonight (Friday) for the Aeros, followed by right-hander Bobby Brownlie scheduled for Game Four Saturday. If a Game Five back in Erie is needed, Aeros manager Tim Bogar said Thursday night that he expects to start Adam Miller.
The Aeros ace last seson, Miller came in on relief for Chuck Lofgren in the first game of the series Wednesday, allowing four runs on five hits in just two innings.
Let’s hope he’s a little sharper come Sunday - if the Aeros get that far.
September 7th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Oh sure, now they’ll use Miller in a Game #5!
…Sorry, I’m still a little bitter that they didn’t give Miller any rest last August after they had run away with the division title, but decided he then needed it in the playoffs.
September 10th, 2007 at 9:57 am
I’ll bet you would have been the first person to complain about poor management if he had blown out his elbow. Remember he was already coming off problems the year before and by the way had more elbow problems this year in Buffalo. Win a AA title at any cost, even if the prospect never plays in Cleveland. GOOD THINKING!!!!!
September 10th, 2007 at 10:40 am
Jim - I’m not sure where you’re coming from. It’s clear in my post that I think shutting Lewis down is a good idea. In fact, I wouldn’t have had any problems with shutting Miller down the previous year - had they not waited until mere hours before he was slated to pitch.
September 10th, 2007 at 11:58 am
Jim, my problem wasn’t with limiting Miller’s innings last season, so you can hop down off your high horse now. It was the lack of foresight as to when to do it.
I’m not some idiot who wants the organization to push prospects to 200 innings. I don’t know if you remember or not, but Akron had wrapped up the Southern Division with at least three weeks left in the season last year. My complaint was that they then continued to start Miller until the end of the regular season. They had shut him down for a week or two at the end of the first half as a precautionary measure, but not the second half.
Sorry, there was no blog here for me to voice my complaints at the time, but trust me when I say that I was mad at the time that they weren’t giving Miller rest and saving his arm for the playoffs. It was no secret that they were concerned about his innings throughout the season… but mysteriously not in the second half of August.