Fragile, Contd.

Oops. I forgot to mention that White Sox starter-of-the-future Garrett Crochet is scheduled for Tommy John surgery this week. Crochet has all of 192.1 innings of work between college and the pros, yet he needs surgery on his left elbow. But, boy, could he hum that pea. I wonder if Crochet’s procedure will take place the same day as Lance Lynn’s. Our big boy has a slight tear in a right-knee tendon and is expected to be out four weeks, knock on wood. So it goes. In baseball, you can never have enough pitching, which explains why someone like Max Scherzer can demand a king’s ransom at the age of 37; he’s got a golden arm (although he also has a sore hamstring right now for the Mets, who signed Scherzer to a $130-million three-year contract in the offseason). The conventional wisdom that rules our national pastime calls for developing starters who can throw hard for six innings and to replace them with relievers who can do likewise for an inning or so. Plan B is surgery when they get injured or free agency when the young arms run out. In my make-believe world, the idea would be to overpay for pitchers, trading money for contract length; with Lucas Giolito, I’d give him the sky, over no more than four years. I’d also beat the bushes for knuckleballers, submariners and control pitchers because hitters raised on “velo” will hate that kind of stuff. But what do I know?