Every year there seems to be that guy in the pen who gets overworked and overused and winds up being ineffective by the 4th of July and just runs on fumes for the last couple months of the season. This season that guy looks like it will be Ross Ohlendorf.
I like Ohlendorf a lot and think that he is going to be very a reliable arm for the team for a while, but is there is also a strong change he is on the Scott Proctor career path.
Is it bad that Ohlendorf has already pitched 14.1 innings through Game 20? Or is is worse that Ian Kennedy has made three starts this season and a relief appearance and has pitched fewer innings (14.0) than Ohlendorf. Phil Hughes isn’t that far off from Ohlendorf’s innings either (16.1).
If the starters and I mean Hughes, Kennedy, and Mike Mussina, don’t start to eat innings, then I hate to say it, but it looks Joe Girardi is willing to run Ross Ohlendorf into the ground with no true long reliever on the team.
Sure, Ohlendorf can probably handle it becaue he was once a starter, but wasn’t Scott Proctor once a starter too?
