SPORTSNATION: ALL-TIME FRANCHISE PLAYERS

"Baseball Tonight" wants to hear from you. Click here to vote for the all-time franchise players for all 30 big league teams.

"Baseball Tonight" and SportsNation agree: Tom Seaver is the greatest Mets player of all time. Watch on Thursday when the Rockies' best is revealed at 10 p.m. ET on "Baseball Tonight."

BBTN MINUTE: REPLAY CLOSER

PROTECTING YOUNG ARMS

By Rick Sutcliffe, ESPN

There's been a lot of talk about what should be done late in the season with young pitchers on bad teams. The first names that come to mind are Edinson Volquez with the Reds and Tim Lincecum with the Giants. Teams shouldn't be shutting down their young stars unless there is something medically wrong with them. Let's say either Cincinnati or San Francisco is next season's Tampa Bay. When you get to this point in the season, I definitely think that any added experience is something that would be valuable to them. Let them take their turn in the rotation. Obviously you need to watch their total pitch counts and you can't let a guy go out there and throw 40 pitches in an inning. But unless there is something physically going on, there is absolutely no reason to shut them down.

You look at Matt Garza. He's a 24-year-old who's pitched 157 innings. The Rays are going to need another solid month from him to stay where they are. Having been there before can only help him. Whether it's a good experience or a bad one, you can learn from these situations. Let's say the Giants go to Dodger Stadium and it's packed. Even if your team is not in the pennant race, as a player, you get into it that night. You can sense the big-game atmosphere and learn from it.

There are some things you can do differently to help a young pitcher late in the season short of shutting them down. You can cut down throwing between starts and back off what they do aerobically. When I played, I would go out and run five or six miles on a day after a start, but as I got to September I would cut that back. I learned that from watching Don Sutton, Burt Hooton and Tommy John. Those guys ran forever and I just tried to keep up. But those guys would back it off once they got to the end of August.

Now, every situation is a bit different. Look at Matt Cain for the Giants. This guy is just a big old plow horse and he looks like he could throw year round. Lincecum is not built like that, so you're going to be more cautious with him. Lincecum throws harder and he throws a bigger breaking ball, so you'll be cautious and keep an eye on it. But if physically he's able to do his work between starts, and you don't see him laboring, then I see no reason to shut him down. There's one thing you need to keep in mind, though. Let's say Lincecum can throw 97 mph, well you don't really want him pitching at 97. When he's got a man in scoring position he can reach back and get that, but he needs to go out there and pitch between 89-93 mph in less stressful situations. Go out there and work on command and find that comfort zone. Greg Maddux should be the role model. Maddux isn't the same pitcher now at 40 years old, but he still can pitch and he always had that comfort zone in his career. I remember when he was younger he could dial it up, too, but only when he needed. That is a big part of the reason why he's stayed successful for so long.

WEDNESDAY'S NOTEWORTHY PERFORMANCES

GOOD

• The Rangers hit six homers in a 9-1 win against the Tigers. Travis Metcalf, who came into the game hitting .158 with two homers, matched his season total with two home runs as part of his 3-for-4 day.

BAD

• R.A. Dickey followed up his four wild pitches in one inning in his most recent outing, by giving up six hits, eight runs and two homers in two innings in a 15-3 loss against the White Sox.

UGLY

• Clay Buchholz's problems continue. The Boston right-hander gave up three hits and five runs in just 2 1/3 innings of the Red Sox's 11-6 loss against the Orioles. Buchholz has now lost six consecutive decisions.

STAT OF THE DAY

According to Inside Edge's scouting data, starting pitchers for visiting teams apparently need a few pitches to get comfortable. Visiting pitchers have allowed higher batting averages against their first few pitches compared to starters for the home team. The disadvantage for the visitors diminishes rapidly, and equalizes after about 30 pitches:

BA against in early innings
Pitch count	Visiting starter	Home starter
1-10	.296	.263
11-20	.283	.270