Hawks manager Sadaharu Oh had talked about having the youngster start on the farm while using him in middle or long relief in Pacific League games. It sounded like a good plan to get the rookie some playing time without throwing him into the deep end of the pool too early.
So much for plans.
Terahara made his first PL appearance on Tuesday, when he started the Hawks' game against the Fighters at Tokyo Dome.
You may ask why anyone should care how the Hawks use Terahara.
We should care because he has the potential to be a great, great talent. Ideally, good young pitchers should work in conditions that will enable them to develop their talents and thrill us until they are in their mid-40s.
Giving pitchers consistently heavy workloads before the age of 25 often leads to long term damage to pitchers' elbows and shoulders. Hideo Nomo is a good pitcher now, but his best years were long gone before he ever threw a pitch in the majors. The Kintetsu Buffaloes made sure of that by giving Nomo abusive workloads for four straight seasons.
Two of the brightest young pitchers in baseball 12 years ago were Shinji Imanaka of the Chunichi Dragons and Kenjiro Kawasaki of the Yakult Swallows. Both reached brilliant heights at a young age but began dropping off the radar screen in the prime of their careers. Imanaka is now retired, while Kawasaki has yet to throw a pitch for the Dragons, whom he joined as a free agent a year ago. Both guys turned 31 this year.
Imanaka's and Kawasaki's managers and pitching coaches thought the youngsters could survive heavy workloads. They couldn't.
Handling wild young pitchers requires little effort. Pitchers who are too ineffective seldom face the problem of overwork. But whenever an 18- or 19-year-old comes to the pros with control, he is doomed because baseball people lack the discipline to restrict his workload.
Former Seibu Lions manager Osamu Higashio put a lean on Daisuke Matsuzaka's arm that the right-handed rocket will have to start paying when he hits his prime and doesn't become anywhere near the greatest pitcher ever.
Earl Weaver, the great manager of the Baltimore Orioles in the '60s and '70s, said the best place for a rookie pitcher was in long relief.
Weaver's long-time ace Jim Palmer loved to say, "The only thing he (Weaver) knows about pitching is that he couldn't hit it." But one of the keys to the manager's success was his ability to develop starting pitchers and keep them healthy.
Before Tuesday's game, Oh said that the time was right for Terahara to make his start.
"It's better to let him get his first start now, rather than August or September (in the middle of the pennant race)," the manager told reporters. "This is not a game where the result is critical. And it's not like we are short on pitchers."
Oh yanked Terahara after three hard hit balls in the sixth inning, and the rookie finished the evening with just 68 pitches under his belt.
Although four runs in five-plus innings is nothing to write home about, Terahara looked good. Despite coming to the pros with a fastball as his calling card, the right-hander showed a tremendous curve. That's a classic and powerful combination.
It's just one game, but one should give credit to Oh for his restraint. Sure he started the rookie instead of using him in relief, but 68 pitches, provided they are not all in the same inning, is probably an ideal amount of work.
Oh played it cool and picked his spot. Still, the first game was the easy one. As Terahara gets better and better, Oh's choices will become more and more difficult.
Will the 61-year-old be able to hold back and keep a pitcher with the skills of a veteran off the firing line in the heat of the pennant race? And if Oh can accomplish that, what will happen next year, and the four seasons after that?
It seems unlikely that Oh and his successors will be able to manage the youngster's workloads for the six years or so it will take Terahara's arm and shoulder to reach maturity.
Just think of it. Should the Hawks fully realize the responsibility they hold in their hands and should Terahara rise to the challenge with everything he has, fans may be talking about him and the gems he's pitching 15 years after Matsuzaka has thrown his last pitch.
The Hot Corner appears each Thursday in The
Daily Yomiuri .