Read this prior to the trade. I call B.S. There’s so many weird sample sizes and such here that I don’t really see what Verducci’s getting at.

He says, “This is different. This is Denver.” but doesn’t bother to compare the rate of pitchers breaking down for the Rockies to other teams. He says that pitching in Colorado “grinds down pitchers” and provides the 9 other pitchers who had injuries sometime after 500 innings on a team that’s never had consistent pitching in their 20 year history. He doesn’t even have an anecdotal quote from some trainer or physician that says that pitching (not hitting, running or, for that matter, playing basketball or football) is harder on the body in Denver than anywhere else in the league.

We get it. It’s high over there. The air is thin. That said, if you want to tell me that playing in Denver “grinds pitchers down” and is some sort of statistical epidemic, you’re going to have to give me a little bit more than citing 9 pitchers (8, if you eliminate Jamey Wright who’s terrible fate from the plague of pitching in Denver is “minors”) who played for teams with generally average pitching at best.