Sky not the limit as far as innings for young Reds starters

It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

All the Reds' young pitchers are headed toward inning limits, and Reds manager Bryan Price was looking at just that Tuesday. He had each pitcher's name written on a yellow legal pad. Next to each name were columns for 2013 innings, 2014 innings and 2015 innings.

"Absolutely, we've had an eye on that and will have an eye on that," Price said. "The biggest thing is we'll have a lot guys who will be considered as call-ups for September and maybe even earlier.

"Guys who don't have that first major-league season where they've pitched in September, they've had a chance to take the workload from 145 to 150 to 175 to 185. We're going to have a lot of guys in similar situations."

Clubs usually want to avoid increasing a player's innings by more than 30 to 35 from one year to the next with young pitchers.

With five rookies in the rotation, the Reds are going to have to be creative. Tuesday's starter, Anthony DeSclafani, leads the club with 120 innings. Between the minors, majors and the fall league, he threw 162 1/3 innings last year.

He could get 190 or so safely.

Michael Lorenzen threw 120 1/3 last year. Between the Reds and Triple-A, he's at 103 1/3. David Holmberg threw 122 innings last year. Kevius Sampson only threw 91 1/2 last year. He's at 82 2/3 currently.

Raisel Iglesias is a special case. He last pitched on a regular basis in 2013, and because of a strained oblique, he's up to 76 1/3 innings.

"Once September gets here, with all the resources we'll have, we'll be able to manage things a lot easier than we will for the month of August," Price said. "No doubt, we have a real focus on how many innings we've given these guys over the course of next couple of months."

A wild card in top prospect Robert Stephenson. He threw 136 2/3 innings last year. He's at 114 1/3 this year, so the Reds may have him get some experience in the big league in September.

Price doesn't want to reinvent the starting pitching model, i.e., he won't go with a six-man rotation or piggyback starters with other starters.

"I would never say never," Price said. "There's something I like about a five-man rotation. What I like about it is these guys being conditioned to pitch every fifth day for six months.

"That being said, baseball has done everything in its power to not overload the starting pitchers. However, we seem to have an unbelievable number of similar surgeries – that being the 'Tommy John' surgery."

Again, Price likes the current system.

"I'd like to keep baseball as traditional as possible," he said. "I'd like to have a five-man rotation. I'd like not to divide games up among starters. At that point, you're just making sure the pitchers get a chance to, and you're throwing by the wayside the importance of winning."

Price believes in the pushing his starters.

"We have to willing to take those chances to get back to the days when your best starting pitchers could 250 innings in a season or more," Price said. "Johnny Cueto got to what? 243? He's a stud. I'm sure if anything ever happens to his arm in the future there will be people who will reflect back to 2014 when he nearly won the Cy Young, (and say:) 'That's the season that did it.' "

PARRA BACK: Left-hander Manny Parra was activated on the disabled list.

Parra's been on the DL twice. He's been on since July 20 with a sore elbow. He was on from April 29 to May 5 with a strained neck.

"I've been using (right-hander Burke) Badenhop as our left-handed relief pitcher, because he's had a great deal of experience against left-handed hitters," Price said. "To have a traditional left-hander in our bullpen is a lift."

STAYING POSITIVE: The Reds are obviously gave up a lot when they traded away Cueto and Mike Leake. But Price keep emphasizing that they didn't give up on season.

"Keeping the optimism," Price said. "We've made some big trades with starting rotation and our most established and reliable starting pitchers. We've continued to play hard with the expectation to win games – keeping the spirit.

"We still have good players here. We have a nice lineup. We have a good lineup every night regardless of who's in it. We have good bench players.

"When we've pitched well, we've had great success."