Thursday is Musn't See daytime TV on the early August baseball schedule, with Padres-Mets and Royals-Rays already underway by the time this game starts. But while I'm bitter about a disappointing season, baseball still makes for a good escape. With a scary economy (or maybe in spite of it), there's far worse ways to spend an afternoon in the waning days of summer vacation than watching the Reds' best pitcher make a start. He may not have looked it in his last outing, but Cueto currently has the second-best season by ERA+ (193) of any Reds' pitcher in history to throw 113 IP or more in a season. Dolf Luque is #1, with a 201 mark in 1923 over 322 IP. Admittedly, Cueto's 0.1 innings above that arbitrary minimum I set to accommodate him, but he's having a remarkable season nonetheless. I think it's reasonable to think he could finish around 165 IP and a 169 ERA+, which is exactly what Tom Seaver did in the Reds portion of his '77 season.
Hopefully Cueto gets kid gloves - and not just because he's one of the first 15,000. He's shown late-season and high pitch-count fatigue in the past. He needs stamina, but he's not likely to make the next inning jump past last year's 185 anyway. With his still-fresh extension and season-starting injury, it's best to air on the side of caution.