Homer Bailey is to Tom Verducci as the Iraq War is to, like, four Democratic Senators circa-2003

I've been thinking about this for some time, as has Sports Illustrated columnist/Paper Blue Jay Tom Verducci. Everyone in Cincinnati, it appears, is all about Homer Bailey making the big leap to the big leagues in a big way this big season, but--as SI.com scribe/being of heightened sense Verducci proves--such a promotion is, in many ways, kind of a bad idea. A rather poor idea, in fact.

Verducci rather conclusively proves that most every phenom wunderkind pitcher whose workload has been increased by thirty innings or more from one season to the next has broken down like a Derby stallion. Also, most of Verducci's test cases are, like, 23 and 24. Bailey's 20. Hence the psuedo-apocalyptic (yet still wholly inappropriate) title of this post.

Actually, never mind. Bailey already passed the thirty-inning-increase threshold last year. Fuck.