Richie Hebner gets ready to guide Navigators

Even Richie Hebner is ditching old-world thinking.

Hebner promises a very democratic approach to playing time. He wants as many of his players to get in the game as possible, because—he says—all of them have to learn. And he wants to make sure that he doesn’t ruin any of his pitchers (and he has 15 of them) by using them too much.

“But most of all,” he said, “I want to give the fans who come here a good show. I want our kids to play hard, and to give the people who go to these games something to remember.”

...And he’s serious about burning out pitchers.

“All our pitchers are going to be on pitch counts,” Hebner said. “I don’t want to ruin a kid’s career by pitching him too much in the summer league.

“I may get calls and letters on this, but there might be a time where a pitcher’s throwing a shutout, or even a no-hitter, and he’s going to come out. It’s just not worth risking an injury.”