Why are good starting pitchers so scarce these days?

RedHeart54

With the premiums being paid to guys like Zito, Meche, the Japanese pitchers, etc it begs the question of why good pitchers are so hard to get these days. Is it because of expansion? Roided up hitters? Or is it cyclical? It seems that 15+ years ago about every team had one guy who was considered a legitimate ace. Maybe it just seems this way because if you were a collector of '80s rookie cards about every other "money" card was of a pitcher: Gooden, Sabes, Clemens, Langston, Darling, Gubizca, etc etc. Are young pitchers (i.e. high school age) getting hurt and prematurely ending promising careers by throwing a bunch of pitches they shouldn't be throwing yet? Are minor league prospects getting rushed? I just don't know of a time when good starting pitching was so hard to get.

Skinpinch

In no particular order....

1) Less American males born in the 70's/80's, compared to the 50's/early 60's(who when of age formulated the Major Leagues of the 80's whom you are comparing it to). You're comparing the 80's to now, and they both drew upon foreign talent. Sure, there were no pacific rim guys in the 80's, but there are less than five pacific rim pitchers who have made a noticeable difference in MLB anyway. Less people to draw from = less talent produced by the moms and dads of the US. Mom and dad should not have stopped banging each other, or there would probably be a few more guys with 95 MPH, movement, and craft on the hill.

2) Baseball has been watered down by other sports, plain and simple. The youth of America chooses other sports over baseball to a higher degree than it has ever been. The degree of this is nearly impossible to tell, but to ignore it would be foolish. I personally witness many kids with incredible physical attributes to be a baseball player, yet they don't even touch the game. There is no doubt this has had an effect.

3) The bullpen has taken some.

4) Rules and environment changes have fooled your perception on what is considered good or bad. You are breed to believe that a pitcher needs to have his ERA under 3.00 to be conisdered excellent...while that may hold true in 1981, the environment in todays game makes that a very difficult task. It is simply hard to consider a guy with a 3.69 ERA in the AL to be a pretty darn good pitcher, when you are used to that ERA being below average in another era. It just goes against the grain of what you are used to.

5) Scouts fell in love with the radar gun. Velocity is important, but it isn't the only thing. Lots of these guys can throw hard, but they lack strike zone command, craft, and saavy. They can throw, but not necessarily pitch. The ease of offense plays a factor in this too.

6). Endurance is a problem. Guys simply don't throw enough to build up IP stamina. But it is also difficult to throw as many innings when every single pitch is a potential home run...due to the environment built for offense(no inside pitching allowed, body armor, small parks, SMALL STRIKE ZONE, and live balls). Jeff Bagwell made a living by taking full advantage of four of those factors...an advantage that simply wasn't there in other era's. It is hard to pitch to guys when you have to crank up every single pitch, or put the most extreme torque on your breaking pitches just to have a chance. But, there is no ignoring the fear of overworking an ACE when these guys are making this much money. The fear of ruining an investment outweighs anything else, as it is hard to disagree with being cautious.

But what this means is A LOT OF BAD PITCHERS ARE THROWING MORE INNINGS THAN IN ANY OTHER GENERATION. It sure is a good time to be a slugger and get to feast on this. Sluggers really take advantage of getting to face the bad pitchers more often, wheras in other eras, they didn't have such a luxury.