Why are pitcher's babied in today's game? Apologies to Justin Verlander, today
lightningboy
Posts: 1,483 ✭✭✭
The game has evolved a lot over the past 20+ years with respect to pitching. You don't see nearly the amount of complete games anymore even if a starter is cruising with a comfortable lead. Prior to this, the majority of teams had 4 man rotations equaling 40+ starts for your ace(s) and at times, 300 innings pitched. I looked up the stats of Mathewson and Johnson who both had long careers and AVERAGED about 300 innings pitched per season over an 18+ year career. And yet their career ERA's are considerably better (2.13 and 2.17) than those of modern HOFers and future ones. With all the supposed advances in modern medicines and fitness/training regimens, why do today's pitchers need 4 or 5 days rest, and get put on a roughly 100 - 110 pitch count? How did 200 innings pitched become the new workhorse measure?
Up until 1926, when the last man accomplished this feat, there had been 45 instances where the same pitcher threw 2 complete games of a double header and WON both games. And today, people make excuses for pitcher's who struggle in April because they pitched deep into the World Series the year before. Shouldn't 150 days be long enough rest for even the most used arms?????
There weren't radar guns back then so maybe even Johnson's heater was only 85 mph? But Nolan Ryan had no problem logging innings and we know what he threw.
Does anyone have any rational reasons why the pitchers seemingly cannot do what their predecessors did years ago? Or why they are pampered so much? It isn't like they are having longer careers than Ryan or Seaver or Randy Johnson etc?
Sorry for the rant, I really am curious. thanks, Tom
Comments
Pitchers today are told and trained to throw as hard as they can for 100 pitches because velocity is the way to get noticed by scouts and 6 IP is considered a quality start. So you have pitchers throwing as hard as ever but after 100 pitches their effectiveness disappears pretty quickly. Secondly, the role of the reliever has also become more specialized and whereas decades ago the bullpen consisted of pitchers not good enough to start, you now have late inning relievers who throw 100 mph for 3 or 4 batters.
Lastly, the amount of money teams invest in their starting pitchers is much greater than it was years ago, so teams are reluctant to push pitchers beyond that arbitrary 100-pitch standard for fear of injury, which is ironic in light of all the arm injuries you see but that is another topic altogether.
Was real nice to see Verlander pitch today~that was a gutsy and terrific performance right out of the 1970s, lol..
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
blame Kate
A major difference between mathewsons day and modern times is the ball. Pitchers during the dead ball era did not need to bear down on every batter and could afford to coast as middle infielders and catchers were mostly not threats to drive out a 3 run homer as they are today. Mathewson himself wrote that he only really bore down when the game was in a pinch. He also wrote that it was profitable for a pitcher to coast because some games they would have to throw as many as 100 pitches. This shows us that pitch counts during the dead ball era were lower than today. Modern pitchers cannot afford to coast and need to throw at max effort the entire game as the home run threat is so prevalent today.
Pitchers in the 50's-60's were working off from a tall mound which also greatly helped them. After Gibson's 68 year, it was lowered to the 10" it is today. Pitchers of the 70's were still working with the bigger strike zone. The high strike was still being called which really benefited a high fastball pitcher like Ryan. Today's zone pretty much ends at the belt. This is a super abbreviated version. I think modern pitchers could have logged the heavy workload of mathewson and vice versa, there is no way matty could throw near 400 innings today. Just a different game.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
The use of analytics is big difference for the modern players versus the dead-ball era. Hitters have access to a lot more info. on pitchers than they did back in the day which makes changing of pitchers more of a data-driven decision. Hitters tend to figure out pitchers after a few at-bats so based on the data changes are made. Agree with everything that Tim (grote15) stated as well. Craig44 brings out some great points as well.
Excellent analysis guys. I agree with all points made. However, can you really explain the allowed hangover from pitching 5 months previously?
Yes
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4975924/Kate-Upton-goes-topless-shows-pert-derriere-SI.html
woops!