MLB: As Pitch Counts Fall and Dollars Rise, Are Current Pitchers Babied?

Posted: 3rd May 2010 by Kevin Bertha in MLB
Comments Off on MLB: As Pitch Counts Fall and Dollars Rise, Are Current Pitchers Babied?
"Throw 'til you blow" used to be many major league teams' motto. Now, they are teaching the complete opposite. Pitch counts are used in every single game, for every single pitcher. The days of the four-man rotation are over. Some teams go to a six-man rotation as the long season progresses. Complete games have fallen by the wayside, and an "innings-eater" is now the exception, not the rule. Teams were not always this careful with their starters. Nolan Ryan, arguably the greatest pitcher of the modern era, threw 259 pitches in a 12-inning complete game in 1974, the most ever recorded in baseball history. 259 pitches would be 2 1/2 games for a current major league pitcher. We rarely see a pitcher throw more than 120 pitches unless special circumstances present themselves (for example, the pi ...

Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - MLB
Article written by

Comments are closed.