Panzer ace
Lieutenant Colonel
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2007
- Messages
- 7,985
Blake Snell looked great in his Giants debut, 3 innings, 3 earned runs for a 9.00 era.
I still find it ridiculous that 5-6 innings is considered acceptable for a SP in this day and age. -- AlThe MLB Players Association is now claiming that the pitch clock is responsible for recent pitching injuries.
Ferguson Jenkins (among other pitchers) pitched an unprecedented amount of complete games in eras that had game times at, or often below, current pitch clock game times.
All with no injuries.
I still find it ridiculous that 5-6 innings is considered acceptable for a SP in this day and age. -- Al
Sure is. Today, pitchers are expected to go all-out on every pitch, throw as hard as they can, for as long as they can. No let up, so they can't possibly last too far into games. Not an approach I care for. -- AlDifferent age.
Sure is. Today, pitchers are expected to go all-out on every pitch, throw as hard as they can, for as long as they can. No let up, so they can't possibly last too far into games. Not an approach I care for. -- Al
The thing is that the drive to produce pitchers who throw as hard as possible sacrifices control. What good is a pitcher who throws 99 miles an hour if he can't find the strike zone? I think that is a contributing factor, along with incompetent home plate umpiring, that drove the length of ball games up, that led to multiple foul-off at bats, and then triggered responses that have really done nothing to address the issue. The only recent rule that has helped reduce the length of a game is the pitch clock. Enforcing that the batter stay in the box also helps. But the umpires could have done those things before. But the other rules, like the ghost runner in extra innings, limiting mound visits, limiting pick-off throws, don't really shorten the game. Enforcing that the pitcher throw the ball as soon as possible brought the average game time back down from around 3 hours to around 2 and a half, about where it was around 15 years ago or so.
Now that MLB has decided there is an epidemic of arm injuries, maybe there will be some direction away from throwing hard back to throwing reasonable hard but with greater accuracy.
I heard a retired player refer to the rules coming out of MLB as rules made by guys who never played the game, to make it more like what they think it should be. I think that's pretty observant. And yes, allowing for participation of former players in the process. Those former players don't make the decision to have a rule, they just craft them.
Prost!
Brad
Mark, from the game and players we remember, the pitching stats are almost unbelievable when compared to today's game. From 1967-1975, Jenkins started 350 games and completed 198; Gibson 1965-72, completed 172 of 263; Marichal 1964-69, completed 146 of 206. Wilbur Wood, a LHP for the White Sox, had a run from 1971-75 that was incredible. During those 5 years, he averaged 45 starts, 20 complete games, 360 innings, and 21 wins per season. Mythical numbers compared to the game today. I miss the game that used to be, but nothing stays the same, and I'm just an old geezer that has been a baseball fan for 64 years wondering where my heroes of the 60's have gone. -- AlSo do I Al. When you see how many games Bob Gibson, Fergie Jenkins ,Carlton, Seaver, Nolan Ryan and many more completed you wonder what's with these pitchers these days. Give me the old days much more fun.
Mark
Ha! Observation, Russo, and the MLB channel. I will find and read the Athletic article. Thanks for the info. -- AlYou must have read that Athletic article.
Hard to believe someone could grab 16 million and no one notices. Maybe Ohtani doesn't look at his accounts everyday but I'm sure he has accountants that keep tabs on things.
Mark
I think Mookie is doing better at this point.On the baseball side of things Ohtani is having another MVP year.