The State of the Game- MLB
 

One night earlier this week there was a full schedule of games played:


15 games

Wanna guess how many different pitchers were used?



142!!


Crazy Times!
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That's certainly my Kansas City Royals! Rarely does a KC starting pitcher make it past 5 innings, let alone 6. Then, it's off to the pen where those guys need to be lights out. That hasn't been the case this season, as Soria has blown games yet Yost continues to trot him out there. Too much money to let him sit on the bench I guess and Yost loves his vets regardless how they perform.

I digress.

Back in the day, pitchers actually threw complete games ( more than 1 or 2 per season ), threw more than 250 innings ( some threw over 300 innings ), and threw over 100 pitches in a game.

Arms were more elastic then due to NOT over exercising / training, and keeping the arm loose. Pitchers didn't have half the arm problems then that there is now.

Those days are long gone.

I wonder how a lot of the middle relief guys get enough work to improve their game. If you only get to pitch an inning or less a few times a week, it seems like it would be difficult to really get into any kind of decent rhythm or pick up any good habits. Doesn't surprise me to see middle relief guys coming out of the bullpen with 5+ ERAs, but it must be frustrating for them.

it's the byproduct of the extraordinary infusion of analytics being brought into the game and expanded september rosters. you don't want SP going thru the order for a 3rd time, you want to maximize every percentage point of expected win possible in your favor.

the dodgers FO are doing this to the extreme...the have the most roster moves, they have the most unstable starting lineups, their players wear freaking gps watches on the field and they utilize lasers to get exact placements for shifts and such...as a fan of the team i think it's GREAT.

it is the era of specialization. Combine that with falling attention spans and analytics and this is the result.

That being said, so many pitchers throw 95+ these days (until their arm falls off) that I can hardly blame coaches for following the trend. Like defensive shifts ,the numbers show that specialized pen use leads to more wins.


IMO, the difference is that expansion, 5 man rotations,the price of pitching, but most of all, injury, have shrunk the quality of the starting pitching pool. 30% of all MLB pitchers have had TJ surgery (and growing) so teams are wary of overuse (which,IMO leads to less durable arms)

This goes back to high school and younger. Young arms pitch year round, putting too many miles on themselves, throwing max effort 100% of the time...etc the result is 24 year old MLB arms that have more miles than Nolan Ryan had at 30+

aah...the good old days
 

In a perfect world...

2 leagues with 8 teams each (Contraction will clear up water downed pitching.)
DH gone...and inter-league play gone.
Scheduled doubleheaders.

Hey! I can wish, can't I?

I think 12 teams each would be fine, no DH and no inter-league play.

the real question, what 3 teams do you ditch from each league?

Tampa Bay & Miami to start - Florida should again be reserved for spring training.

Arizona for the same reason

Oakland & Toronto

...let's see - that leaves one more to delete from the National League...

San Diego


and without interleague play, the World Series would be 'pure' again.

-by that I mean, I always enjoyed the prospect of two teams who had not met before (at least recently) playing for 'all the marbles'.

Of course, none of this would ever occur because of the owners and the players' union.
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Raymond, The Philadelphia Athletics was one of the original American League franchises. I agree that Oakland needs to upgrade to nicer facilities but I would not drop them as they are one of the originals. Drop the Rockies or Seattle instead.

Sea
 

Not the Mariners :p
I'm a lifelong Phillies fan, but the Mariners are team B since it's just a few hours away and every game is covered on TV here.
They have a great fan base ,a terrific stadium and "own" the whole NW portion of the country. They are KEEPERS:D

I recall when both KC and Minnesota were in talks of contraction. That would be terrible as those teams have winning traditions.

I don't want any team to be disbanded, but if you HAVE to pick a couple, I agree with the Marlins and Rays. Why they don't draw fans is debatable but they should have to "put up" or "shut down".

Just kill the DH and the 40-man roster nonsense, maybe add 2 players year round and that would be a start!

Pitchers are simply never going to be the workhorses we saw in the 60's and 70's since the clubs just have too much to lose. I think getting better, " lights out " relief pitchers like many teams have been doing is a good thing. Of course these type of games can be too slow paced for some folks (not me, I love baseball anyway)

40 man roster is good as it forces teams to start the option clock on minor leaguers and not store them away.

If you are referring to september callups, I heard a good solution today, teams can call up whomever they want off the 40 man, but must submit a 25-27 man roster for that day's game.

Yup Nick, I was referring to the September callups. I realize that most teams only
call up a few players but the pitching changes get silly sometimes.

That proposed 25 to 27 man roster has been gaining popularity, I heard it discussed this week on Phillies broadcast. It's a nice compromise I think, although I bet the extra players will be mainly relief pitchers. The teams would de-activate the starting pitchers that weren't scheduled and it would end up almost the same...

I would say you can only substitute 2 people from the previous night and add 2 giving you 27???? maybe?

It's not perfect, but it's better than seeing two teams use 50 guys in a 9 inning game that lasts 4 hours.