Interesting article from the Ringer on pitcher injuries. Apparently there is a major MLB study going on to figure out if there are any systemic changes needed. Clearly to me the emphasis on velocity and spin needs to be lessened. The end of the article gets at this but its solution is to have fewer pitchers on the roster. I think that is misguided and we'd just shuffle more pitchers through the last spots on a staff.
My solution? Deaden the baseball and tighten the strike zone. Make it harder to hit the ball 500 feet and players would have less incentive for an all or nothing approach. But if you also tighten the zone (certainly this would have to be automated) it would be harder to throw strikes with all that max effort pitching deliveries. With a deader ball pitchers would throw more strikes because the penalty of missing would not be as harsh.
MLB has been really aggressive with rule changes around the pace of play and they clearly see this as a problem. Hopefully they come back with a better solution compared to "fewer pitchers on the roster" which the union would never go for anyway. Pitchers are being trained as max effort devices to be used and replaced when they get hurt. There has to be a better way.
