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.
I hate to say it, but the advantage of the current pitching environment of pitching hard till your arm wears out is many more players get to experience a major league career (at least a short one till they are injured and they don't get too hurt in the minors). Without needing injury replacements how many pitchers wouldn't ever reach the majors or even upper minor leagues?
If they can find some more pitching the Orioles could be beginning a dynasty. Look at what their AAA club did yesterday. Heston Kjerstad has 18 RBI so far in the season. Jackson Holiday had 4 hits. First 6 guys in the lineup have an OPS over 1000 and the others are over 800.
I would have said the Angelos family would have found a way to muck it all up but they don't own the O's anymore. Like with the Astros, The Process worked for them--bad ML team provided strong draft position which was capitalized on. The Process didn't really work for the Phillies who had to buy their way to WS contention. The question is will their farm system keep humming once their draft picks sink to the back of the draft leading to the question of how long this will be sustainable.. If not, the sugar high will eventually wear off. Even with picks toward the end of the draft for nearly a decade now, the Astros keep finding and producing talent especially from Latin America.
The process worked for them like it did for the Astros because they hired Astros people. We hired people who had no idea what they were doing with any of it - new school or old school, process or win-now, drafting or developing. We're fortunate the money was able to buy out a lot of those mistakes, and that they got lucky with their second shot at a President of Baseball Operations (who has also exceeded expectations IMO in terms of his ability to straddle the different approaches) and that not everybody from the Klentak front office was worthless.
(Also, ironically, the guys we hired all came from the Orioles, though Klentak had left for Anaheim by then.)
Looks like the Marlins are already going to reboot and start their new era with a Rays-like approach.
I actually went to a minor league baseball game during the last eclipse. First pitch was around 10am and then they stopped things for an hour. I'm surprised Cleveland isn't doing that because it's still likely to be impossible to get around the city at that point. NYC shouldn't matter since there's not totality, but it would affect game conditions too.
Spencer Strider's elbow was bothering him tonight and he is set for an MRI tomorrow
— FOX Sports: MLB ( @MLBONFOX ) April 6, 2024
per @mlbbowman pic.twitter.com/cS2L3nXew01
Sounds like TJ coming up for Strider
Update: Atlanta ace Spencer Strider underwent an MRI that revealed damage to the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. He'll be further evaluated by Dr. Keith Meister in Arlington, TX.
— Bob Nightengale ( @BNightengale ) April 6, 2024
Within one week’s time, Shane Bieber and Eury Perez have needed Tommy John surgery and Spencer Strider has serious elbow concerns. Gerrit Cole is out until at least June with elbow issues, too.
— Jeff Passan ( @JeffPassan ) April 6, 2024
Pitching is a brutal business.
OT but lol. This is how I feel about any fans disputing balls and strikes in person if they're not sitting in directly behind home.
The players association is blaming the faster pitching clock for the injuries. I'm not sure there is a correlation, but maybe not letting the pitcher let his arm relax enough between pitches could play a factor in arm injuries. I think it's more about the increased velocity pitchers are using in shorter stints now.
Clearly the increased velocity and max effort pitching is the cause of all the injuries. This is not to say the shorter pitch clock does not have a minor role as some of these max effort pitchers would rest up to throw each pitch before the clock. That does not mean the pitch clock is bad. Just players and teams took advantage to increase velocity a bit more.
There is no good solution here unfortunately. Analytics tell us and will likely always tell us that more velocity and more spin produces better results. My solution is still to deaden the ball. Make the penalty for throwing strikes less than it has been in the past. A smaller strike zone is also something to consider as velocity makes it harder to throw strikes, though I do fear a parade of walks if that happens.
The livelier ball and the ease of hitting home runs has changed the game though. I think MLB is lying when they say nothing has changed. But even if they are not, deaden the ball to make it harder to hit home runs and the whole game will be better. Hitters will need a more contact-oriented approach and pitchers will do likewise (pitch to contact).
MLB long ago decided HRs are sexy and low-scoring games turn off fans. Baseball has always juiced the ball or made other changes, like lowering the mound and eliminating the high end of the strike zone. Relievers being required to pitch to 3 batters is another step in that direction as was the aborted stealth attempt to lower the seams on the standard baseball. Both the time clock and the many attempts to boost HRs and offense are part of an on-going attempt to maintain fan interest. If these changes are deleterious, then MLB will have to persuade fans that they love pitchers' duels.
I see damage to pitchers also coming from allowing pitchers to throw an unreasonable number of pitches (for them or for the time in the season -- very early or very late) in order to qualify for a W or to try for a no-hitter. Nola suffers from throwing too many waste pitches, needlessly inflating his pitches per inning.
I'm not sure pitch counts are much of a problem per se. Most managers will pull you before you can get a W if the situation/analytics calls for it. Ego makes pitchers want to go long, but at this point most of them know their W-L isn't what gets them awards (be that from the BBWAA or the arbitrators).
I think more than pitch counts it's high-stress pitches (both situationally and in terms of repertoire). I'm guessing Nola has been so durable because he just does not throw the kind of gas some of these other guys do, and his curve ball isn't as damaging as some of the other breaking pitches.
Certainly nothing is sacred in baseball despite the game preferring to act as though it is. (Best joke last weekend about the women's NCAA tournament games being played with different three-point lines at either end of the court is that baseball's like that every time).
Three-outcome baseball means higher pitch counts, which then also means more reason to pull guys before they face the order three times. And yeah, "chicks dig the long ball," as they said in that (dated) commercial, but nobody's really digging the strikeouts and walks, so that's why andy's idea makes sense as a way to actually make the game more "sexy" again.