Not sure where this is headed but what we saw from the Phillies in the first series in Atlanta is looking awfully like the norm in ML baseball circa 2018. The Dodgers and Giants played a game last night [albeit 14 innings] and the the two teams used no less than 19 pitchers.
It got so bad that the Dodgers used all 24 players at their disposal [Alex Wood was home sick] and ran out of players and had to use not one, but two pitchers as pinch hitters.
Maybe I am an old time traditionalist but I simply do not think this is good for the game and somehow cheats the fans. Look, we live in an instant gratification day of age and my guess is that the modern game is going to over time simply bore young fans to death with its constant change of pitchers and over analyzing every single situation and play.
To me, there is still something heroic to watch a pitcher who is tiring but determined to continue the fight. I still recall Schilling in the 1993 WS, Gm 6, when he simply refused to wilt. That was heroic and memorable, one of the lasting images of that series. Heck, even Mitch Williams, tired and spent after yeoman work all season, out there with little left but heart and desire. To me, this is still the essence of sport.
Maybe I am wrong and people will embrace this new philosophy of using 5-6 pitchers a game, with the almost constant ticket back to Triple A [ala Thompson today] after hurling a few innings and becoming unavailable for a couple of days but I still believe it cheapens the game [not to mention burdening your Triple A team with a player or two you can't use] and is an insult to the paying customer.
I read last week that baseball viewing is down something like 17% from this time last year and my guess is that the young fan finds the game too long, too strategic, and too, for lack of a better word, wimpy.
As a young boy filled with the wonderment of listening to and envisioning in my head a major league game, I still recall staying up till midnight to listen to a taunt 16 inning 0-0 game between the Braves and Giants in 1963. Hall of Famers Juan Marichal and Warren Spahn BOTH threw complete games that night and Willie Mays won the game in the bottom of the 16th with a home run.
Today, Marichal and Spahn wouldn't have made it to the 7th inning and the Giants would have been pinch hitting with guys like Stu Miller and Billy O'Dell [both lousy hitting pitchers] by the 12th inning since with only 4 bench players you can run out quickly.
Gone forever, I fear, are games with the bloody sock [Schill would have been gone] or Gibson limping around the bases, able to hit but unable to run. Heroic deeds that have become unnecessary inconveniences in the modern day of over managing and algorithms.
