Chopp143's Blog

I am not sure when, although I believe Tony LaRussa and Bill James had a big part in it, major league starting pitchers became so fragile that they could no longer pitch in 4 man rotations, needed strict pitch counts with setup men and closers to finish games for them.  If todays major leaguers are better trained athletes with the most modern facilities, equipment and medical staffs available to them then why can't the pitch more often and longer??  I looked back at two of the Red Sox most beloved starters and found the following  1967 Jim Longborg started 39 games completed 16 and won 22 while pitching in a 4 man rotation and totalled 283 innings pithced.  Even more astounding was his back to back performances in the World Series when in games 2 & 5 he threw two complete games winning both while allowing only 4 hits and 1 earned run in 18 innings.  Jumping forward to 1974, 75 & 76 we had Luis Tiant who started 38, 35 & 38 games completing 25, 18 & 19 winning 22, 18 & 21 and pitching 311, 260 & 279 innings.  In the 1975 World Series he pitched complete games in games 1 and 4.  In game four he threw over 150 pitches to help the Sox even the series.  These types of performances were expected from a teams top line pitcher and now suddenly better trained athletes are overworked if they throw more than 100 pitches or reach 200 innings in a season.  STOP BABBYING these guys....let them throw, run and throw some more.  If you train an athlete to only throw 6 innings or 100 pitches that is all you will get out them. Throw away the computer printouts and all the other BS charts and graphs and lets get back to baseball!!!!!