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Monday, April 25, 2011
One hundred thirty
From 2001-2010, 109 pitchers threw more than 130 pitches.
16 Livan
6 RJ
5 Prior
4 Colon, Schilling, Schmidt
From 1991-2000, 1063 pitchers did so. Do you think maybe the problem is not that Halladay threw 130, but that people have been conditioned to believe that 130 is excessive?
***
Here’s the breakdown by season:
1988 211
1989 174
1990 152
1991 128
1992 151
1993 139 (expansion)
1994 112 (strike)
1995 108 (shorter season)
1996 92
1997 65
1998 112 (expansion)
1999 91
2000 65
2001 22 <-- hell freezes over
2002 20
2003 24
2004 14
2005 12
2006 6
2008 3
2009 5
2010 3
***
In 1988 alone:
13 Roger Clemens ("I’ll have what he’s having")
11 Charlie Hough
9 Mark Gubicza
8 Bobby Witt (exception that proves the rule)
7 Dave Stewart
7 Mark Langston
6 Greg Maddux (yeah, not a tough guy?)
6 Tom Candiotti
5 Bob Welch (A Cy Young in his future)
4 Doyle Alexander
4 Fernando Valenzuela
4 Jack Morris
4 Jeff Sellers
4 Kevin Gross (one-time Expo, a perfectly average starter in 368 starts)
4 Rick Rhoden
4 Rick Sutcliffe
4 Tim Leary
***
In 1954, of the games involving the Brooklyn Dodgers only, there were 44 games (16 for Dodgers, 28 for opponents) of at least 131 pitches! But the AVERAGE number of pitches per start for the Dodgers pitchers was only 93! And their opponents averaged 96 pitches.
It’s the spread in number of pitches thrown in each game that has changed. Pitchers are still throwing the same number of pitches per start. ON AVERAGE. It’s the range per game that’s different.
And, given how the pitchers of Nolan Ryan’s time has thrown the most pitches in MLB history, it’s hard to believe that they were somehow at risk. And given how pitchers of Clemens/Maddux time were still heavily used (and had longer careers in terms of years played), it’s hard to believe they were somehow at risk as well.
Yet in the past decade, someone sees “130”, and it makes “Mark Prior” and “Dusty Baker” the rule, not the exception. Even Pedro throwing more than 105 pitches somehow became a major story.
Managers simply fear the scrutiny that comes with an approach that allows a pitcher to throw more than 130 pitches, even though they can maintain an overall average of 100 pitches. Take the media and fans out of the equation, and managers are more free to do their job as they see fit.
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