Whether you're a casual observer or a die-hard baseball addict like me, surely you've noticed that pitchers today seldom play for an entire 9-inning game. Gone are the days of Bob Feller throwing 36 complete games in one season (he did that in 1946); Juan Marichal pitching 30 complete games in 1968; and Warren Spahn completing 26 games in 1951 (www.baseball-almanac.com). Since the year 2000, James Shields of the Tampa Bay Rays has been the only pitcher who has thrown more than 10 complete games (he pitched 11 of them in 2011) in one season. Why is that?
I pondered this question after last night's Nationals/Mets game, where Nats' starter Gio Gonzalez pitched seven innings of two-hit ball and was replaced for the eighth inning after throwing only 87 pitchers. Granted, Gio was supposed to bat third in the bottom of the seventh, but why not let him bat with a 5-1 lead and let him continue pitching? Nationals' manager, Davey Johnson, did not really have a good reason for taking Gio out of the game, especially since he's always saying how he wants to rest his bullpen (plus Davey is so old that he can put anyone to sleep during press conferences with his droning "my voice sounds like this because I no longer have a prostate" tone). The day before that, Johnson pulled starter Jordan Zimmermann after only six innings, despite Zim's six strikeouts and four hits allowed. Time for me to ponder...
One of the reasons that the complete-game pitcher is becoming extinct (Justin Verlander of the Tigers is the exception this year, with 5 complete games so far) is the fact that managers are getting hung up on pitch counts and assuming that high pitch counts lead to injuries. As soon as a pitcher reaches around 100 pitches in a game, regardless of whether he's winning or not, the bullpen becomes active and the starter is soon removed (especially if a batter gets a hit because of a defensive error that is not the fault of the pitcher - I hate when they do that!). Well let me tell you, a guy named Nolan Ryan (perhaps you've heard of him) pitched 807 games in his 24-year career, and 222 of them were complete games. Ryan seldom missed a start due to injury, he never had Tommy John surgery, his shoulder never acted up (though his back did, according to his Advil commercials), and his fastball was sharp until his retirement. Pitching injuries are due more to mechanics than pitch count; overuse injuries are a reality, but these can be minimized with proper conditioning and technique, not by pulling pitchers after they've thrown only 100 pitches (especially if they're pitching well; I agree when a pitcher is pulled early due to a bad outing).
Then there's the role of the bullpen specialists, the middle reliever and the closer. One theory in baseball is that pitchers lose their effectiveness the second and third times through the lineup. This is when they turn to the bullpen and put in a reliever for the eighth inning and a closer for the ninth (especially during a save situation). Sometimes they even put in a guy to pitch to only one batter - the lefty-lefty matchup, for instance, and you can have two or three pitchers throw to two or three batters in one inning. This brings a baseball game to a grinding halt, and it makes me very impatient.
Some people argue that pitchers are not allowed to pitch complete games because the season is longer than it used to be. Yes, but starting rotations used to only have 4 pitchers and now they have 5, so I think they're getting adequate rest. And don't tell me that Liván Hernandez used to pitch so many complete games in the 90s because his fastball was only about 80mph - Verlander's fastball is in the upper 90s and Roy Halladay (who completed many games for the Blue Jays and Phillies) has a 95mph fastball (OK, Halladay stinks this year, but he has had a great career full of complete games).
I have no sympathy for pitchers. They make a ton of money, and they should be able to pitch a complete game in 120 pitches or so. When I become Commissioner, I'm going to pay pitchers for each inning pitched, and if they go less than six innings in one game, I'm going to fine them. They will also have money deducted from their pay for earned runs and intentional walks, but be given bonuses for strikeouts (sorry for you, ground-out pitchers!) as well as for complete games. What do you think? Is that a good idea? Perhaps I should stick to blogging! :-)
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