Pitchers in-demand - how to (kinda) solve the injury problem

Picture this: you're a starting pitcher, you're facing a batter for the third time today, and it's the 6th inning. You throw a great pitch, inside on the hands. Batter fights off the pitch in the air in foul territory. Catcher runs back, thinks he has room, ball goes into the first row. Next pitch, outside off the plate, batter has enough plate coverage and dumps a flair to the outfield for a base hit. Manager comes out, pulls you out of the game and your night is done.

Seems simple, right? It is, until you look closer.

Some are calling the injuries to pitchers a "crisis", others call for "action", yet we are arguing over pitch clock and high velocity. These only scratch the surface as Tommy John surgery and other procedures continue to knock out some of the best pitchers in the world.

This has been a gradual process. Let's start with the narratives brought to mainstream media and work from there.

*PITCH CLOCK

-The pitch clock, introduced to MLB in 2023 after experimentation at the lower baseball levels, did bring a significant reduction in overall time of games - meaning 9-inning games were completed much faster. However, why was game play lengthened in the first place? Added TV and radio commercials? More pitching changes?

Let's go deeper; the pitchers used to get the standard 8 warm up pitches when they enter the game, then 5-6 pitchers thereafter. Now they have a time limit between innings to get their warm-up in. Theoretically, couldn't we ask if pitchers are receiving adequate warm up, or are they being rushed?

Furthermore, the umpires - who've been asked to over-police the game of baseball when handing out warnings to pitchers who hit batters (who crowd the plate - that point is coming), should be enforcing hitters to step in the batter's box and hit. Have one foot in the box when taking signs and get ready to hit. Step out only after a foul ball or when the pitcher steps off the pitching rubber. If a pitcher is ready and the hitter is not, start the at bat. That's a little extreme, right? Well, the umpires could speed up the game without a pitch clock if they enforced the hitter to step in and hit. Funny thing, hitters still ask for time while on a pitch clock and umpires still grant it. Too many times pitchers start their delivery and suddenly stop themselves. If you want an injury, that's one way to see a pitcher get hurt on the mound.

*VELOCITY

-A former MLB scout once said during a coaches clinic I attended during my youth coaching days that his major league team did not bother with pitchers under 6-foot tall. They felt they could develop them, and you can't teach height. Sports can be copycat, which means this particular team wasn't alone in their philosophy.

Another scout talked about the Hall of Fame pitcher Jim "Catfish" Hunter, a man who won 5 World Series championships during his career. This scout said that if Hunter were a senior in high school (let's date this early 2000's), he would not have been taken serious because his fastball velocity didn't come close to breaking 90 mph. Hunter, a Cy Young award winner who finished Top 4 in voting four times and won over 200 games by age 31, wouldn't have been drafted?

Makes you wonder how many pitchers were passed over because they were 5 foot 10, or threw 89 mph in collegiate baseball but could get hitters out. I am not advocating scouts start looking at guys with lower velocity because of potential durability concerns. However, MLB is still a results-driven league.

The game has changed so much over the last 30 years that I can understand the rationale of seeking high velocity pitchers. But, here are things people are overlooking:

*The Kerry Wood effect

The 1998 rookie phenom took the baseball world by storm striking out 20 Houston Astros at Wrigley Field. His fastball was explosive and his breaking pitches were ungodly. Thereafter, he started dealing with elbow pain and after missing some weeks of baseball, he returned for one last start in the 1998 NLDS, then went down for Tommy John surgery. That forced Wood to miss the entire 1999 season and sparked the media narrative that the Chicago Cubs did not take care of their pitching asset, and claimed he was overused.

Since then, we've watched teams monitor and sometimes coddle starting pitchers to the point where their pitch count is monitored and their innings per year limited. How has that worked? Well, it hasn't. However, doing this is good PR for executives of all Major League Baseball teams because the media would roast them if they didn't and they would lose their jobs. The Washington Nationals went as far as shutting down their ace, Stephen Strasburg, in 2012. That team was a World Series contender and lost to the St Louis Cardinals in 5 games in the NLDS. They sabotaged their fans and their team's chances at winning the World Series to protect their #1 overall, generational talent. Strasburg would go on to have a few minor stints on the IL the next few years, helped the Nationals win the 2019 World Series, and then managed to pitch 8 games the next three years before calling it quits just a couple weeks ago.

Here is the other problem nobody wants to admit: pitchers in high school can go 7 innings at under 100 pitches dominating high school hitters. When they go Pro or head to College and are asked to throw 4 or 5 innings with a 75 pitch limit, guess what they are going to do? Let it fly.

"Mike Smith strikes out 9 over 5 innings, walked 2 and hit 99 mph on the gun". MLB teams no longer train young pitchers to work 7+ innings anymore. We've traded endurance for velocity. We've started throwing rather than pitching. You can put a cap on a pitcher but they'd rather make MLB league minimum of over $700K per year than ride buses at far less. The quickest way to the show is dominance, and minor league hitters can't expose flamethrowers who need to master their craft of pitching. Every MLB team has had a pitcher or two show us this in recent years.

But, if we start loading the innings on pitchers in the minor leagues the media will be all over the MLB executives for allowing this to happen. MLB teams "doing the right thing for the pitchers" could be a bad PR move for themselves and their career in baseball.

*SMALLER PARKS/TERRITORY

-Arguably the ballparks have gotten smaller. Balls that could be flyouts turn into homeruns. Homeruns mean scoring and one less out. The longer it takes to record an out, the longer the game will be. That's another way to help speed the game.

In a previous article I wrote a few years back, I stated the bigger ballparks would bring more exciting plays to the game. Camden Yards in Baltimore did something bold a couple years ago by pushing part of the leftfield wall back. The game at that park is better for it. Gone are the days where a right handed hitter doesn't get all of a pitch and sees the ball travel into the seats. The games are more exciting and entertaining in Baltimore as a result of this move. I believe stretch triples, relay throws and action plays make for a better baseball game. Pushing the outfield fences back would do that. Plus, it would require better outfield play.

One area that continues to shrink is foul territory. The example in paragraph one is hurting many pitchers. You make a good pitch and you're punished by the foul dimensions. MLB wanted the fan experience to be "closer to the action". This resulted in netting all around the infield because of a horrific incident in Houston where a 2-year old girl was hit by a line drive. Albert Almora Jr, the hitter, broke down in tears. Obviously he never intended on hurting anyone!

I remember the 1992 World Series as a Blue Jays fan, watching the Jays burst out of the dugout in Atlanta's old Fulton County Stadium. Felt like it took them two minutes to reach the field for the celebration. I also remember Kirk Gibson going second to home on a wild pitch in Los Angeles, which is something nobody can do anymore. Why? Because foul territory is smaller. For the last 30 years we've built new, state-of-the-art ballparks with smaller foul territories to allow people to sit closer to the action that has put said people in harms way, leading to the decision to add extra netting around the park. Who's harmed by the smaller foul territory? Pitchers. Because a well-executed pitch that would have stayed inside the park, say, 35 years ago, is now a fan souvenir and the hitter gets another opportunity to get a hit (and waste more pitches for the pitcher).

*HEAVILY-PROTECTED HITTERS

-Yesterday, Brendan Rodgers of the Colorado Rockies hit a ball that was at least 6 inches outside to right field for a line drive base hit against the Toronto Blue Jays. His plate coverage was outstanding. Why? Well, he's standing close to the plate. Why would a hitter do that if pitchers throw harder than ever before? Because hitters wear arm protectors, giving them peace of mind and added confidence in the batter's box. Since 1994, hitters being hit by pitches has risen significantly - partially because hitters are allowed to crowd the plate thanks to the body armour they wear to the plate and umpire over-policing of pitchers.

Make no mistake, major league baseball will never ban the arm protection hitters wear. They should, but they won't. One, because there is too much money between the manufacturers and MLB to turn down. Two, MLBPA will claim this is a safety issue. Who is hurt by this? Pitchers.

Throw inside, hitters turn on the ball. Throw outside, hitters make contact. Miss inside, batter is hit and the umpire might hand out warnings.

Popped up two pics of Hall of Famer Craig Biggio. Picture one is from his rookie season. You'll see his stance is even to slightly closed standing close enough to cover the plate. In picture two, open stance where he steps toward home plate before contact and slightly closer to the plate. The difference is, Biggio is wearing an elbow pad.

Coincidentally, his hit by pitch rate soared dramatically in 1995. He lead the lead in hit by pitches 5 times in his career and is the modern day leader in most hit by pitches with 285 (Hughie Jennings had 287 during his career from 1891-1918). When Biggio took his elbow pad off in his last year or two in the majors, his hit by pitch count dropped considerably. He was not wearing one for his 3000th hit.

IF (and I am 99.99% sure this will never happen) arm protection of any kind were to be banned by MLB, hitters will back off the plate. I believe after a short period of time pitchers who live at 95-96 mph will live at 93-94 mph. I believe this ban will allow pitchers to go an out or two deeper in games, which could translate into 20-game winners consistently once again. This will help shorten (speed up) the game, force hitters to change their approach and prolong the health of pitchers moving forward.

Also note, the arm protection allows some hitters to "stay in" on a curve or slider that starts at their hip more often than not. Without the padding, they flinch and jump out of the way. A major advantage to hitters who can stay in the batter's box with little fear of being hit.

Since this idea will never come to fruition....

*MOUND HEIGHT

Before 1968, the mound height was 15 inches. MLB dropped it down to 10 inches because of the dominance from pitchers such as Denny McLain (the last 30 game winner) and Bob Gibson. If MLB is not willing to take away the advantages hitters have in today's game, give pitchers a better trajectory to pitch from. Perhaps a downward plane will give pitchers the incentive not to rely on running their fastball up to 100 mph on-occasion? Maybe, maybe not.

We are at a point in the game where pitchers are checked between innings to see if they are using a sticky substance of any kind to help them control the baseball on their fingertips. It gives them a better ability to hold the necessary grip on-release of their offspeed pitches, and better control of their fastball. That is a no-no. Hitters can use batting gloves, pine tar, sticky spray, hand pads, wrist pads, forearm pads, elbow pads, tricep pads....have I listed them all yet?

It is no wonder pitchers feel they need to finish hitters with explosive heat. With that, along with the constant "protecting" of pitchers by not having them pitch all that much, it's no wonder we have a major problem with injuries on the mound. This goes far beyond pitch clock and velocity.

#MLB #Baseball #Pitchers #TommyJohnSurgery