I’m re-thinking the whole pitch-count thing.
For the longest time I sided with the argument that major league baseball had become too reliant on pitch counts to determine when a starting pitcher should come out of a game. Having watched numerous pitchers start looking toward the bullpen when their pitch count hit 90, it seemed the game had devolved at the position.
Admittedly, I tended to use the pitchers I watched throw in my youth as points of comparison. Between 1975-78, Jim Palmer averaged 22 complete games a year, and more than 300 innings pitched. Orioles’ manager Earl Weaver wasn’t a big fan of counting pitches; the ballclub did it as a matter of routine, but Weaver let performance dictate a pitching change, not some arbitrary number. A Hall of Famer, Palmer by no means was typical for his day, but on the other hand, you never heard a play-by-play man mention a pitch count, nor did you see it displayed on the scoreboard.
Go back even further to a name with local flavor — Camilo Pascual. The great Cuban curveballer averaged 15 complete games per season for the six year span between 1959 and 1964. Actual pitch counts from those days are unavailable, but Pascual was in a 4-man rotation, so had even less rest between appearances, and made the occasional relief appearance as well.
These days every starting pitcher in the major leagues has worked in a 5-man rotation (and occasionally six) since they signed a professional contract. They’ve been on a pretty strict pitch count every stop along the way. Their throwing programs on days off are strictly monitored by the big league club. And, until they reach the high minors, they rarely, if ever, get their pitch count to 100.
There’s another number, however, that isn’t tallied on the scoreboard, but needs to be mentioned: the number of warm-up pitches the starter throws in the bullpen prior to the game, and between innings. Checking with a handful of current and former big league starting pitchers, it seems that 50 is the median figure for bullpen tosses before a start. The routine is pretty similar. The first 10-15 throws are to loosen up, and thereafter, cut loose. Between innings the pitcher gets 8 warm-up tosses, but the intensity of those throws is largely dependent upon how long the pitcher has had to sit in the dugout between frames.
So, should those additional throws count toward a pitcher’s day of work? Most baseball executives think they should, and if the fans — and reporters — would give that some thought, perhaps they’d be less critical. Former Mets’ and Orioles’ executive Jim Duquette says the economics of the game dictate the process. “When Seattle signed Carlos Silva — a number four starter — for $48 million [for 4 years], it only reinforced the notion that there are only so many pitches in every arm,” he said. “When you’ve sunk that much money in a .500 pitcher, you protect that investment any way you can.”
I’m not promising a total about-face, but I’ll certainly consider the other side of the pitch count argument. After all, it’s not likely that that aspect of the game will change anyway.
Phil Wood is a contributor to Nats Xtra on MASN. Contact him at [email protected].
