OT: Why do we limit Major league pitchers innings and pitches?
Interesting article in the WSJ on pitch limiting, using the top Dodgers prospect as an example. As any baseball fan knows, teams are now strictly limiting pitch counts and innings pitched, in the effort to avoid arm injuries, especially Tommy John surgery. As fans of baseball history know, it was only in the last 25 years or so that we adopted five man rotations, before that pitchers started every fourth day, and pitch counts were very rare. We are now much more concerned with the health of pitchers, so we limit them to 100 pitches or so, and monitor innings pitched very closely.
There is only one problem with this: there is literally zero evidence that any of that works. There are MORE Tommy John surgeries now than there were 20 years ago before we started taking better care of pitchers arms, and pitching injuries are also above where they were before teams started doing this. Baseball is adanced stats crazy (and I agree with this) but for some reason teams when taking care of pitchers rely on pure superstition with no facts underneath them.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-julio-urias-dilemma-baseball-babies-its…
I think it would be smarter if managers used closers situationally, instead of making them ninth-inning-only pitchers.
My daughter is a softball catcher, 13 years old, and now has little league shoulder from throwing. Little league shoulder is when there's a stress fracture in the growth plate (at least that's how I understand it and what the x-ray showed). She's been out three months and is just starting to feel better. But now I'm worrying about the future. She'd like to play through high school, and the repetitiveness of throwing back to the pitcher and trying to get runners out on base is tough on catchers, too. They may not throw as hard as pitchers, but the repitition is there. She's never been taught the "correct" way to throw, just learned from watching my husband and son, and played with them. i wonder if that has had an effect on her shoulder.
Pitchers threw injured more often in the past. They also had less mileage put on their arms as kids. And no one was throwing 90 mph sliders like Jake Arrieta does. There's a host of health related reasons why pitch counts are a thing.
Just as important, though, is that it's been statistically proven that, within a single game, hitters improve the more often they see a pitcher. So game to game, there are strategic reasons for limiting pitch counts. This is just as important in understanding the rise of the seven- or eight-man bullpen.
One theory is they're coming into pro baseball more prone to injury, due to increased sport specialization at younger ages. More curveballs, sliders, less time off to do something else.
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Guaranteed contracts. I think diet is a big deal. I would like to know how much of these sugar drinks. So called sports drinks. Also the long shelf life preservatives, inflammatory food's their eating. Pitcher's should take care to watch there sugar intake.
Guaranteed contracts. I think diet is a big deal. I would like to know how much of these sugar drinks. So called sports drinks. Also the long shelf life preservatives, inflammatory food's their eating. Pitcher's should take care to watch there sugar intake.
I really miss Mickey Lolich.
More pitchers are throwing harder than ever than in the past and more are optioning for TJ surgery because of the stress they put on the arm from throwing 95+ fastballs. Plus TJ didn't exist until 1974 and it wasn't well known during that time.