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I've mentioned this elsewhere in the past several years, but as long as I'm thinking about it while in the Mets forum, I'll mention it again here.
I'm so tired of the way 21st Century pitching is managed. For 100 years, the pitcher stayed in the game until he was ostentatiously tired and needed to be relieved. For the past ten or twenty years (beginning with Tony LaRussa), pitch counts have dictated when a pitcher comes out, come hell or high water. A relieved pitcher now has virtually nothing to do with how well he's pitching!
For just one of many instances, Dickey was throwing a shutout Friday night. He went through 7 innings and was arbitrarily pinch-hit for because he'd thrown 101 pitches. The guy was throwing a nine-hit seven-K shutout! ...and he's a knuckleballer!!
When I was a kid, I vividly recall games when a pitcher was having trouble in the fifth or sixth, a reliever (like Tug McGraw, e.g.) came in to finish the remaining three or four innings. Or when a pitcher was on his game, a complete effort was not unheard of. I miss the complete game, as I'm sure we all do. That formula worked for a century.
Now, I don't mind if statisticians wish to keep track of how many pitches a pitcher throws from game to game and throughout his career, but I am just so sick to death of this arbitrary relieving of a pitcher who's still entirely on his game, just to take a chance on a reliever who may or may not have his stuff that particular day. It happened today with Pelfrey, who was quite settled in by the time of his 100th pitch.
Am I think only one who's fed up with this no-longer-new "tradition"?
P.S. And if this tradition is to continue, what keeps the NL from adopting the DH? Without much of a pinch-hitting strategy remaining -- not to mention the every-day Interleague Play that begins next season -- why doesn't the Senior League finally catch up with the rest of the baseball world? This isn't meant to bitch at me about hating the DH. Just think about what I've written and think about it.
I'm so tired of the way 21st Century pitching is managed. For 100 years, the pitcher stayed in the game until he was ostentatiously tired and needed to be relieved. For the past ten or twenty years (beginning with Tony LaRussa), pitch counts have dictated when a pitcher comes out, come hell or high water. A relieved pitcher now has virtually nothing to do with how well he's pitching!
For just one of many instances, Dickey was throwing a shutout Friday night. He went through 7 innings and was arbitrarily pinch-hit for because he'd thrown 101 pitches. The guy was throwing a nine-hit seven-K shutout! ...and he's a knuckleballer!!
When I was a kid, I vividly recall games when a pitcher was having trouble in the fifth or sixth, a reliever (like Tug McGraw, e.g.) came in to finish the remaining three or four innings. Or when a pitcher was on his game, a complete effort was not unheard of. I miss the complete game, as I'm sure we all do. That formula worked for a century.
Now, I don't mind if statisticians wish to keep track of how many pitches a pitcher throws from game to game and throughout his career, but I am just so sick to death of this arbitrary relieving of a pitcher who's still entirely on his game, just to take a chance on a reliever who may or may not have his stuff that particular day. It happened today with Pelfrey, who was quite settled in by the time of his 100th pitch.
Am I think only one who's fed up with this no-longer-new "tradition"?
P.S. And if this tradition is to continue, what keeps the NL from adopting the DH? Without much of a pinch-hitting strategy remaining -- not to mention the every-day Interleague Play that begins next season -- why doesn't the Senior League finally catch up with the rest of the baseball world? This isn't meant to bitch at me about hating the DH. Just think about what I've written and think about it.
and the fear factor
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