Trivia - Don’t Cheat

[David W]

Originally Posted by timn1

Just to push back against the apparent prevailing view here:

Koufax and Maloney are both textbook examples of great pitchers whose arms were blown out by 30, probably through overwork. Just from that same era, you can add Sam McDowell and Dean Chance. (Even Marichal had his last great season at 31 and he was done by 35.)

Yes, there are some amazingly durable guys in every era but they are freaks of nature (in a good way) like WaJo and Ryan and the Big Unit.

As valuable as great pitching is to clubs and as much money is involved for the players, having conservative pitch counts makes all the sense in the world. It's not going to prevent all the injuries, because pitching is an unnatural motion that creates tremendous stress on vulnerable parts of the body. But if it can keep a Strasburg or Syndergaard playing years longer, you have to figure it's a good move for the player and his team.

And I'm all in favor of limiting mound visits and even pitching changes to speed up games. I don't think that pitching seasons of 65 games/ 50 IP are healthy for arms any more than 40 GS/300 IP.

But having your best pitcher make 170 pitches in a regular season game is just nuts.

You are exactly right.

For every Gaylord Perry or Sutton who pitched forever there are a bunch of guys like Mel Stottlemyre, Catfish Hunter, Larry Dierker, Jim Colborn, Steve Busby, Mark Fidrych, Don Drysdale, Marichal, Koufax, who all had little to no careers after age 30 or never came close to 30.