it is the era of specialization. Combine that with falling attention spans and analytics and this is the result.
That being said, so many pitchers throw 95+ these days (until their arm falls off) that I can hardly blame coaches for following the trend. Like defensive shifts ,the numbers show that specialized pen use leads to more wins.
IMO, the difference is that expansion, 5 man rotations,the price of pitching, but most of all, injury, have shrunk the quality of the starting pitching pool. 30% of all MLB pitchers have had TJ surgery (and growing) so teams are wary of overuse (which,IMO leads to less durable arms)
This goes back to high school and younger. Young arms pitch year round, putting too many miles on themselves, throwing max effort 100% of the time...etc the result is 24 year old MLB arms that have more miles than Nolan Ryan had at 30+
__________________
"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away."- Tom Waits
|