Baseball Is Dying

[Hankphenom]

I'm still waiting for someone to prove to me that the old system, whereby pitchers were expected to finish their games unless they were really getting knocked around, produced worse results than bringing in relievers after low pitch counts compared to the old days. I don't understand how anybody can look at the records of hundreds of old-time pitchers, and not just the special ones, and not at least question the modern strategy. Were the old-timers actually worn out in the later innings and costing their teams games before the light bulb went off in some manager's head with the idea of replacing them before that happened, or did good pitchers more frequently get into grooves whereby they were throwing just as well in the eighth, ninth, and sometimes eleventh, twelfth, or even fifteenth or sixteenth innings! I Want to see SABR-type analysis of the comparison between yesteryear and today. Which was actually more effective?

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

I'm still waiting for someone to prove to me that the old system, whereby pitchers were expected to finish their games unless they were really getting knocked around, produced worse results than bringing in relievers after low pitch counts compared to the old days. I don't understand how anybody can look at the records of hundreds of old-time pitchers, and not just the special ones, and not at least question the modern strategy. Were the old-timers actually worn out in the later innings and costing their teams games before the light bulb went off in some manager's head with the idea of replacing them before that happened, or did good pitchers more frequently get into grooves whereby they were throwing just as well in the eighth, ninth, and sometimes eleventh, twelfth, or even fifteenth or sixteenth innings! I Want to see SABR-type analysis of the comparison between yesteryear and today. Which was actually more effective?

There's been untold numbers of studies done on the effectiveness of starting pitchers in the early, the middle, and the late innings, and outside of a few anecdotal outliers it's pretty cut and dry.

As far as the "Old-Timers", it was a completely different game, with different ballparks, equipment, circumstances, and strategies.

You may not like present day strategy, but they wouldn't do it if it didn't work.

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

There's been untold numbers of studies done on the effectiveness of starting pitchers in the early, the middle, and the late innings, and outside of a few anecdotal outliers it's pretty cut and dry. As far as the "Old-Timers", it was a completely different game, with different ballparks, equipment, circumstances, and strategies. You may not like present day strategy, but they wouldn't do it if it didn't work.

Here's the question I would like answered, and it shouldn't take much to come with the answer, but I didn't when I googled it: Since the advent of the short starters and multiple relief pitchers, are fewer runs being scored in the later innings?