Ever since I started following baseball almost 65 years ago, I have been led to believe that you need to have great starting pitching to win it all. Is it true or is this been a falsity all along? I have been fortunate to watch some great starting pitching over the years and I still wish I could have seen the great Walter Johnson pitch in person but those kinds of starters are disappearing. Ace starters are getting paid big bucks but at the same time they are quickly becoming as extinct as dinosaurs.
Here is my problem. Baseball pitching today is about throwing less than 100 pitches, don’t face the line-up a third time around, openers, and bullpen games and God knows what else they will dream up. You pay the starters huge dollars and then you don’t let them pitch. Aren’t starter’s supposed to be your best pitchers? Starters have been throwing over 100 pitches and going through the opposing lineup multiple times in games since baseball started and now all of a sudden that is not a good idea?
I don’t think you have to be a math genius or a computer guru to realize that the longer the starter goes the more tired he gets and probably gives up a few more hits. But isn’t that for a manager to decide when to take him out? But that assumes of course that you have a manager that understands baseball and doesn’t depend on a computer generated cheat sheet to tell him what to do. If starters are going to pitch less and less what is the point of paying them all that money? If I am a big league reliever in todays game I would be saying “show me the money baby” cause I am just as valuable if not more that that starter. I am not even going to go into todays pitching philosophy that seems to be to use them up, burn them out and dump them because we have another guy to take his place.
Who comes up with this crap? Besides following my favorite team (the Minnesota Twins) I like to watch good pitching match ups now and then but that is pretty much gone from the game today. Baseball is going the crapper and it is being caused by the baseball front offices who are turning major league baseball into a computer game. The team with the best software engineers wins. When will they award the first MVP to a software guru instead of a player on the field?
These front office executives come with fancy college resumes and zippo baseball experience and the silly owners have turned the game over to them. Owners aren’t the brightest bulbs on the tree but they are not totally stupid, don’t kid yourself, they don’t care about the game of baseball, all they care about is putting fans in the seats so they can sell beer, hotdogs, and souvenirs and make money. Don’t ever forget that. Rob Manfred, the baseball commissioner is supposed to protect the game of baseball but apparently owners didn’t make that a job requirement and instead the commissioner is just there to protect the interests of the owners.
Real baseball should be played on a real field and not on a computer
Baseball is a game that should be played on the field by humans, if you want to play the game on a computer than go ahead and do it but quit trying to change MLB into a computer game. Computer baseball and baseball board games are fun but they are not like watching real baseball.
Play a season of baseball games on a computer and compare it to how a real baseball season turns out and you will see the standings will not be the same. Why? Because real baseball is played by real humans who get hurt, are hungover, their mind is somewhere else, they make errors, they are watching some babe in the stands and a million other reasons. The third base coach may hold a runner or send a runner that may change the complexion of a game. All these and many other human elements determine the out come of a major league baseball game and that is the way it should be.
I can’t wait for the first owner to stand up and tell his FO that he has seen enough computer baseball and it is time to get back to basics and and hire an experienced baseball manager along with a bunch of scouts that know and understand the game of baseball. Steve Cohen just hired Buck Showalter to be the New York Mets manager today, I am glad to see a baseball man be named a teams manager again. I am going to keep an eye on the Mets this season.
Wayne Hattaway a good friend who spend his entire life in baseball said that “you are not watching real baseball today, that game is dead.” We spent a lot of hours discussing that before he passed away and as I think back about how much the game has changed over the years I am starting to come around to his way of thinking. Now as the baseball lockout continues I can hardly wait to see what kind of changes that baseball will make.
For me technology and Sabre metrics combined with a baseball mind would be ideal. Imagine if Earl Weaver, Sparky Anderson, Dick Williams or Billy Martin had technology available to them. All baseball has to do now is increase the pace of play. If they don’t do it whether or not technology is used won’t save baseball unless the next generation of fans is more like baby boomers than millennials. Not enough people want to sit around for hours watching slow action with a few bursts of quick action. It may remain true to its history, but will eventually die without the pace of play changes. Even cricket in US is doing it for the people growing up now. I love baseball, but the future without changes saddens me.