Is There Such A Thing As A Complete Baseball Game Anymore Articles | Gambling

By: Richard Bleuze

Is There Such A Thing As A Complete Baseball Game Anymore

One of the hottest topics surrounding MLB baseball is the plight of pitchers and their inability to complete baseball games.  In today's baseball age where the complete game is virtually non-existent and there is very little drive on the part of starters to even want to have complete games.

In the past few years what has become a treasured commodity in the game are the middle relievers.  Good ones are worth their weight in gold, and gold is what they are paid since they are paid millions.  Their value is directly proportional to starters not going deep into games and coming out in the 5th or 6th innings.

The progression of pitching in the majors has been a steady line, and it heads downward when it comes to innings pitched by starters.  Prior to the 1970s there was still the desire to finish what you began as a pitcher.  Teams then moved to the closer who came on to get the last three to six outs.  Now we have the hold stat that goes to a reliever who comes in to protect a lead, but is not expected to finish.  So ingrained is the formula of the starter-set up-closer management plan that it would take an entire restructuring of the thought process to return to the starter who finishes concept.

When the money for all players exploded, every player became extremely concerned about prolonging a career and not getting injured.  For pitchers, that meant reducing the number of pitches thrown.  Teams went along with this and that has led to the necessity of a strong pen if you expect to win.  That led to pitchers who work to become pen members and not starters.  That is their job and players might not look kindly on one of their own losing a job via starters taking innings from the pen.

Is there an organization out there that will take the chance of insisting starters train to go at least into the 7th and 8th innings and think in terms of finishing a game?  The rumblings around the game are that pitchers are not in shape to extend their starts and teams are reluctant to push their pitchers.  Many baseball fans feel pitchers do not throw enough any more.  What we are talking about here is long tossing and extended sideline workouts on off days.

Agents do not want to hear none of this.  Many agents view such action as increasing the chance of injury, thus cutting service time and money to be made.  Many still believe there are only so many bullets in an arm and they are to be judiciously used.  Many starters throw the balls faster than in the past.  Thus, some say the length of a pitcher's career can be extended by running and throwing.

Then there is the matter of enhanced drugs.  Most around the game concur that it was not just hitters who were on performance enhancing drugs, legal or otherwise.  An organization that wanted to institute a more strenuous program for pitchers would have to adopt the program system-wide, fight the agents and players opposed to it, and stick to it long enough to see results.  That might mean some prospects would avoid such organizations, concerned about shortening their careers.

Another real baseball problem in extending innings for a pitcher to complete a baseball game directly relates to getting hitters out.  Hitters have long said that if they can see enough of what any given pitcher has that day, they will hit it.  That is part of the theory behind taking pitchers deep into counts.  Extending an outing by a pitcher means the lineup is turned over more often against a starter and the hitters should gain the advantage.

While the idea of the complete baseball game still sounds great to many baseball fans, the odds of altering conditioning programs towards that direction are unlikely in the MLB baseball game.
What is likely is a rethinking of conditioning programs that include running and throwing and to cut down on injuries to pitchers.

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