So Rare

Baseball's biggest change over the last 50 years is the greatly increased role for the bullpen and the gradual reduction in workload for starting pitchers. 

OK, this is not a shock. Still, when we find the occasional moments that underscore the change -- and how drastic it's become -- it's worth noting. 

In 1969, Tom Seaver won the NL Cy Young Award with a 25-7 record and 18 complete games out of his 35 starts. Even a losing team, such as the '69 Phillies, let their starters go as far as they could. Top winner Rick Wise won 15 games, with 14 complete games among his 31 starts. That year, the Phils went 63-99.

Fast forward to last Sunday, where Zach Eflin made headlines doing something common, and hardly noteworthy "back in the day." He threw a complete game, working all nine innings, using just 107 pitchers (an average of 12 per inning), as the Phillies beat the Marlins 5 - 1. 

That performance grabbed headlines -- because, amazingly, it was the club's first complete game in... get this... two-and-a-half years. The Phils had no nine-inning complete games at all in 2018. Or 2017. It had been 364 games, 19 months since Jeremy Hellickson worked all nine innings to earn a victory.

And can anyone honestly say, deploying pitching staffs this way is giving us better baseball?


Comments

Unknown said…
Pulling a pitcher after 6 or 7 innings is crazy. Let them pitch until they get in trouble or "Go the Distance", for the complete game win.
April 30, 2019 at 9:49 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rare Remnant of a Lost Ballpark

Image
When the subject of baseball in Brooklyn comes up, the discussion centers around Ebbets Field, the Flatbush venue most famously home to The Boys of Summer.  Those legendary 1940s and '50s teams that featured such historic and beloved players as Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella and Gil Hodges. Ebbets Field hosted its last major league game in 1957 and was torn down during the winter of 1960. But decades earlier, just before World War One, the Dodgers were based in the Park Slope area and played at Washington Park.  Once they moved out, the land was occupied by another stadium, which housed a different franchise.  The upstart Federal League, which played in the 1914 and '15 seasons, had a Brooklyn team called the TipTops.  Owned by a local baking magnate Robert Ward, whose company produced TipTop bread, the club took over the abandoned lot along 3rd Avenue and built a new brick and steel venue. The only no-hitter in the Federal League's two...
Read more

Will He Wear Zero in the Bronx?

Image
The Yankees bolstered their starting rotation with Thursday's signing of Marcus Stroman .  The Long Island native, who spent 2019 and '21 with the Mets before moving onto the Cubs, brings a 77-76 career record to the Bronx, along with a recent loyalty to uniform number (?) zero.  If he requests that, he'd become the third Yank to wear it, following the path of Adam Ottavino and Domingo German.  Of course, neither of their Yankee tenures ended all that well -- Ottavino struggled badly in 2020, before reviving his career with the Red Sox and Mets; German's alcohol and domestic violence issues sabotaged such Yankee highlights as last year's perfect game. Can a number truly be lucky? You can understand kids in little league or high school ball wanting to wear 2 in honor of Derek Jeter or 7 for Mickey Mantle.  But is there an heroic ballplayer associated with 0?  The closest I recall comes from pro football, where the Oakland Raiders Hall of Fame center Jim Otto wore...
Read more

Spring Training Flashbacks: Subway Series, Florida Style - 2016

Image
It's a return visit to the Mets' Florida home in Port St. Lucie, this time for a 2016 showdown with the Yankees. (Below), Joe Girardi and Brian Cashman chat during batting practice. Aaron Judge and Rob Refsnyder have their game faces on in the dugout... though neither would be in the starting lineup. (Above) A couple of Brooklyn natives that made their mark in New York baseball -- Lee Mazzilli and John Franco. (Below) Mets pitcher Josh Smoker makes friends by signing a few autographs. (Above) Mets reliever Jeurys Familia; (Below) 2nd baseman Neil Walker (Above) Curtis Granderson, one of the select few players to star for both the Yankees and Mets, getting ready for his third summer at Citi Field. (Below) Aaron Hicks came to the Yankees in a trade the previous November. 3rd baseman Chase Headley enjoying the Grapefruit League vibe, even against Mets ace Jacob deGrom. (Above) Mets slugger Yoenis Cespedes watches where he hit one... so does Joe Girardi from the visitor's dugou...
Read more