As pitchers continue to pile up on the injured list shelf, and seemingly a new Tommy John announcement every few days, this random thing just came out:
The league has discussed a limit to the size of pitching staffs and the double-hook DH, according to sources familiar with the discussion. There is some belief around the game, however, that one idea could be a panacea: requiring starting pitchers to go at least six innings every time they take the mound.
Source: ESPN
As starter innings have dwindled and the old-school “workhorse” has all but become extinct, the rosters have expanded by one to accommodate that extra pitcher. The issue, of course, is that any changes this drastic will take time, and that means we won’t see the teams adapting to this for at least a couple years, and then slowly we would see the new crop of pitchers move up to start eating six innings plus at a time again. Or that’s the theory, anyway.
The other issue is that because everyone knows that more velocity equals more potential outs, it isn’t like the pitchers are going to scale it back because the incentives just aren’t there yet. I have wondered out loud whether pitching salaries will take a hit as the market corrects itself to say “hey maybe we shouldn’t dump all the money for arms that are going to break,” which is admittedly kind of shitty because the pitchers initiate the action and are one of the most important parts of any baseball team, yet teams are just grinding through them like so much hamburger meat before going to the next arm that isn’t broken.
Now that this is on the table, along with computerized balls-and-strikes being considered, maybe we will get back to a type of game that we older folks grew up with, where the starter was expected to get through six or seven innings or even go complete game, where the baserunners run wild, and where it isn’t just the three true outcomes anymore. That won’t happen for a while yet, but it’s kind of funny how everything, even baseball, wants to go retro now, eh?