The Pecan Park Eagle

WARREN SPAHN
Pitched 382 CG
In 21 Season Career

This tabular depiction of what’s happened to the complete game in baseball over the past twenty years speaks volumes for itself about a significant change in the game over these same two decades. It appears in an article from The Hardball Times by Frank Jackson on October 18, 2017, entitled “The Incompleat Starting Pitcher.”

See this link: https://www.fangraphs.com/tht/the-incompleat-starting-pitcher/#.WedYddl2rUc.email

We also have our North Texas SABR compatriot, Mr. Paul Rogers, to thank for sending this whole package our way. We can’t thank you enough, Paul. This is really good support for the new culture as a big reason why Justin Verlander‘s “CG” performance in Game 2 of the 2017 ALCS for the Houston Astros stood out even more boldly last week. It was playing way above the lower expectations we all now have of starters in ordinary regular season games in these days – and Verlander was imposing this aberration upon our baseball minds in a critical ALCS playoff game.

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We don’t have the average innings pitched for starters available to us over this same 1998-2017 period, but we would not be surprised to find 2017 starters in the 5.0 to 6.0 innings range. If a starter could become lights out proficient over 5 innings, then why not find his twin to be the second half starter in the top of the 6th? The idea doesn’t seem any crazier than the hodge-podge of other titles the game is now giving to the relievers who come in early, in the middle, or late in the game. And the two-starters game could better reenforce the idea of responsibility for outcomes among fewer pitchers entering the game. As of now, too many of the one inning pitchers just seem to go out there and leave all the accountability with the manager who put them on the mound. i.e., “If you don’t like the way I’m pitching today, take me out.”

Warren Spahn will always be my role model for pitching accountability. – Accountability apparently was the bug he picked up from seeing himself as a guy who expected to go 9 innings, or more, every time he took the mound.

Those were the days, my friend.

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ON THE ASTROS BEING DOWN TO THE YANKEES, 3 GAMES TO 2 ….

Just remember the words of a former Astro …..

“It ain’t over til it’s over!”

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Tags: The Incompleat Starting Pitcher by Frank Jackson

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