Warren Spahn (1942-1965)
Hall of Fame Pitcher
665 MLB Starts
382 Complete Games
Some mysteries are simply too easy to solve. Take The Case of the Disappearing CG Stat.
In this era of 100 pitch count limits on starters – and an emphasis upon the need for pitchers to work the corners of the plate and run up pitch counts – who in the world is going to be around deep enough to even have a shot at a complete game?
To stay within the 100 pitch limitation for 9 full innings, a pitcher has to average no more than 11.1 pitches per inning to get there. And that breaks down further to no more than 3.0 pitches per out and 2.1 pitches per inning for hits and all other outcomes. Not much squeeze room for error in any variant form it takes from the possibilities described here.
Complete games? Forget about them. They are the dinosaurs of baseball in 2017. Unless the gene bank of rubber-arm guys like Warren Spahn start showing up strong enough to overwhelm the wisdom of baseball’s current pitching wizards, we are stuck with short term starters and a long spread of specialized relievers that inevitably follow.
Maybe we should change the title of starters to better describe what the first pitcher in every MLB game has become. He is the “opener” of a baseball activity that ultimately ends up in the hands of a “closer”.
Mystery solved.
Symmetry of role description improved.
Enjoyment of the game? Diminished.
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Bill McCurdy
Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher
The Pecan Park Eagle
Houston, Baseball, & Other Musings.
The Pecan Park Eagle 