One of the biggest concerns surrounding Major League Baseball has to do with all of the arm injuries that pitchers have been suffering.
There was a flurry of them in the early part of the season – and the worry is that they will continue to be a problem in the sport.
Future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander thinks he knows the reason why arm injuries have become such an “epidemic” in baseball.
“Right now, it’s an epidemic,” Verlander said recently.
“Throw as hard as you can for as long as you can, have a couple of big, nasty off-speed pitches and the second you get in any trouble, which analytics say is usually the third time through the lineup, you’re out.”
The 41-year-old pitcher, who boasts a remarkable 21-year career in Major League Baseball, expressed concern over the diminishing role of starting pitchers in today’s game.
He pointed out the trend of starting pitchers being replaced earlier and earlier in games, often based on statistical analysis rather than traditional measures of performance.
Verlander’s concerns are supported by data from Baseball Almanac, which shows a decline in the number of innings pitched by starting pitchers in recent years.
Despite leading the league in innings pitched twice, including a remarkable 251 innings in 2011, Verlander noted that even the league leaders in innings pitched fall short of historical standards.
“As I came up, you had to hone your craft in the minor leagues,” he remarked. “You had to show you could control multiple pitches in the zone before you were ever able to come up. That’s kind of fallen by the wayside.”
The three-time Cy Young winner said that the emphasis on power and velocity over control has changed the development path for young pitchers.
He argued that team analysts often prioritize shorter outings with high velocity over the traditional approach of pitching deep into games with finesse and control.
“The problem is, even if MLB says, ‘We want to bring back the starting pitcher,’ the analysts that are now running these teams are going to say, ‘We’re not going to be better for that. We’re going to be better off having a kid who throws 100 with a nasty slider do it for three innings,’” he said.
“If he goes five, great That kid is going to do better than if I told him, ‘Don’t throw 100. Throw 95. Hit the corners and try to get eight innings out of this.’ That’s what the numbers say. I don’t agree with those numbers. But in an analyst’s world, everything is black and white. They don’t know how to value those extra innings, so they ignore it.”
Verlander’s concerns extend beyond mere critique, as he revealed ongoing discussions with former teammate Max Scherzer about potential solutions.
Scherzer has reportedly presented ideas, such as penalizing teams with the loss of their designated hitter after pulling their starting pitchers, to the MLB Players Association subcommittee.
However, these proposals have yet to gain significant traction.
While acknowledging the challenge posed by the analytics boom in baseball, Verlander remains hopeful that influential voices like his and Scherzer’s can help preserve the traditional values of starting pitching in the game.
It’s clear that pitchers such as Verlander and Scherzer are cut from the old-school.
The Rogers Clemens-type bulldogs are becoming harder and harder to find in baseball … As a matter of fact, workhorses like that have become virtually extinct.
What do you think about Verlander’s comments? … Do you agree with him?
Are you worried about the future of pitching???