A Modest Proposal: Let Starters Pitch by Michael Powell

I've been asked why I didn't write anything about the 2018 World Series.  My answer is not that the Fox broadcasters and TV coverage were so lousy (they were, but that was not at all surprising; I listened to Dan Schulman on ESPN, allowing me to "see" more of the game than the TV version, which focused more on the stands and the dugouts than the field) but I've had it with players who have more strikeout than homeruns (the Dodgers had 34 hits and 56 strikeouts in five games, the Red Sox 42 and 53), pitchers who can't pitch to locations but ruin their arms trying to throw 100 mph and managers who yank pitchers and replace them with a parade of muscle-bound relievers.  As Michael Powell wrote in the January 6, 2019 NY Times:

Game 4 of the 2018 World Series presented something of a nadir when Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, a bright fellow no doubt, pulled his starting pitcher after he had yielded a single hit through six and a third innings and was ahead, 4-0.  The Dodgers ended up marching six relievers into that game , lost, 9-6, and exited the World Series the next day.

Received wisdom from the front office (who hires and fires managers) is that no pitcher should go more than 100 pitches or too many times through the batting order.  This, and other dubious analytical imperatives --no sacrifice bunts, no stealing bases, no hit-and-run plays, no hitting the ball on the ground -- have turned an exciting and beautiful game into something of a travesty. Powell talks to the great pitching coach Leo Mazzone, who believes the current pitching wisdom is absurd, "a manager covering his ass."   Powell studies the history of some great pitchers and finds that most pitchers had their worst ERA in the first inning; Tom Seaver pitched the ninth inning 17 times in 1969 and did not give up a single run!

If we don't watch out, the rule of starting pitchers having to go five innings could be changed and if some announcers (such as the annoying Michael Kay) have their way there may no longer even be a winning pitcher designated!  As I've said previously in this blog:  increase the strike zone, raise the mound, legalize the spitball, and, as Powell says, "let starting pitchers pitch."