The Chub Rock's Blog

Baseball, the sport commonly referred to as the best metaphor for life, has in recent years become excessively reliant on statisitical evaluation as evidenced by the book Moneyball, and the real life examples of Theo Eptein, Paul DePodesta and JP Ricciardi, all young GMs implementing the Bill James theories and Billy Beane strategies. However, one statistic that I have a problem with is this notion of Pitch Count. That a pitcher, irregardless of the game situation and more importantly, their individual abilities, are limited to a certain number of pitches in fear that they will "overuse" their arm. Granted, for different pitchers, there are different limits, and granted, this pitch count number should be recorded for statistical purposes, however, pitchers are paid to win games and I would like to think that they want to be on the mound as long as possible to help their team win games. So when managers pull their starters b/c they are over 80 pitches, 95 pitches, 100 pitches, etc. and not because the game situation has dictated or warranted a move to the bullpen, it appears that MLB franchises are moving away from the ultimate reason this game is played, which is to win games.

Let me pose these questions: what about the 20-50 warm up pitches prior to the game? Shouldn't those count against the pitch count and "overuse"? What about the 5-10 pitches prior to the start of the inning? Shouldn't those count against the pitch count and "overuse"? Although these are not game situation pitches, they are still thrown at a high velocity with varying curves, sliders, and off-speed pitches.

How did this Pitch Count myth begin in the first place?? According to my research, the concept of a pitch count originated with Steve Busby, a promising young pitcher for the Kansas City Royals (1972-1975) who won 56 games in his first three full seasons but suffered from a rotator cuff tear at age 27 due to overwork. His doctor suggested counting the number of pitches Busby threw as a means of gauging his recovery. Prior to his injury, Busby is known to have thrown 200 or more pitches in a game--double the number of pitches recommended today.

To me, statistics are relevant, especially in baseball where the regular season is over 160 games, but Pitch Count is a myth that is "overused".