I know I should shouldn’t read Bill Conlin, but I’m a sucker for stories about pitch counts.
The PC is no longer a stat, it’s an obsession.
And Citizen Ryan, who one season threw 5,684 pitches in 333 innings pitched, is doing something about it. By the way, the season was 1974, when Ryan was 22-16 for the Angels, leading the American League with 202 walks and 367 strikeouts. He averaged 135 pitches for 41 starts. That insane workload ravaged his arm so severely his career only lasted 19 more seasons. Ryan was still throwing in the 90s when he finally retired at age 46.
I’ll see your Ryan and raise you Koufax and Drysdale. Then there is this inane remark about Brett Myers:
Pitching is an activity for the strong and durable of arm, not the weak and fragile. And when you see Brett Myers possibly kiss the bulk of his season goodbye with the new designer injury – the frayed labrum – Ryan’s push for better conditioning takes on a little more urgency. Put some of the blame on Brett’s skewed mechanics.
Designer injury? The way I understand the injury, some people have irregular shaped ball joints in their hips. The rough ball, given the motions of playing baseball, tears the labrum. I suppose Lowell, Utley and A-Rod all have bad mechanics at the plate?
In general, I agree with the thesis for Conlin’s article; teams have become too reliant on the 100 pitch count limit. It’s also pretty clear that most pitchers not named Nolan Ryan suffered from too much work in the past. While I’d love to see pitchers go deep in games, I’d also love to see them pitch for a long time. I hope Nolan Ryan’s ideas and Tim Lincecum’s mechanics help make that possible.
Posted by David Pinto at 9:05 am | Pitchers | Permalink | 8 Comments
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May 29th, 2009 @ 9:44 am
I agree that it’s not so much mechanical flaws as it is natural bodily defects, although in the case of a guy like Mark Prior, it IS a mechanical flaw. Nolan Ryan was a freak of nature, but he also had great mechanics. Unlike a pitcher like Curt Schilling, Ryan’s legs were large compared to his upper body, and he used them well in his throwing motion. Watching old clips of him pitching, it’s amazing how effortless he makes it look because his legs are doing most of the work. My theory is that the more effortless you make it look (Ryan, Greg Maddux, etc) the more innings you can work in a season without injury. Those rapid twists and jerks and convulsions that appear to be increased “effort” are usually just motions that will lead to injury if done repetitively.
May 29th, 2009 @ 9:56 am
[...] Brett Myers probably has a frayed labrum, which would require surgery and probably keep him off the mound until at least September. I did not go to Med School, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, so I can tell you that the labrum has something to do with the socket where the femur attaches to the hip. Apparently that joint is supposed to be spherical, but in most people it’s not spherical and it can lead to injury with repetitive use. So just sitting in your Lazy Boy eating potato chips all day and occasionally reading my ramblings is exactly what you should be doing to protect your precious labrum. [...]
May 29th, 2009 @ 9:57 am
Right, Nolan Ryan proves that enormous innings counts and pitch counts don’t hurt. And Wilt Chamberlain proves that it isn’t important to be able to shoot free throws. Wes Welker demonstrates that size doesn’t matter in a slot receiver, and Lance Armstrong proves… I dunno, I ran out of stupid conclusions. But Lance is another freak, anyway.
May 29th, 2009 @ 10:37 am
@James: Lance is an interesting freak, however. As a cyclist described it to me, we gain muscle mass as we age, so a 28 year old is stronger than a 20 year old, but also heavier. Lance’s cancer caused him to lose muscle mass, but he was still strong. So he ended up with the strength of a 28 year old and the mass of a 20 year old. At least, that’s how I remember it.
May 29th, 2009 @ 1:32 pm
Ryan was also fanatical about conditioning. IIRC, after his pitching outing was done, he’d go into the clubhouse and hit the stationary bike for 30 minutes.
May 29th, 2009 @ 2:04 pm
Wow 30 minutes? There’s no way one could expect a professional ahtlete of today to ride the stationary bike that long.
May 29th, 2009 @ 3:08 pm
So I read the article, but I can’t find anything on the Ranger’s pitching staff this season…
Are they actually throwing more pitches?
May 29th, 2009 @ 3:20 pm
After doing a minimal amount of research, the Rangers have had 3 outings of 120+ pitches. The Yanks have two. The Dodgers have two.
I can’t think of another team that would have more.
Is Ryan really implementing it or are the pitcher in Arlington just so bad that they can’t even make it 120+ pitches?