Ron Darling gives it to the Washington Nationals on how they handle Stephen Strasburg:
…There’s no artificial way to keep a guy healthy. They did everything you’re supposed to do in the minor leagues and what happened? He had Tommy John Surgery in his first year! I mean, please. I’m so sick of the people who never played in the suits—or they’ve got the white smocks on—saying ‘I know how to legislate when a guy is going to get hurt. And I give him these innings or that innings and he’s definitely not gonna get hurt.’ They did everything you’re supposed to do. They did it all by the book, and in his first year he gets a Tommy John. Way to go. Fantastic. Great job. Did everything by the book. There’s no book! There is no book! I’m so sick of hearing it!
I think the answer is somewhere in the middle. There is game abuse and season abuse. We used to see pitchers early in the season throw 140 pitches on a cold day, then go down with injuries. That was pretty much taken care of by pitch counts. That, and the five man rotation, also limited season abuse. If a pitcher can’t stay in a game, he’s not going to pitch 300 innings.
Major league teams have done tons to limit pitcher injuries, and yet they still happen. So has there been any improvement?
| Season Career Starts | Average IP |
|---|---|
| 1962 | 488 |
| 1963 | 427 |
| 1972 | 472 |
| 1973 | 643 |
| 1982 | 502 |
| 1983 | 509 |
| 1992 | 494 |
| 1993 | 395 |
The average amount of innings seems to have more to do with the quality of pitchers who debuted that season than with any medical or tactical advances.
Pitchers throw hard and with an unnatural motion. Some people are built to take the punishment, others not so much. Some have better mechanics than others. The best course of action is not to let these players pitch tired.
With the retirement of Tim Wakefield, there are no pitchers from 1992 left in the majors.
Interesting that the Yankees had the Joba rules, and he got hurt. Yet Ivan Nova they just plugged in there and he’s doing fine. When he first came up last year, he’d start to get in trouble in the fourth or fifth inning (after pitching well in the early innings) so Girardi would pull him. Gradually it became fifth & sixth where the the trouble came, then he got stretched out to the eighth inning and pitches his own way out of trouble.
Interesting year to pick, 1992. Just happens to be the one of the two years since 1986 that Jamie Moyer had no big league appearances.
David,
If the quality of pitchers that debut in a given year is really skewing some of those averages, maybe you could take a look at alternative measures of central tendency? Seems like median IPs might be a better measure. Also comparing measures of variance in IPs across years could be interesting in itself.
Luke