Pitching the new baseball

It’s baseball season again. I’ve loved baseball since I was a toddler. I love watching it, playing it, coaching it, umpiring it or listening to it on the radio.

It’s such a simple game; throw the ball, hit the ball, catch the ball. But yet it is so complicated with hundreds of opportunities, decisions, strategies, plays, outcomes, etc.

I saw my first Detroit Tigers game live at Briggs Stadium on June 8, 1957. That whole experience is etched in my mind forever…or at least as long as I have a mind.

Paul Foytack pitched a complete game and beat the Yankees 7-4. It was one of 63 complete games Foytack pitched in his 11-year career.

Jack Morris, Tigers Hall of Fame (HOF) pitcher, threw 175 complete games in his 18-year career (1977-1994). Bob Feller, Cleveland HOF fireballer from 1936 to 1956, threw 279.

So far, in his seven-year career with the Tigers, Tarik Skubal has pitched 1 complete game. Complete games are very, very rare in today’s Major League Baseball.

The game of baseball has not changed significantly over the years, at least at the major league level. The fundamentals are the same, as we still have nine players on the field at a time, play nine innings, three outs per inning, three strikes you’re out, etc.

The time of games has increased some, largely due to more media commercials, but the pitch clock has helped shorten them again.

But the pitching strategy certainly has changed. Sue calls it “designer pitching.” It used to be a team carried four starting pitchers.

One would start the game and would usually pitch until he got bombed or the game was over. He usually got a W (win) or L (loss) for his efforts.

To my knowledge, they didn’t count how many pitches he threw or how fast he threw them. There was no way to accurately measure pitch speed yet.

By contrast, today a team often carries five starters and hopes to get a “quality start” from them. That’s defined as six full innings pitched allowing three or fewer runs scored.

Managers then usually go to their seventh inning guy, their eighth inning guy and finally, the closer. Consequently, the W and L decisions are spread out more.

So, why has the pitching strategy changed as it has? My friend, Dennis Thomas, sums it up in one word, “money.” With the salaries paid to pitchers today, team management wants to protect those arms for as long as possible.

Dennis is right. The money has shot up astronomically. Some examples: In 1968, Detroit’s Denny McLain, won 31 games and lost 6. Twenty-eight of them were complete games.

He was paid $33,000, equivalent to a little more that $300,000 today. Jack Morris made the equivalent of $11.5 million. Bob Feller made $1.3 million in today’s dollars.

In 2025, Skubal made $10.5 million. He threw 2,849 pitches. That’s $3,563 per pitch! How does that compare with your salary?

Tarik Skubal’s contract this year is for $32 million. Actually, rather paltry compared to the Dodger’s Shohei Ohtani’s $70 million.

Has “designer pitching” lengthened careers? Time will tell. But I doubt it will. Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, the best I ever saw, pitched an MLB record 27 seasons (1966-1993), was 324-292 with seven no-hitters. Tommy John played 26 years (1963-1989), Steve Carlton, 24 (1965-1988).

Twenty-game winners used to be fairly common. The last one was in 2023. Twenty-four pitchers have won 300 or more games in MLB history. I doubt we’ll ever see another one.

Well, you get the picture. Pitching strategy has, indeed, changed in recent years. Player salaries have skyrocketed. But baseball is still baseball. Fans still love it. Attendance is at an all-time high.

I still love it. Everybody sing; “Take me out to the ball game, take me out with the crowd…”

Tarik Skubal unleashes a $3,563 pitch
Denny McLain 31-6 in 1968

Contact Rick at dave@tri-citytimes.com