MLB 2022: The Long and Winding Thread

I mean, you're nuts if you don't think that the teams themself know what the Magic Number is. Fans probably hyperfocus on 100 because it's easy to remember, and I bet it's around what the "average" pitcher can handle before losing velocity. But beyond that, there's plenty of evidence that batters get "used" to a pitcher, and the batting averages spike for the third plus time through a lineup. (Most famously, with Pedro Martinez.) Hell, Mariano Rivera's line vs. the Red Sox, as compared to everyone else, suggests that batters get "familiar" with pitchers eventually.

 

Gonna be great when pitchers regularly throw 105.

 

mph or total pitches?

 

Whatever the number, it becomes sketchy once you factor in the number of full-effort pitches thrown either pregame or between innings. They may not be throwing 90 in their warmup pitches, but they ARE exerting some effort.

 

If you watch any amount of baseball -- and it's possible you and I aren't watching/listening to the same games -- you'd notice the trend is to pull the plug at about 100, as if it's some impenetrable force field that a pitcher can't possibly go past. If a guy has thrown 97 through seven, he's not coming back for the eighth, even if he retired the last nine guys in a row without a ball hit out of the infield, as if his arm might fall off. If a guy hits 100 during an inning, they might let him clean that one up, but as soon as a guy gets on base, he's done. These managers are like trained seals.

 

I don't think they necessarily know and I'm not nuts. It's right about 100 for every team I pay attention to, unless there are extenuating circumstances (short rest, rehabbing, etc). You can't tell me there aren't guys equipped to go 120 and others only 80. Someone who throws a lot of changeups and curveballs would have an arm more capable of tolerating higher counts than someone throwing splits, sinkers and sliders. Yet they all get bounced at 100.

 

And it's a shame b/c it's conditioned the pitchers to mentally hit a wall at 100 pitches. Once in a great while you'll get a horse like Alek Manoah who wants nothing to do with pitch counts, and you'll once in a great while find a guy like Jacob deGrom who can (could?) figure out a way to strike out 15 over 105 pitches. But even the Max Scherzers of the world realize they're extinct. God knows the guy is a complete ass about everything else, but Curt Schilling was spot-on when talking back in the day about his development and how it turned him into the pitcher he became. He threw 150+ innings in each of his first three full professional seasons. (Of course, then he pissed away the next two-plus years being an asshole)

 

I don't think this is true at all - There are still plenty of college coaches running pitchers out there for 150 pitches. It's not like those guys go to the pros and stay workhorses; they just get exposed because the batter-pitcher match-up is the Thunderdome evolutionary equivalent when it comes to pro sports. It's not the 1980s, with Belanger types lurking in the lineup. Even the Astros SS is a wiry 6-foot guy with 22 HRs. The second a pitcher starts to lose some 'oomph' on the fastball, he pretty much has to come out, or, when the lineup has assimilated to him, to steal from "Star Trek" terminology. For similar reasons, there's probably a reason why the knuckleball is all but dead, and why there aren't many Jamie Moyer types.

 

Schilling was staggeringly good in the PS and especially the WS, into his 40s.

 

Literally. His age 40 season was his last.

 

What college leagues are you watching? I follow a lot of SEC baseball and the pitchers are usually maxing out around 110-120 pitches. Most times they're in that 100 range like everyone else. If college coaches are guilty of anything in the way of abusing arms, it's bringing guys back on short rest to try and win a tournament game, or stretching out closers for four or five innings in those same situations. During the regular season the starters typically go a full week between starts.

Even in high schools now, most if not all states have pitch count limits that are strictly monitored and enforced. You can't throw more than 125 pitches in a game, and there are mandatory rest periods based on how many pitches you've thrown in a game.

 

Very cool. Got all seven correct.