Jeff Passan's book "The Arm" (circa 2017) is a must-read on this subject.
When I coached, I was always very conscious of overuse. I grew up in the city of "THE MAN WHO HIT TOO MANY HOME RUNS" - a youth baseball hotbed in the fifties and sixties. I heard stories about kids who had "ruined" their arms throwing curveballs, etc., at an early age. I even played with one. His Babe Ruth All-Star team won the national title. After which, in my opinion, he was never the same. I saw him throw a minor league game in High A-ball. He was wild high and out of baseball within a couple of years with arm trouble (before TJ surgery was an option). As a youth league pitcher, he was a feared flame-thrower.
It has been said (years ago) that "Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing." I'm not so sure that is still applicable. Hitters are more fundamentally sound these days and are not often fooled for very long by pitchers who change speeds and survive by trickery alone.
Pitchers nowadays throw as hard as they can for as long as they can, and batters swing as hard as they can for as long as they can. There are more home runs hit now than during the so-called "steroid era." Or so it seems.
I like the idea Daniel, yet at the same time thought, increased exit velocities make pitching to contact much more dangerous than it was when Matty pitched. That's why pitchers are so supremely focused on missing bats!
Good point, and with pitching to decrease contact generally has paid off throughout baseball history. A pitcher with very good to elite level K-BB% (even more so than ratio) and a low H/9 you more often than not will see a pitcher who threw hard and was a really good to great pitcher in the context of their time. Which would include Mathewson
I'll bet they said a similar sentiment when The Babe revolutionized baseball with his new upper cut swing. Yet, pitchers were able to adapt and still get batters out, and pitching deeper into games regularly.
Great write up Mr. Evensen. Too many folks throw tradition and the "old fashioned" out with the dishwater. It's a shame the great men of baseball were and are often maligned by jealous and petty media members and authors.
I have two thoughts…Mike Marshall work horse pitcher and physiologist had lots to say about young kids pitching curve balls, off season rest and the over proliferation of TJ surgery. I can’t recount it all here, but his thoughts were prophetic. Also, just like exit velocity for hitters means nothing unless hits are generated, max effort pitchers don’t all succeed. Everyone is not Nolan Ryan…I still believe the crafty Greg Maddux types can succeed.
Tyler Rogers is successful out of the bullpen year after year, with something pretty close to the Maddux approach. But it’s not sexy enough for a lot of fans, unfortunately.
Or the Giants either. Their loss! I loved seeing him pitch and I hope he continues to do well.
Kind of shows that the "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" approach to baseball, that was justly criticized during the analytics revolution, is still being applied.
I wonder what the Big Train 🚂 had to say about this book 📕
Love it.
Interesting comment. Interesting pitcher. Very interesting NYT correspondent covering the 1919 World Series. https://johnnogowski.substack.com/p/the-mysterious-mr-mathewson?r=7pf7u&utm_medium=ios
Jeff Passan's book "The Arm" (circa 2017) is a must-read on this subject.
When I coached, I was always very conscious of overuse. I grew up in the city of "THE MAN WHO HIT TOO MANY HOME RUNS" - a youth baseball hotbed in the fifties and sixties. I heard stories about kids who had "ruined" their arms throwing curveballs, etc., at an early age. I even played with one. His Babe Ruth All-Star team won the national title. After which, in my opinion, he was never the same. I saw him throw a minor league game in High A-ball. He was wild high and out of baseball within a couple of years with arm trouble (before TJ surgery was an option). As a youth league pitcher, he was a feared flame-thrower.
It has been said (years ago) that "Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing." I'm not so sure that is still applicable. Hitters are more fundamentally sound these days and are not often fooled for very long by pitchers who change speeds and survive by trickery alone.
Pitchers nowadays throw as hard as they can for as long as they can, and batters swing as hard as they can for as long as they can. There are more home runs hit now than during the so-called "steroid era." Or so it seems.
I like the idea Daniel, yet at the same time thought, increased exit velocities make pitching to contact much more dangerous than it was when Matty pitched. That's why pitchers are so supremely focused on missing bats!
Good point, and with pitching to decrease contact generally has paid off throughout baseball history. A pitcher with very good to elite level K-BB% (even more so than ratio) and a low H/9 you more often than not will see a pitcher who threw hard and was a really good to great pitcher in the context of their time. Which would include Mathewson
I'll bet they said a similar sentiment when The Babe revolutionized baseball with his new upper cut swing. Yet, pitchers were able to adapt and still get batters out, and pitching deeper into games regularly.
True! But not throwing max velo on every pitch allowed them to have much longer careers.
Great write up Mr. Evensen. Too many folks throw tradition and the "old fashioned" out with the dishwater. It's a shame the great men of baseball were and are often maligned by jealous and petty media members and authors.
I have two thoughts…Mike Marshall work horse pitcher and physiologist had lots to say about young kids pitching curve balls, off season rest and the over proliferation of TJ surgery. I can’t recount it all here, but his thoughts were prophetic. Also, just like exit velocity for hitters means nothing unless hits are generated, max effort pitchers don’t all succeed. Everyone is not Nolan Ryan…I still believe the crafty Greg Maddux types can succeed.
Tyler Rogers is successful out of the bullpen year after year, with something pretty close to the Maddux approach. But it’s not sexy enough for a lot of fans, unfortunately.
Or the Giants either. Their loss! I loved seeing him pitch and I hope he continues to do well.
Kind of shows that the "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" approach to baseball, that was justly criticized during the analytics revolution, is still being applied.
Perfect write up of my thinking on the increased injuries and change in pitching over the last 20-30 years.