This article is part of Verducci’s View, a new weekly baseball newsletter from Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci. Every Monday, Tom empties out his notebook over email and covers MLB’s hottest topics, provides in-depth analysis through both text and video breakdowns, looks forward to what’s worth watching during the week and more. If you want to be featured in his new mailbag, please email [email protected] with any questions about MLB or his decades in the sport.
The frenzy at the trade deadline to find starting pitching was years in the making. Major league teams have been developing starters to be the equivalent of sprinters, not middle-distance runners. The craft of pitching has devolved into a brutally physical task in which burst effort has replaced modulated effort.
