Now, a word about the state of starting pitching: abysmal.
Injuries, six-man rotations and the curtailing of workloads are continuing a decade-long trend of sapping the glamour out of the role, not to mention the effectiveness.
As former GM and pitcher Ed Lynch likes to say, pitcher is the only position in sports for which we build a literal pedestal. For many years the biggest draw to sell tickets was simply the starting pitching matchup. Now, starting pitching is increasingly a losing proposition. A starting pitcher’s main job in today’s game is to navigate twice through the lineup and not blow up the game, or as starting pitchers love to say, “Give my team a chance to win.” The bar keeps getting lower.
