RIP, Starting Pitching

One of the Most Familiar Moves in Modern Baseball

The voice on 1050ESPN radio in New York praised Mike Mussina for the ability he's demonstrated to keep the 2008 Yankees "in games." Gary Cohen commended Oliver Perez on a "quality start" against Cincinnati (he went six, gave up three runs, three hits and walked four). During that same Sunday game, a graphic scrolled across the screen which revealed that the New York Mets were averaging over three-and-a-half relief appearances per game. The signs are everywhere, and they have been for years. MLB pitching is a disaster.

To be more pointed, the art of starting pitching is evaporating before our eyes. While many have lamented this trend time and again, but the breaking point for this 30-yr. old fan came this weekend fueled by the comments and stats above.

Since when did "keeping your team in the game" become something to get excited about from your starting pitcher? How has professional baseball allowed the term "quality start" to live on within its current parameters? In a decade, will young baseball fans even know what a complete game is? Will witnessing a starting hurler go nine be the future equivalent of witnessing a no-hitter?

We're not sure what to do about it, so for now we've simply chosen to rant. A few days ago, we shared a few recollections of one of our most memorable moments from the 1986 baseball season. We'll use that as a jumping-off point to provide some perspective.

Back in 1986, the New York Mets pitching staff posted the most wins and lowest ERA in the National League. Four pitchers (Darling, Gooden, Fernandez and Ojeda) started at least 30 games and logged at least 204 innings. Rick Aguilera, the team's fifth starter, started 20 games and held the highest ERA on the staff at 3.88. The Mets team ERA was 3.11. Total complete games? 27. Closer Roger McDowell made 75 appearances...and pitched 128 innings (Billy Wagner appeared in 66 games last year, stretching to record 68.3 innings worth of work).

Fast-forward a mere 20 years. Major League Baseball, 2006. The lowest NL ERA at the conclusion of that season belonged to the San Diego Padres. Their team ERA? 3.87. Chris Young boasted the lowest number of the Padres starters (who started at least 20 games) at 3.46. As a team, the Pads managed four complete games. Jake Peavy led the team with two. Doc Gooden topped the '86 Mets staff with 12.

Just short of a quarter of the way into the 2008 season, there have been six complete games -- in the National League. Starting pitching is a shell of its formal self. Pitch counts. Specialization. The steroid era. Better hitters. Smaller parks. Shrunken strike zones. Whatever the reasons, I don't like it one bit. Perhaps even more disturbing, it seems the number of pitchers who are even trying to go out, dominate and shut down the opposing team for nine innings are few and far between.

Instead, most gladly hand over the ball after six or seven innings content that they've left their team in a good position or, at worst, kept them in the game. In turn, their respective managers gleefully accept said ball and hand it off to their set-up guy, closer, left-handed specialist, set-up guy to the set-up guy, one-batter left-handed specialist, closer only on days the real closer has pitched a grand total of three innings that week, and on and on and on...UGH.

A few young bucks give me hope. James Shields and Tim Lincecum come immediately to mind. It's also nice to see Doc Halladay has managed to go the distance in four of eight starts. But is there really any hope for the tide to turn? Forty years ago, Bob Gibson went 22-9 for the 1968 St. Louis Cardinals. Gibson started 34 games going the distance in 28 of those 34 starts. He won the Cy Young on his way to an ERA of 1.12 in over 300 innings of work. In the year 2020, will five inning/90 pitch starts and 5.0 ERAs be customary "benchmarks" for Major League starters? If so, I weep for the future.