Are Pitchers theese days babied? And is that a problem?

Question

i was spending time with my grandfather and he just keeps raving about how pitchers need to pitch and if the yankees wont let phil hughes go den he wont ever be a great pitcher he sez that the way the yankees are treating theyre young pitchers that it will take them longer to be come a major league pitcher

your opnions?

please star

Answer 1

While specialization, $$$$[you dont want to take a chance with a big-money investment] being two factors, I think the way kids grow up is a big difference. When America was much more rural, and there were no PCs, video games, unlimited channels, you went out and PLAYED. Naturally, you ran, explored, and played sports. When I was growing up in the '60s, the little neighborhood I grew up in-and it was more suburban, semi rural-when it was spring-fall, & no school-you always had three or more pick up baseball games going on, and you rode around on your bike with your glove and a bat or ball, and soon enough, you were playing baseball somewhere. Baseball was still Americas past time. You threw, ran, didnt worry about pitch counts. And when you werent doing that, you went out to a field, where ever, and you got a bunch of rocks, and threw 'em-for an hour or more, at cans, bottles, into a stream, at squrrels, at a wall-whatever. Its natural for a kid to want to run, jump, climb and throw, throw, and throw some more.

Furthermore, I spent lots of time with just playing catch with a baseball, sometimes just for the heck of it when I was bored. I'd find a friend and if we had nothing better to do, we'd play long games of catch, with a baseball, football, tennis ball, rubber ball, whatever was at hand. Youth from my time & before, I think, just did SO much more throwing growing up than your average kid does today, that the muscles/joints etc. used for throwing were much more developed than on the average kid of today. Plus-weights? WHAT weights? I think players from bygone days had joints that were much more limber as well, from so much use growing up, and less unnatural stress on the joints from hoisting weights.

Answer 2

It seems like every pitcher that has began their career since 1990 has been babied. I hate it and think that it makes it so we can never realize some of the pitchers' true potential.

Answer 3

think of it this way there was never any relievers in the old days and no pitch counts. even closer these days are baabied come in and get 3 outs and may not pitch again for 2-4 more days. if you look at goose gossage he had 70 games where he pitched from the 7th inning to the rest of the game just for a save. mariano riviera has only 2 like that trevor hoffman has about 6 or 7.

Answer 4

yes deff

Answer 5

Most definitely.  Is that a problem, though?  Depends on your point of view . . .

Agent: Not a problem.  Player plays longer, makes more money, theoretically less chance of hurting himself, more money for the agent.

Team: Depends on the pitcher.  If he sucks, the less exposure he has, the less chance teams have to figure him out, the easier it is to hide his flaws.  If he's good, then they'll baby him just to try to keep him in good shape forever . . . which doesn't always work.  (Brien Taylor, anyone?)

Pitcher: Depends on what he wants for his career.  Does he want to play for awhile, break records, make a lifetime out of it (coaching, managing, front office, etc.), or does he want to make a few million bucks and "get on with his life"?  More work would fit better with those who want a career rather than a job.

Fans:  It's a problem to fans like me.  You have to go back 20 years or so to see pitchers who completed 10+ games a year on a consistent basis.  One wonders why that has to be the case.  Theoretically, with advances in medical care, injury prevention and treatment and whatnot (legal or not, lol), pitchers should be able to throw 9 innings on a consistent basis (and I'm not even really a Sabathia fan).  Go back even further, and pitchers were regularly -- regularly -- completing 20, 30, or in some cases (rarely) 40 games a year.  What's the difference?  Hmmmm . . . another question for another time.